BATTLE-TESTED As a surviror of Junction in 1954, Burkhart appreciates hard work, A&M even more By Rusty Burson

Growing up in the tiny West Texas town of Hamlin (just a few Tiger Woods’ drives northwest of Abilene), Jim Burkhart dreamed of playing college football for nearby Texas Tech. The Red Raiders were the kings of the old Border Conference in the late 1940s and early ’50s and were in the process of building a team that would go 11-1 in 1953.

But as Burkhart neared the end of his high school career, he quickly discovered that Tech head coach DeWitt Weaver and the rest of the Raiders were not nearly as enamored with him as he was with them.

"When I took my football visit to Texas Tech, there were about eight or 10 of us, and (Weaver) was really trying to impress a couple of guys," Burkhart said. "I wasn’t one of the guys he was trying to impress. In fact, the rest of us were just kind of an afterthought. It was a good visit, but I wanted to go somewhere that actually wanted me to be there."

Jim and Jere Lynn Burkhart

Fortunately for Burkhart, Ray George gave him a shot at Texas A&M. And fortunately for Texas A&M, Burkhart has been giving back to his alma mater ever since.

The highly successful business owner recently made major donations to the Championship Vision Capital Campaign, giving at the highest level for the football player’s lounge and giving one of the largest gifts thus far for the campaign.

"It’s really very rewarding to be able to give back to A&M," said Burkhart, who has homes and businesses in Lubbock and Tulsa. "A&M provided me with a very solid foundation for my career, and I am thrilled to be able to give back to the university."

The Aggies, who were in the midst of a rather forgettable three-year stretch under George in the early 1950s, were thrilled to lure Burkhart out of West Texas. And Burkhart wasn’t even bothered by the fact that A&M was an all-male institute at the time.

After all, he had recently married his high school sweetheart, Jere Lynn, and the newlyweds packed their bags for Aggieland. Burkhart even reasoned that going to A&M would be a good career move. While the Aggies didn’t appear to be building a national football power, A&M did possess one of the nation’s best petroleum engineering programs.

That was Burkhart’s other childhood dream. Besides, playing for the laid-back George would be fun, Burkhart figured.

And it was, as Burkhart played on the A&M freshman team in 1953. But then the teddy bear George was replaced by a man named "Bear," who was a grizzly if ever there were one.

Paul Bear Bryant’s arrival at Texas A&M prior to the 1954 season left an indelible impression on Aggie football history and the players he coached.

The rigid and relentless Bryant took 115 players to the drought-devastated town of Junction in ’54 and returned with just 35 survivors. But those hard-nosed young men who endured the hellish, 10-day training camp helped Bryant win a Southwest Conference championship just two years later.

Burkhart, who was moved from the backfield to the line by Bryant, was one of those survivors.

By surviving Junction and playing for Bryant, Burkhart did learn something very important about himself. And while his A&M degree was certainly a key part of his future business success, enduring Junction and Bryant gave him the confidence to believe he could out-last and out-battle any future hardship.

"I didn’t know anything about Bryant when he got there," said Burkhart. "But I knew a lot about him not too long thereafter. A lot more than I really cared about knowing. But even if I could go back and do things all over again, I wouldn’t change anything. I’d still go to Texas A&M all over again, even knowing what I would have to endure.

Bear Bryant was not able to run off Jim Burkhart at his Junction camp.

"First of all, for my chosen profession, I don’t think you can get a finer engineering degree, especially slanted toward petroleum engineering. There’s not a better one in the United States than Texas A&M. I think that I probably was hard-headed and stubborn before I arrived at A&M.

"But Junction took that to a whole new level. I knew that I wanted to leave, but I stayed at first because I wanted to play football for Texas A&M. By the end I stayed out of pride and bull-headedness. They weren’t going to run me off. In this old business, things can get pretty tough, too. It would have been easy to take an 8 to 5 job and go on about my business. But I stayed the course. Just like back in Junction, I got up, dusted myself off and lined up again."

Burkhart’s resolve enabled him to survive Junction, and it’s helped him thrive in business.

Following his graduation from A&M in 1957, he spent the next 11 years working for Amoco in Tulsa and then joined a small, start-up company named Cotton Petroleum in 1969. By 1976, Burkhart was the president of the company.

He later became president of Santa Fe Natural Resources in Chicago and then returned to Tulsa in 1980 to start his own company, Burkhart Petroleum. He sold that company in 1986 formed BRG Petroleum, Inc. with two friends in 1987.

Today, Burkhart remains as the chairman of the board for BRG, while his partner handles more of the day-to-day operations and serves as president in Tulsa. And both of Burkhart’s sons (he also has a daughter who lives in the Tulsa area) work for BRG in Tulsa.

"They say they’ve gotten rid of all the dead wood and if they can keep me in Lubbock, things go pretty well," Burkhart joked. "But all in all, things have worked out really well. I’ve worked hard, and we’ve been blessed."

Nowadays, Burkhart can even look back at Junction as a blessing – a fact that was brought to light recently when he read Jim Dent’s book, The Junction Boys.

"I enjoyed the book," Burkhart said. "There were a few places where it was kind of embellished a little here and there. But some parts weren’t embellished that much. It allowed me to recall a lot of things.

"In fact, my oldest son, asked me, ‘Dad, would you mind sitting down and going through the book again and kind of giving me your comments on the events and the things that happened in the book?’ That was really good for me."

For all the lessons and long-term benefits he recalled from the Junction trip, Burkhart’s fondest memory was of the day the survivors left town for College Station.

"I know that I prayed one of the most fervent prayers and thanks I’d ever uttered," Burkhart said of the news that the team was leaving Junction. "I said, ‘I thank the Lord for giving me the strength to still be there and for the fact that we were going home.’ I always enjoy going back to College Station, but that was the best trip back imaginable."

Today, his trips back to College Station are usually for football games. And almost always on his private jet.

He’s obviously come a long way. And he’s obviously still grateful to A&M for the part the university played in lifelong success.

"Things have a way of working out for the best," Burkhart said. "I wanted to go to Tech, and if I had, I would have never experienced Junction. It would have been a lot easier. But the hard road at A&M was definitely the best for me."