Homecoming for George with Hall of Honor

Bradley George remembers the details of the 2008 conference championship season for Texas State football like it was yesterday.

The quarterback on that team, George faced a challenge or two early in the season but behind a steady group of seniors, his redshirt junior season resulted in the program’s second conference championship in four seasons. However, it came down to the final game of the regular season against rival Sam Houston State.

“We win the game, we win conference,” said George about the season finale at Sam Houston. “They jumped on us 21-0. We closed the gap a little bit going into halftime, 24-17. We went back and scored on them in the last minute, and we had it sealed up, but they basically threw a jump ball, Hail Mary and they caught it (at the end of regulation). Wind came out of our sails.”

George and the Bobcats rallied back, though. After the Bearkats kicked a field goal in overtime, Texas State prevailed with a touchdown – and a subsequent trip to the FCS Playoffs.

“Winning conference with my brothers on that play at Sam,” George said of his fondest memory as a Bobcat. “We came back from a huge deficit. And whenever Karrington Bush scored that touchdown, that was hands down the best (memory).”

A conference champion and the 2009 Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year, George accomplished many things and set a few records along the way during his time as a Bobcat. 

And last night, his career was enshrined into the Texas State Hall of Honor. He and Bobby Sawicki, a former Texas State baseball player, represent the Class of 2022.

It was a fitting duo for the two-person class. Sawicki was George’s first roommate in San Marcos in the fall of 2005 as George, who had a delayed start to his college career after playing professional baseball, was enrolling at Texas State while Sawicki was at the end of his time in San Marcos.

“It was (Sawicki’s) last semester of baseball,” said George. “He was graduating and about to leave. I had just shown up and was looking for a place to stay. We had a mutual friend on the baseball team, and we were out one night and he said, ‘I need a roommate. I have an extra room.’ I said, ‘Alright, perfect.’ I was just looking for a place to stay and it was a very last-minute decision (to come to Texas State) when (former head coach David Bailiff) called me.”

George’s life has been filled with all of it falling into place lately. In addition to going into the Hall of Honor with a former roommate, he has gotten married this year, will be inducted on a holiday weekend where he can see his family that still lives in his hometown of New Braunfels, and share the most exciting news of them all: he and his wife are expecting their first child in 2023.

George is currently a construction manager with Williams. After a happenstance conversation with a Texas State alum around the end of his playing career, he has settled into a career within the oil and gas industry. He oversees the building of compressors for gas pipelines, which are required every 50 or so miles down the line as determined by terrain. He has lived in several places – including Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and currently Charlottesville, Virginia – but his home is in Houston. He hopes to climb the proverbial ladder at Williams so he can settle down in Texas with his wife and their future child.

Although George has moved across the country, he spent the first eight years after Texas State in Houston. This allowed the local product to stay connected to the program.

“When I was back in Houston, I wouldn’t come to every game, but I’d make quite a few because I could see my family. So it was killing two birds with one stone,” said George, a season ticket holder for Texas State since the day his playing career was over.

And despite being in touch with the program – he watched the Bobcats play at James Madison in person earlier this season – he was ready to return to San Marcos for a feeling of homecoming and reflection on some of his favorite memories for the Hall of Honor ceremony.

“It was special in 2005, we made that run,” said George, who redshirted during that year’s conference championship and run to the Division I-AA semifinals. “It was a different good feeling when we won that (in 2008) because they picked us fourth or fifth in the conference. We came back, fought through adversity. Everybody came together.”

Even though he and his teammates grew together, George was always ahead of his teammates in San Marcos – in terms of age. He was a 23-year-old freshman when he enrolled in January 2005. He tried his hand at professional baseball, but after four years in the Cincinnati Reds organization as a pitcher, he decided it was time to try football once again.

He had considered Texas State coming out of high school – his brother was a Bobcat in the early 2000s – and he was courted by then-head coach Bailiff. After committing to Louisiana Tech following his baseball career, he changed his mind last minute and stayed home in the winter of 2004-05.

In his time as a Bobcat, he related well with his younger teammates, but it was the coaches that provided the most influence.

“Travis Bush; hands down,” said George about the person who had the biggest impact on him. “(He was the) quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator. Bailiff is the guy that got me there. I got to give Bailiff all sorts of credit. He showed me the light, and it was the best decision I ever made to go back there. So, Bailiff started it, but in my time there, it was Travis Bush. Travis Bush is the guy I sat in the room with and I couldn’t even tell you the hundreds or thousands of hours of film we watched. And chalk talk, and getting on the (whiteboard). Watching film, or breaking down film. Or just talking. He definitely had the biggest influence on me.”

Bush also played a role when George faced his first dose of personal adversity as a Bobcat. In 2008, he was benched early in the season as he struggled and the team wanted to operate a more run-oriented offense. George, a more typical passing quarterback, was lifted for Clint Toon. However, by the fifth game of the year against Texas Southern, it was George’s time once again.

“The thing that turned it for me was that time when I got benched (in 2008),” said George about a moment he learned the most from during his time at Texas State. “I had been the starter for a year-and-a-half already. Job was mine. Getting benched, I was down on it. I was pretty upset by it. I basically told myself, ‘When I get back in, it's all in.’

“Coach Bush was pretty influential. He basically said, ‘You’re going to be the starter again. You better be ready when we call your number because when you go in, I’m airing it out.’ I came in against Texas Southern, right before halftime, and I think I threw for three touchdowns and 300 yards in three quarters or something. From that point forward, I was the starter and that’s when we went on a run to win the conference championship. The next game, we beat No. 3 McNeese on the road. They were really good. But that opened my eyes and taught me be ready and don’t get down on yourself. I put in the work. I was there all summer. I didn’t miss a day of workouts.”

After all the success as a Bobcat, George has remained involved with Texas State Athletics. He is an active member of the “T” Association, still buys football season tickets, and cooks for the “T” Association tailgate once a year with some friends. 

Looking back, it was an easy decision for George to come to Texas State. And remains an easy one to stay around.

“Because that’s home. That’s my backyard,” said George. “If they take someone to the campus at Texas State and the river – how could you not love Texas State? There’s a river literally running through the campus. It’s always been home for me. New Braunfels and San Marcos, that’s where my roots are.”

Now he is immortalized at Texas State with his Hall of Honor induction. This will pair well with his avid support of the Bobcats, whether he is on the road or at home.

“I’m rooting for them from afar,” said George. “Hopefully, Homecoming is coming soon for me.”