By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
Jake Plummer never gave a second thought to the accommodations at Camp Tontozona.
"If you're looking for tile floors, granite counters and nice, clean toilets you should go to a hotel," said Plummer, who led the Sun Devils to the 1997 Rose Bowl. "I grew up camping in the woods. A mattress and a pillow was all I needed."
As the Sun Devils wrap up the 53rd edition of Camp Tontozona with Saturday's Maroon & Gold Camp T Practice, some things have changed at the program's historic White-Mountain training ground.
The upper field has been reworked with new irrigation, sub-base and sod. The lower field needed tending as well after four years without use from 2008-2012. There is enough technology now for the video crew to edit film for coaches, and for the student-athletes to take online exams for their summer school classes.
There are additional trailers/campers for football coaches and staff to sleep in, there are new mattresses in some of the dorms and the workout schedule is considerably lighter than it was under legendary coach Frank Kush, due to stricter NCAA regulations.
"It seemed like we were up there a year but it was really just 12 days," said Bob Breunig, a three-time All-Western Athletic Conference linebacker from 1972 through 1974 under Kush. "The equipment manager blew the whistle every morning at 6:30 and it was the worst sound you've ever heard."
Two-a-days are the standard by which football teams measure their endurance these days, and even those are limited by the NCAA. In Kush's era, the team did three-a-days. There was a morning practice, a walk-through after lunch that included jogging and exercise, and a late afternoon practice that sometimes stretched into the dark if Kush wasn't happy.
The day sometimes concluded with sprints that required players to run from the goal line to the 5-yard line and back five times; the 10-yard line and back five times; the 15-yard-line and back five times, until they had reached the far goal line in 5-yard increments of five repetitions each.
As many stories have recounted, on a bad day, Kush would ask media members in attendance to pull their cars around the perimeter and turn on the headlights so the Sun Devils could continue practicing.
"One of the best things I remember is when Kush would walk us up to the top of Mount Kush at the start of camp and give us a speech, saying 'it's time to get serious,'" Breunig said. "Kush didn't like mental mistakes so he'd always finish that speech by saying, 'from time to time, if you make mental mistakes, you'll be back up this mountain.'
"If you made a mental mistake, at the end of the day -- at the end of three-a-days -- you'd be hiking back up that mountain."
Despite the differences at Tontozona then vs. now, far more of the traditions remain. The cabins still have that rustic, camping feel; the players still discover the benefits of face-time, minus their cell phones and iPads; and there is a new generation of giant beetles that look much the same as they did 50 years ago.
Breunig remembers teammate Tim Hoban catching those beetles in a jar and letting them loose in players' beds at night.
Plummer remembers linebacker Derek Smith grabbing the big bugs that would hang out under the lights and tossing them high into the air to feed the bats.
Current Sun Devils receiver D.J. Foster remembers screaming "like a 3-year-old" when "I woke up with some roaches and some bugs on my bed.
"Let's just say it wasn't pretty," Foster said. "I set up a barricade with pillows and I would spray everything. I was spraying everyone down before they walked in the room."
There is still a talent show with freshmen on display. That's where Plummer impersonated teammate Grady Benton and "belted out the fight song," and that's where current tight end Dan Vear should take home an award for his dead-ringer impersonations of a host of politicians, actors and TV characters -- and maybe a certain coach or two.
The stars are still so bright that it reminds receiver Ellis Jefferson of being back home in Texas, freshman are still warned to beware the bears and always carry bear spray, and there are bonding experiences aplenty in the cabins or around the camp fires.
"The best thing that happened to me from a personal standpoint was really getting to know the family aspect," Sun Devils sophomore safety Marcus Ball said. "There was one night where we stayed around the camp fire and everybody opened up to each other.
"You play with 100 guys and you kind of know them as far as their personality in the locker room or their personality on the field. But somebody's problems or issues -- their personality on the field can be a total different perception than what's really inside."
There has been talk recently of further upgrading some of Camp T's amenities, and some alterations may be necessary. The old-timers are OK with small changes, but they hope Camp T maintains its integrity.
"There aren't many things left in the world, unmarked by corporations, and I don't think there's any other team in the country that goes somewhere like Tontozona," Plummer said. "I can see making some small improvements, but it's authentic, so for the most part, I'd leave it as is.
"Those same experiences help the kids now relate to players from the 70s and 80s and 90s and that's a cool tie for the program to have. If you upgrade it and make it all shiny and fancy, it's not Camp Tontozona any more."
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