Hall of Fame writer John McClain set to emcee 'A Seat at Bear's Table'

On Aug. 26, the Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards will host "A Seat at Bear's Table" at the Houstonian Hotel as Jackie Sherrill, Gene Stallings and a few Junction Boys will come together to remember Bear Bryant. On Wednesday, Hall of Fame writer John McClain joined TexAgs Live to discuss the event.

Key notes from John McClain interview

• Thank you for letting me come on. I feel like I'm an honorary Aggie because of the tribute to Bear Bryant in Houston on Aug, 2. I'll be back up in College Station later this year for Gary Kubiak’s induction as one of A&M’s Distinguished Alumni. I was honored to be interviewed by A&M about Kubiak. I look forward to that event. I'm never tired of seeing the A&M campus because every time I drive by, I see new buildings.
   
• At “A Seat at Bear’s Table,” one of the Junction Boys will be there, and so will Wade Phillips, who knows about Bear Bryant because his dad coached for him in College Station. An Aggie friend of mine, Rob Lynch, who's a Gridiron Legend of Texas and a producer on a documentary we worked on for high school football in Texas before integration, came to me about this event. We met with the American Heart Association, and they said the 40th anniversary Bear Bryant Award is coming up, and they wanted to do something special. They came up with the event at the Houstonian Hotel. I'm all for it and being on the stage, getting 90-year-old Gene Stallings to come down from Paris to talk about his experiences with Bear Bryant and winning national championships and a Super Bowl with Tom Landry with the Cowboys. I got to spend a lot of time with Jackie Sherrill, and we are involved together and do charity events. I told Jackie that I hated him when he coached the Aggies. That 1986 game in Kyle Field against Kevin Murray and Baylor quarterback Cody Carlson is still the best college game I have ever seen. I never knew a better storyteller than Sherrill.
   
• First of all, Gene Stallings was a Junction Boy. So was Jack Pardee, and I remember when he was head coach of the Oilers. I never tired of hearing his stories of Bear Bryant in Junction. The 10 days they spent out in Junction would get Bryant put in prison today. Think about not letting his players have water.
   
• Wade Phillips told a couple of fun stories of Bear Bryant that his dad had told him when we were together. I said, “Make sure you tell those stories at the Bear Bryant event.”
   
• I'm fired up to talk about Bryant and Junction. It's amazing to me that when you say “Junction,” and I don't know anybody in Texas who doesn't know what we are talking about. I'm sure they will talk about the current state of football. It will be an hour lunch, and I tell people you don't have to be an Aggie to get to come, but we expect a whole lot of Aggies to come to hear the legends and stories.
   
• I love college football and watch it. You talked about Hugh Freeze and Auburn. If he loses that first game, it will put them in a hole. I know Paul Finebaum said that's the biggest game, but they have to play in the SEC. It's a big game for both Auburn and Baylor.
   
• No matter how many players change teams and how much money they get, when the ball is kicked off, it's still a great game. The blue bloods will be blue bloods. Every once in a while, there will be an Arizona State that sneaks in, and that's what makes college football and basketball exciting. So many players change teams, but when they get on the field, the product is better. More players stay in college now, and it bothers the NFL. It shortens NFL careers but makes for great college football.
   
• Mike Elko saw the mistakes Jimbo Fisher made. I went to the Texas High School Association Convention in San Antonio. It kicks off with every coach from each of the state’s Division I programs, and Fisher didn't even show up. Since he coached at A&M, Elko knows the mistakes Fisher made. The way he talks is all ball. He didn't have to have all five-star recruits smoking pot and transferring as soon as a coach yells at them. Elko will do a great job with the program because he's just a football coach.
   
• At eight years old, I told my dad I loved the Baylor Bears. He handed me the sports section of the Waco Tribune, and he said, “If you want to learn Baylor, you need to read Dave Campbell.” He was a sports editor at the Waco Tribune and hired me going into my junior year in 1973. I started trying to read him, and I couldn't understand 90 percent of what he wrote. But that was the year the Cowboys were terrible. The Oilers were great, though, and I fell in love. I grew up a die-hard Cowboys fan and had an exorcism when I came to Houston. I felt I wanted to be a sports writer, and I worked at the Waco Tribune and did anything to get my foot in the door. I was hired in June of 1973 and covered sports, and I came to the Houston Chronicle in 1976 to cover the original Houston Aeros. I didn't know squat about hockey and had to go to the Waco public library to learn. They then moved me to the Oilers and had my first training camp in 1977.
   
• My habit of helping others in the business started because I was once sent to the Astrodome to write a column on Hank Aaron, and I got to the press box and didn't know where to go. Nobody said a word to me, and I didn't know the media. I sat down, and a guy asked if I was a member of the Baseball Writers of America, and I said no, and he said I couldn't sit there. That was a bad experience. I didn’t want others to have that same experience.
   
• At the combine, I saw once a guy come in like a deer caught in the headlights, and it turned out he was from the student newspaper at Michigan. I took him around and introduced him to Adam Schefter. I said he's a writer in Michigan and went to school there. I told Adam this is Jim Weber from Michigan, we want to help him.
   
• The first time I went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I was scared, and they said you wouldn't be in this room if you weren't supposed to be here. I sat to the side and had a Coke and was shaking, and then a guy came to me. It was Yale Lary. He was the only Aggie there I knew, and he came to me. He said everybody came here for the first time, and you wouldn't be here if you didn't belong. He took me around and introduced me to everyone. When I see anyone for the first time, I walk up to them and introduce them around. It all goes back to that day at the Astrodome.

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