The Alabama Crimson Tide has been blessed with lots of winners in football throughout the years, 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 certainly “Bear” Bryant.
BEAR BRYANT
The first person that you most likely reckon of when you hear something about Alabama football, it is likely you reckon of Bear Bryant. At one top, 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 unusual with six national championships and 13 SEC conference championships.
As a head football coach, Paul Bryant had several university jobs such as the University of Maryland, University of Kentucky, and Texas A&M University before he at long last had the opportunity to come back to his alma mater, Alabama. So went was Paul Bryant, that he famously was quoted as saying, “Mama called. And when Mama calls, you just have to come runnin’.”
It was a change of atmosphere when Bryant came back to Tuscaloosa. In 1958, Paul Bryant took over the helm of Bama, and started leading it to its previous Rose Bowl-style success but attained even higher heights. Establishing celebrated players like Joe Namath, Pat Trammell, Billy Neighbors, Huge John Hannah, meander Stabler,Lee Roy Jordan, Johnny Musso, Bob Baumhower, and many others.
No doubt, Bear Bryant was a remarkable motivator and understood how to make his football players to do what he needed 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 carried into the world as well by the character he instilled in his players like huge John Croyle, who founded the belief-based Christian Huge Oak Ranch for unfortunate children in Springville, Alabama.
The 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 always said that if he quit coaching that he “wouldn’t last a week.” In reality, he didn’t last a fantastic deal longer than that, only 37 days. On January 26, 1983, Bryant died of a heart attack at age 69 and many attended his funeral. Officials estimated that in the range of a half-million to a million individuals were lined along the 53 mile stretch from Tuscaloosa to the memorial park in Birmingham that was only blocks away from Legion Field.
Bear’s Legacy
Bear’s heritage lives in the players that are now growing older and the fans that consider his finals spirit. Not only that… He helped shatter segregation in the South’s football universe, and in doing so, helped turn the disorder around from prejudice to admiration. Not only that, he changed the world to a better place. Roll Tide!