The immortal Paul “Bear” Bryant, the greatest coach in college football history was born on this day 1913. Bear Bryant coached at Maryland [1945] Kentucky[1946-1953] Texas A@M [1954-1957} but was most known for the 25 years that he was the head coach at Alabama [1958-1982}
When Bear Bryant retired after the 1982 season he was #1 in coaching wins with 323. His all-time record was 323-85-17. His record in bowl games was 15-12-2. Bear Bryant’s teams at Alabama won 6 National Championships and 13 conference titles.
Bear Bryant got his nickname at age 13 when he agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion. He played his college career at Alabama and was a member of the 1934 National Championship team. He was the ‘other end” at Alabama. The great Don Hutson, possibly the greatest end ever was on the other side of the line.
Bear Bryant coached is last game at Alabama in the Liberty Bowl in December 1982. When asked what he would do now that he would not be coaching he said “Probably croak in a week” Four weeks later he was dead of a massive heart attack at age 69.
below- Bear with Oakland A’s owner Charles Oscar Finley.
slicethelife 
i still cannot fathom the whole ‘junction boys’ idea he did with that texas a&m team. he almost killed john david crow due to dehydration.
Can you imagine a coach doing that today? Or anything close to that..
Coach Bryant was a fabulous coach and wonderful person. He made live so much better for so many people. Even today through his generosity , students are able to attend the University of Alabama. The children and grandchildren of the player of his teams are guaranteed a scholarship to the University of Alabama. Everyone in my hometown knows a Bear Bryant story. Many I’d love to share right here but I will do that on my blog at some point later. However, from “Coach” by Keith Dunnavant you will find a very touching story of Kent Waldrep a running back for TCU. In October of 1974, while playing the University of Alabama, Kent Waldrep took a pitchout from the quarterback and received a clean hit and was paralyzed from the waist down. Bryant went out of his way to visit Waldrep almost daily in the hospital, and led a successful fundraising drive to pay for Waldrep’s hospitalization and rehabilitation. For the rest of his life, Waldrep felt closer to Bryant and Alabama than he did his own school, TCU. In his office in Dallas, he hung four large portraits of Bryant, while displaying nothing reminiscent of TCU. There are many more wonderful stories of Coach Bryant that serve to inspire. He,” ain’t never been nothin but a winner.”
Bama – thanks for sharing that story.
Sorry for the typo. I was not paying attention. Coach Bryant’s grandson lives in my neighborhood. Years ago, he coached my daughter’s basketball and softball teams. He is just like his grandfather, he is an excellent coach. Needless to say, his teams won everything. All the Dads were jealous! hahaha. When the girls would struggle, he would come up with a motivational phrase that he must have heard as a child and it would do the trick. We use Coach Bryant’s wise sayings often. Last week when my daughter complained about the difficulty of her advanced calculus quiz, I was able to remind her…”It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters.” followed by, “In life, you’ll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it.” She smiled and decided to prepare harder. I am telling you, the man knew what he was doing. Oh, yeah, John David Crow went on to win the Heisman Trophy and later was a defensive back coach for Coach Bryant.
Enjoyed reading your comments on Coach Bryant. I think the thing about guys like Coach Bryant and Lombardi- why they live on decades after their deaths are–they were not just coaches. They were molders of men. They would have been successful at anything they had decided to have done.