The tradition is steeped in winning football at the University of Alabama, and has churned out out some of the most elite athletes that college football has ever seen, but the most well know person ever to step foot on the gridiron at Alabama is most definitely “Bear” Bryant.
BEAR BRYANT
Bear Bryant started his career at Alabama as a football player in 1931. He was only 1934 national championship play end. Brian always joked that he was the “other end” that played for “mamma”. The other end was the legendary NFL Hall of Famer, Don Hudson. Even bear Bryant’s college playing days, he showed mental toughness and playing the 1935 game against Tennessee with a broken leg.
As a head football coach, Bear Bryant went through several college head coaching jobs such as Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A& M before he ultimately had the break to return to his alma mater, the University of Alabama. So enthused was Paul Bryant, that he famously was quoted as saying, “Mama called. And when Mama calls, you just have to come runnin’.”
It was the year 1958 that Paul Bryant became head coach , and started leading it to its former Rose Bowl-style glory but accomplished even more. Establishing famous players like Pat Trammell, Big John Hannah, Snake Stabler, Joe Namath, Lee Roy Jordan, Billy Neighbors, Bob Baumhower, Johnny Musso,, and many others.
Overall, Bear Bryant was a incredible motivator and understood how to get his teams to do what he required them to accomplish. Florida A&M coach, Jake Gaither said of Bear Bryant, “He can take his’n and beat you’n, and he can take your’n and beat his’n.” The motivation wasn’t just on the playing field, the motivation passed into life also by the quality he instilled in his players like big John Croyle, who founded the faith-based Christian Big Oak Ranch for troubled kids in Springville, Alabama.
The very last year that he coached Alabama, 1982, was a down year for Alabama and Bear couldn’t see himself coaching Alabama into mediocrity. He always said that if he stop coaching that he “wouldn’t last a week.” In reality, he didn’t last a lot longer than that, only 37 days. On January 26, 1983, Bryant collapsed and died of a heart attack at age 69 and many attended his funeral. Public officials projected that between a half-million to a million individuals were lined along the 53 mile stretch from Tuscaloosa to the cemetery in Birmingham that was only blocks away from Legion Field.
The Legendary Man Changed Alabama and The World
Bear’s heritage lives in the players that are now growing older and the fans that evoke his championship heart. Not only that… He helped smash segregation in the South’s football universe, and in doing so, helped turn the state around from racism to splendor. Not only that, he changed the world to a better place than he left left.. He ain’t never been nothing but a winner. Roll Tide!
