Oklahoma-Texas A&M football: The man who linked Bud Wilkinson and Bear Bryant's programs

Today, he downplays the harshness of Junction.

“The thing people don't realize, a lot of those things that sounded so bad, no water, the heat, nobody got water in those days,” Keith said.

The most terrible time was not Junction, but that 1-9 season. But Bryant held the team together. He told the Aggies, “The fans don't want you anymore, the alumni don't want you, but you're my team.”

Keith is most proud that when Bryant died in 1982, “the only ring he had on was the ring we gave to him 20 years after Junction.”

Keith's final game coaching at Alabama was the 1963 Alabama, when the Tide shut out OU 17-0.

Wilkinson offered Keith a job on the OU staff.

“At that time, I had aspirations of being a head coach,” Keith said. “I thought there was no better resume than Bear Bryant and Bud Wilkinson.”

Keith's only reservation? Rumors that Wilkinson might retire. Even told Wilkinson.

“I've got a son in medical school and one in divinity school,” Wilkinson told him. “I can't retire.”

Of course, Wilkinson did just that a year later.

But Keith's three years as a Sooner coach made him enough of an Okie to be conflicted in the upcoming OU-A&M Cotton Bowl.

“Got a lot of friends here at OU,” Keith said. “Two children went to OU. Lot of wonderful ties to A&M.”

No bigger ties in Aggieland than being a Junction Boy.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@opubco.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.