Paul Bear Bryant and His Great Accomplishments

The Alabama Crimson Tide has been blessed with lots of winners in football throughout the years, and has produced the top football players to ever come out of college football, but the most well know person ever to step foot on the gridiron at Alabama is most definitely “Bear” Bryant.

The Legendary Figure in Alabama Football, Paul “Bear” Bryant

The first person that you most likely think of when you hear something about Alabama football, it is likely you think of Bear Bryant. At one point, Bear Bryant was the winningest coach in college football ever. This legendary coach served the Crimson for 25 years. In this period of time, Brian was phenomenal with six national championships and 13 SEC conference championships.

As as college head coach, Paul Bryant had several college head coaching jobs such as Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A& M before he finally had the opportunity to go back to his alma mater, Alabama. So stirred 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 Bear Bryant took over the helm , and started leading it to its former Rose Bowl-style brilliance but accomplished even more. Producing renowned players like Joe Namath, Pat Trammell, Billy Neighbors, Big John Hannah, snake Stabler,Lee Roy Jordan, Johnny Musso, Bob Baumhower, and many others.

No doubt, Bear Bryant was a dazzling motivator and understood how to get his players to do what he wanted them to do. 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 inspiration wasn’t just on the turf, the inspiration carried into the world also by the quality he instilled in his players like big John Croyle, who started the faith-based Christian Big Oak Ranch for unfortunate boys and girls in Springville, Alabama.

The very last year that he coached the Crimson Tide, 1982, was a down year for Alabama and Bear couldn’t see himself coaching Alabama into mediocrity. He constantly said that if he stop coaching that he “wouldn’t last a week.” In actuality, he didn’t last much longer than that, only 37 days. On January 26, 1983, Bryant collapsed and died of a heart attack at age 69 and many mourned his death. Officials estimated that in the range of a half-million to a million people were lined all along the 53 mile stretch from Tuscaloosa to the burial ground in Birmingham that was blocks from Legion Field.

Bear’s Legacy

Bear’s legacy lives in the players that are now growing older and the fans that remember his championship heart. Not only that… He helped break segregation in the South’s football world, and in doing so, helped turn the Alabama around from prejudice to magnificence. 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!

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Fred Ashland

Fred Ashland

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