Farm Team

Researchers AT Texas A&M-Kingsville have produced two varieties of grapefruit over the past 20 years: the Star Ruby and the Rio Red. They're hard at work trying to come up with a strain of thornless prickly pear cactus—cattle could cat it during droughts, and without prickles the pads would make great pickles. But Texas A&M-Kingsville's best-known crop is professional football players.

Forty-six players from the Division II school that until 1993 was known as Texas A&I have been selected since the first NFL draft, in 1936. Offensive tackle Jermane Mayberry, taken by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 25th pick in last spring's draft, was the eighth first-round selection in school history. Other first-round picks were quarterback Randy Johnson ( Atlanta Falcons in '66), offensive lineman Gene Upshaw ( Oakland Raiders in '67), defensive back James Hill ( San Diego Chargers in '69), wide receiver Eldridge Small ( New York Giants in '72), defensive tackle Ernest Price ( Detroit Lions in '73), fullback Don Hardeman ( Houston Oilers in '75) and cornerback Darrell Green ( Washington Redskins in '83). Kingsville has had more first-rounders over the last 30 years than any other school outside Division I and many inside it. Kansas State, for instance, has had only two.

In addition to Mayberry, tour players from the 1995 Javelinas (pronounced haav-uh-LEEN-uhs) signed with NFL teams as free agents, and two more joined the CFL. That's a typical yield for the school, which has 6,500 students. Besides Green, it has cultivated such current pro standouts as Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Earl Dotson and Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle John Randle. "Almost every day last fall we had a couple of scouts at practice," says Mayberry. "And this isn't the kind of place you can just drop by."

There is no easy way to get to Kingsville (pop. 25,000), which lies 100 miles north of the Mexican border. The quickest way is to hop a (light into Corpus Christi. 39 miles northeast of campus. From there, follow Highway 44 west to Highway 77 south. The biggest town you'll pass through is Robstown, Upshaw's hometown. "We played some good football in Kingsville," says Upshaw, a member of the NFL Hall of Fame and now the executive director of the NFL Players Association. "So we knew the scouts would find us."

Upshaw almost saw to it that the scouts missed him. He didn't much like football in high school and hadn't planned to play in college. In 1963 he was at freshman orientation when he paused to watch football practice. Coach Gil Steinke, who led Texas A&I to six NAIA titles in 23 years before retiring in '76, spotted the 6-foot, 200-pound spectator and invited him to join in. Three days later Upshaw had a scholarship, and four years later, having added five inches and 55 pounds to his frame, he was the 17th pick in the draft.

Suiting up bystanders isn't standard procedure for the Javelinas. Free safety Tyrone Marshall, linebacker Chris Hensley and offensive tackle Todd Perkins, seniors all, are more typical of the players who make up Texas A&M-Kingsville's roster.

The 6'1", 175-pound Marshall, a native of Austin, signed with BYU in 1994 after spending two years at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas. But since he didn't graduate from Trinity Valley, he was ineligible to play in Division I. So he headed for Kingsville largely because of the Javelinas' reputation for developing pros. " Darrell Green is one of the best out there, so people still come down here and look for defensive backs," says Marshall. Although he missed all of last season because of a torn ligament in his right knee, Marshall appears to be back in the form that made him Lone Star Conference defensive back of the year in '94.

Hensley, who's from Bandera, played junior college baseball for a year at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas, before transferring to Kingsville. He walked on to the football team and immediately impressed the coaches with his speed—at 6'3" and 230 pounds, he has covered the 40 in 4.53 seconds—and aggressiveness. He's planning to redshirt this season after a spring knee injury, but Javelinas coach Ron Harms expects him to get a shot at the NFL in 1998.

The 6'4", 290-pound Perkins seems destined to become the fourth member of last season's offensive line to make it to the NFL. (Jorge Diaz and Kevin Dogins signed as free agents this April with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys, respectively.) When he was a high school senior, TCU and Texas A&M invited Perkins to walk on. But he decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, Ken, who played for the Javelinas in 1963 and '64 and then for the Cowboys and the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL.

How does Harms convince would-be NFL players to come to Kingsville? For 17 years he has been telling recruits that the steady stream of NFL scouts would counter the team's lack of national exposure. And while he makes them no promises, Harms does let players know that they won't be overlooked. "When they talk about their hopes after college, we point to many of our successes," says Harms, literally pointing to the framed portraits of the school's All-Americas that line the walls of the lounge in the athletic department. "The evidence is there."