458: Tragedies and Triumphs

Part One: Tragedies and Triumphs

It’s always a surreal experience living in a college town during the summertime. Things are quiet, frankly a little too quiet, especially when you recall how, for a period of almost nine months every year, Bryan-College Station is buzzing with life. From August to May in every year since 1876, thousands upon thousands of THE loudest, and THE proudest members of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of insert-graduation-year-here have transformed the Brazos Valley into a booming metropolis filled with rowdy teens and twenty-somethings united by a spirit can ne’er be told. 

That is, until the one year they couldn’t. 

The following is a story of 458 days: a tale of triumphs and tragedies. A test of willpower the likes of which none of us have ever seen before and will hopefully never experience again. Over the course of a year and a half, Texas A&M University and its athletics department were forced to overcome circumstances that, at the very minimum, should be regarded as unprecedented. Through it all, the Aggies racked up multiple conference championships, numerous winning seasons and historic postseason runs. 

And we never could have imagined any of it in March of 2020. 

In Aggieland, it started just like any other month, with an additional sense of optimism fueled by two of the most exciting basketball teams in the nation, baseball and softball teams looking forward to the grind of SEC play and myriad other programs anticipating deep runs in the postseason. By March 10, the annual scattering of the Texas A&M student body for spring break was well underway, and the senior leadership within the athletics department was getting prepared to travel with the men’s basketball team to Nashville, Tennessee, for the SEC Tournament.

Headlining the travel party was Texas A&M Director of Athletics Ross Bjork, who at the time was only three months away from completing his first year at the helm in Aggieland. Little did he know; little did any of us know, that within three days of taking off from Easterwood Airport on that fateful March Tuesday, he would return home to a world standing still. Bjork vividly remembered the uncertainty surrounding his journey to Tennessee’s capital.

 “You try to block those memories out of your head, but you can’t escape it,” Bjork said. “I remember leaving for Nashville and having this uneasy feeling, like, do we know what we’re walking into? You had just seen the Ivy League cancel everything and shut their seasons down, and then the rumors about the NCAA Tournament started swirling around. I remember walking in with just an eerie feeling. Then, we started athletic director meetings essentially the next day. We started the conversation and discussed playing the SEC Tournament without fans in attendance. Throughout the rest of that day, we were getting bombarded with NCAA statements, other leagues cancelling things, and then the NBA shut their season down on Wednesday night. We knew then that there was no way we could keep things going.”

For the entirety of that week, it felt as though all of us were attempting to battle our way through a fever dream. Many of our favorite events were cancelled, concerts were postponed, workers were furloughed and life came to a screeching halt. All we knew of our enemy was that it was powerful, dangerous and potentially deadly. We also knew its name: COVID-19, a novel coronavirus identified by multiple authorities as a serious threat to global health and safety. By that point we were well past fear: we were collectively living our worst nightmare. Bjork addressed some of the administrative challenges that he and his colleagues faced in the early days of the pandemic.  

“Everything was changing by the minute,” Bjork explained. “By the time we returned on Friday and hosted a conference call with our coaches, all I remember thinking was that we’re stuck. We didn’t know what was coming next, but we knew that everything had to be paused. When you have to tell athletes and coaches in the middle of their seasons that they aren’t allowed to head to their next game, when you tell people that they can no longer do the things they love the most, it’s a maddening experience. At that time, we knew nothing about the virus, so the true fear of the unknown was the biggest obstacle that we all had to face.”

While we undoubtedly feared the unknown, it wasn’t like the things we DID know were helping improve matters in the slightest. We knew that we couldn’t leave our homes. We knew that we couldn’t visit our loved ones. We knew that we had no option but to batten down the hatches and wait. For those individuals lucky enough to keep their jobs through the start of the pandemic, they were introduced to a brand-new set of incomprehensible challenges; namely how to perform their duties from home. Bjork explained how the athletic department responded to its new normal.

