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PAUL BEAR BRYANT  Head Football Coach University of Maryland (1945) University of Kentucky (1946-53) Texas A&M University (1954-57) University of Alabama (1958-82)
 "Leaders Of The Legacy" By Artist Doug Shinholster. Click To Buy Now Coach Bryant was born Paul William Bryant in Kingsland, Arkansas. He earned the nickname "Bear" by wrestling a bear in a theater. Bear was an all-state high school football player in high school and later played college football for the University of Alabama. His first coaching job was as an assistant coach there after graduating in 1935. His first job as a head coach was at Maryland where he acquired a reputation as a demanding coach and strict disciplinarian. In 1946 at Kentucky, Bryant coached the team to four bowl games and won their only Southeastern Conference title. In 1956 at Texas A&M,, he won the Southwest Conference championship in 1956. When Coach Bryant returned to the University of Alabama in 1958, he revitalized the Crimson Tide football program into the nation's top-ranked college football team. His 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979 teams all won National Championships. In 1981, he broke Amos Alonzo Stagg's record of 314 coaching victories and finished coaching with 323 career wins. Under Bryant, Alabama had 25 winning seasons and was selected for bowl games 24 times. He retired from the University of Alabama in 1982 and died less than a year later.   
 
   Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. The name was an inspiration in itself, conjuring images of a man in a hounds tooth hat standing by the goal post, coaching his team to yet another victory. Years of experience were etched in his gentle face, but behind the grand fatherly exterior lay what could 'be described as the right stuff, the stuff that created a legend. It was December 3, 1958; Bryant had some news for his followers at Texas A&M. "Gentlemen, I've heard Mama calling," he told them, "and now I'm going home." And home he came, restoring a lost sense of pride and morale to a team that floundered in one of the lowest points in its history. The Tide was soon to turn. From 1958 to 1982, Bryant led the crimson tide to twenty-eight straight victories, a record that catapulted The University to the top in national college football history. He had other winning streaks of nineteen, seventeen, twelve and eleven games. Bryant once said, "Winning isn't everything, but it sure beats coming in second." Under his leadership, rarely did the Tide come in second. Bryant understood that there was more to a player than a strong arm or fast legs. The building of character was essential to the building of a winning team. "Intentions over the years were to help the players to be better persons every day, to help themselves, to teach a lesson on and off the field," he said. They, were lessons not soon forgotten. Kenny "Snake" Stabler, who quarterbacked Bama to a perfect eleven-zero season in 1966, recalled when Coach Bryant suspended him during his junior year. "He made me realize what I was throwing away, and he gave me the opportunity to recapture it," Stabler said. Recapture it he did, going on to play with the Oakland Raiders where he became an all-time NFL great. Charley Boswell, the 1939 halfback who lost his sight in World War II and went on to win twenty-eight national and international blind golf championships, called Bryant "a psychologist. He knew you couldn't treat all the boys the same. I knew he had what it took to be a fine and successful coach, and I think he was the best." On December 29, 1982, sports history was made and an era ended with Bryant's final game, the Liberty Bowl. It was the same bowl he had taken the Tide to in his first year as head coach. In a last rally of respect for the man who had brought the Tide from mediocre to mighty, the boys defeated Illinois twenty-one to fifteen. With three hundred twenty-three career wins, Bryant was lauded as the winningest coach in college football history. His leadership was the Crimson Tide's cornerstone to two hundred thirty-two wins, six national championships, and twenty-three straight bowl appearances. "I'd probably croak in a week if I ever quit coaching," Bryant once said. He not only knew his players; he knew himself. He died thirty-seven days after he coached his last game. It took three churches to hold the multitude that gathered for the funeral service on January 28, 1983. The five-mile procession slowly rolled down Tenth Street, past the stadium that for twenty-four years had been filled with fans cheering him on, past Memorial Coliseum where his office was located. Then the somber caravan made its way to I-59, where all traffic stopped to allow its passage. Officials estimated between one-half and one million people lined the fifty-three mile stretch to Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. Though the final tribute had been paid, there was still much to he said. The lives Bryant touched were the most telling witness to his greatness. "I had a friend whose daughter was terminally ill," Boswell said. "I told Paul about her, and on Christmas Eve in terrible weather, he showed up at the door of my friend's house. Even though the girl died a year later, Paul's visit meant a lot to her." "He was more than the finest football coach who ever lived," former University President Joab Thomas said. "He was a great teacher, a great man and a dear personal friend." Indeed, Paul "Bear" Bryant was all of these things. It was only natural that, in his death, all eyes focused on his life. It was the life of a legend.  Coach Bryant Six National Championships By Artist D.L. Taylor. Click To Buy Now! Coach told the following story... typical of the way he operated. I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was havin' trouble finding the place. Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant". I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I'm the only white fella in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?" I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today? He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chiltlin's, collard greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know what chitlin's are, do you?" I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas, I've probly eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place." They all smiled he left to serve me up a big plate. When he comes back he says, you ain't from around here then? And I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and I'm here to find what ever that boys name was, and he says, yeah I've heard of him, he's supposed to be pretty good. And he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach. As I'm paying up to leave I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one, and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay. The big man asked me if I had a photograph of something he could hang up to show I'd been there. I was so new that I didn't have any yet. It really wasn't that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one. I met the kid I was lookin' for later that afternoon, and I don't remember his name, but do remember I didn't think much of him when I met him. I had wasted a day, or so I thought. When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I put that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn't forget it. Hell, back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me. And the next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had, Paul Bear Bryant. Now let's go a whole buncha years down the road. Now we have black players at Alabama and I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. Yall remember, (and I forget the name, but it's not important to the story), well anyway, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on see some others while I'm down there. Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?" And I said hell yes I sure do. And he says, OK, he'll come. And I say, well son, what changed your mind? And he said, "When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no he pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama, and wasn't playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since yall met." Well I didn't know his grandad from Adam's housecat so I asked him who his grand daddy was and he said, "You probly don't remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he's had hung in that place ever since. That picture's his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlin's with him. My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him, and to Grandpa, that's everything. He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to." "I was floored", he said. "But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, and it costs a lot to lose your good name by breakin' your word to someone. When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he's still running that place, but it looks a lot better now, and he didn't have chitlin's that day, but he had some ribs that woulda made dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures, and don't think I didn't leave some new ones for him too, along with a signed football. I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they're out on the road. And if you remember anything else from me, remember this, It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable." 
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