“We HAD to adapt,” Bjork expressed. “We had no choice, because the world was changing around us. I know that our department, our staff and student-athletes were all terrific, especially when it comes to communication. They were going to do whatever was necessary to help us get back to normal, but there were so many unknowns over the summer. Overall, I think our staff did a great job of pivoting. I remember on Sunday, March 15, we sent out an email to everyone that essentially said that we were going to work remotely on Monday. We didn’t know what that would mean. We had no idea about anything called Zoom until that morning. It’s just what we had to do. We knew we weren’t practicing, and we knew we weren’t competing, so we planned to take those first two weeks to evaluate where we were and figure out the next steps forward. Everyone got used to Zoom and everyone was working from home, and I know that we did a great job adjusting how we had to.”

Those early successes spawned more and more improvements as members of the department’s staff grew accustomed to their new circumstances. Eventually, the elongated spring break drew to a close and students, faculty and staff were each able to return to work, albeit in a greatly modified format. Classes moved to a number of different online forums, any meetings were handled with help from our new friends at Zoom, and Aggie athletics remained connected throughout the world by any and every means possible. Texas A&M transitioned into the summer months, cautiously optimistic that some semblance of normalcy would return in the near future. 

Then the world stood still yet again. On May 25, George Perry Floyd Jr., a father of five, was murdered by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. George Floyd’s death hit particularly close to home, as he used to be a student at one of Texas A&M’s sister institutions at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Floyd’s death rightfully sparked outrage in a nation mired by a history of racial injustice and inequality, and it became painfully clear once again that the United States must confront its history and look to improve in the name of a brighter future for all. Aggie athletes led the way with respect to Texas A&M’s response, and Bjork discussed the importance of their voices during that trying time.

“I remember exactly where I was when I heard about George Floyd,” Bjork stated. “I remember distinct conversations among SEC athletic directors going, ‘what are we doing to support our student-athletes in this moment?’ I remember calling Mikado Hinson and asking him, ‘What am I missing, and what should we be doing?’ His response was, ‘We just need to listen Ross, we just need to listen right now.’ So that’s exactly what we did. We gave our student-athletes a platform. We hosted numerous virtual conversations, and they came up with the idea to have a unity march. So, we gathered at the 12th Man statue in June and marched around our campus. It was a great symbol of how our athletes took ownership and leadership within our community. Then the B.L.U.E.print program came about because our student-athletes were already talking about all of this in February of 2020, long before the summer, so I really give them credit for having the foresight to say that society always needs to get better and come up with ways to accomplish that. It was really cool to see our department and our student-athletes on the same page with regard to what needed to change. Because of that, we were really able to give our athletes the right kind of space and freedom to express themselves as they saw fit. In this category, the journey never ends, so we have to keep going and keep striving for new ways to improve.”

Under the direction of Karlina Sample, Ciera Johnson, Keldrick Carper, Jean Jenkins and Chase Lane, the B.L.U.E.print program roared to life. The B.L.U.E.print laid a powerful foundation in its inaugural season at Texas A&M, providing Black student-athletes with an inclusive community to form friendships, empowering them to use their voices and have the confidence to understand their value and worth in American society. Following the tragic murder of Floyd, A&M student-athletes of color seized a position of leadership on campus and will continue to educate and inspire Aggies for generations to come. 

Summer quickly became fall, and concern immediately shifted to a safe return to play in September. Meetings of all 14 SEC member institutions set special competition standards, altered schedules, re-organized arenas and stadiums, established capacity limitations and submitted mask mandates for athletic events. Athletics leadership, university administration and conference representatives finally composed their action plan, and the announcement the nation was waiting for finally came down from on high.

We were back. 

Finally, on Saturday, September 19 at 9 a.m., Texas A&M Athletics returned to action. We were 191 days past shutting down on March 12, and we knew we still had a long race left to run. So, it was fitting that the first sport back was cross country. The Maroon & White arrived at the University Club in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, early that morning to take part in the SEC Preview Meet. Those Aggies led the way and set the tone for the most difficult season in the history of this great institution. They didn’t know what was going to happen next. They didn’t know how it was all going to work out. They only saw a starting line and knew that the finish was out there somewhere. They stood at that line, waited for the opening gun, and began to race into the unknown. 

Volleyball did the same inside Reed Arena. In their third season under head coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn, the Aggies received their highest AVCA Coaches Poll ranking in program history, placing at No. 6 in the nation in the preseason. Though the season was split between the fall and spring in accordance with NCAA regulations, the squad still managed to rack up nine victories on the year, coupled with a number of accomplishments off the court. In particular, senior captain and star setter Camille Conner received a Senior CLASS Award nomination thanks to her stellar leadership, impressive community service record and valuable performances on the floor. 

We had started strong, and the 12th Man was hungry for more. By the morning of Saturday, October 10, the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football team had gotten out to a 1-1 record through the first two matchups of a grueling 10 game all-SEC schedule, picking up a close win at home against Vanderbilt followed by a loss to the eventual National Champion Alabama on the road. A&M was ranked No. 21 that morning, and the Maroon & White were to play host to the No. 4 Florida Gators in an 11 a.m. kickoff at Kyle Field. This was the shot we had been waiting for. This game was the opportunity to catapult Texas A&M into a different stratosphere in college football. With a loss, we would likely fall out of the top-25. With a win… 

Well, we all know what happened next.

Texas A&M defeated Florida by a score of 41-38 in a nationally televised classic on ESPN thanks to a Seth Small game-winning field goal as time expired. The Aggies would never lose again. Aside from an unfortunate COVID-related postponement, A&M coasted through the remainder of the regular season, finishing 8-1 overall, warranting a placement in the school’s first New Year’s Six Bowl Game in the Jimbo Fisher era. The team’s opponent in the Capital One Orange Bowl would be an extremely talented, up-and-coming North Carolina Tar Heel squad led by coach Mack Brown and quarterback Sam Howell. By the end of the third quarter, UNC held a 20-17 lead over the Aggies and looked to extinguish a dream season in Bryan-College Station. Then Devon Achane took his talents to South Beach. After a 140-yard, two-touchdown outburst from the eventual Orange Bowl MVP, A&M outscored North Carolina 24-7 in the final frame, won the game 41-27 and made our dreams a reality. Bjork discussed the importance behind A&M’s historic 2020 football season.

“To me, this is why Coach [Jimbo] Fisher was brought here,” Bjork explained. “Obviously, he was hired before I came, but this is the vision that everyone here at Texas A&M has for football. There is no reason that we can’t compete at the top of this sport. In order to be a National Champion, you have to be in the conversation. We are now in the conversation, and we put ourselves there. The emotion of that Florida victory when they were No. 4, and seeing how fired up Coach Fisher was, there was a lot of pressure and a lot of people wondering if Texas A&M could get over the hump. Everything was built for a game like that. I remember Coach Fisher and I had a high-five; he almost took my hand off. It kind of lifted the lid off of the boiling water. The Florida game let the world know that we’re ready. Now people know that this is a different Texas A&M football program than it was before. Now you see the recruiting momentum and all of the players that are returning. You see the defensive prowess – we led the SEC last year in total defense. All of the ingredients are there to win a championship. So, the 9-1 season, the top-four finish, winning the Orange Bowl, capping it off the way we did by putting the game away; that’s what this program is and will continue to evolve into. Coach Fisher sets the tone, and it’s our job to support him.”

All in all, Texas A&M finished as the No. 4 team in the final AP poll of the year, the program’s highest since winning the 1939 National Championship: also placing second in the toughest division in football – the SEC West. Kellen Mond set the school’s all-time passing record and re-wrote the record books in numerous other categories. The “Maroon Goons” on the offensive line drew national acclaim for their strength and tenacity up front. A&M’s defense proved to be one of the best in the nation. Multiple Aggies drew All-American and All-SEC designations, and we saw four players selected in the NFL Draft. The best part? In the words of Jimbo Fisher…

“We ain’t done yet.”