Biography:Paul Bryant was born in Moro Bottom, Arkansas on September 11, 1913. He was the 11th of 12 children born to William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant. In 1927, he successfully wrestled a muzzled bear for a theater promotion, after which he was given the nickname "Bear." The nickname remained with Bryant for the rest of his life, nevertheless he was not fond of the nickname. With Bryant playing defensive end and offensive tackle, the Fordyce High School Red Bugs of Fordyce, Arkansas won the 1930 Arkansas high school football state championship.He played his college football at the University of Alabama. With Bryant starting at right side offensive end (with the legendary Don Hutson on the left), Alabama won the 1935 Rose Bowl over Stanford, going 10-0-0 and winning the 1934 national championship. He graduated from Alabama in 1936. The team's combined record during Bryant's college playing years was 23-3-2.
Coaching Career:After graduating in 1936, Bryant took a coaching job at Union College in Tennessee, but left that position when offered an assistant coaching position at Alabama. Over the next four years, the team compiled a 29-5-3 record. In 1940 he left to become an assistant at Vanderbilt University. The next winter he was to have become the head coach at the University of Arkansas, but the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed his plans. As he was driving to Arkansas to sign the contract to become head coach, Bryant heard on the radio of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, turned his car around, drove home, and enlisted in the United States Navy. He served in North Africa before being granted an honorable discharge to train recruits and coach the football team at North Carolina Pre-Flight. While in the Navy, he attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.In 1945 Bryant was named head coach at the University of Maryland. He stayed for only one season, before taking the same position at the University of Kentucky.Bryant coached at Kentucky for eight seasons which included Kentucky's first bowl appearance (1947) and their first Southeastern Conference title (1950). The 1950 Kentucky team is considered to be the national champions by at least one ranking system, the Sagarin ratings; that team defeated Bud Wilkinson's #1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl but the AP polls then came out before the bowl games. Bryant led Kentucky to appearances in the Great Lakes Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl. Kentucky's final AP poll rankings under Bryant included #11 in 1949, #7 in 1950 (before defeating #1 Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl), #15 in 1951, #20 in 1952 and #16 in 1953. The 1950 season was Kentucky's highest rank until it finished #6 in the final 1977 AP poll. Star players under Bryant at Kentucky included George Blanda who went to a record-setting NFL career; Jerry Claiborne who went on to a Hall of Fame coaching career; All American Bob Gain who won the 1950 Outland Trophy; Wallace Jones who was All-SEC in football and All-American in basketball; Charlie McClendon who went on to be the successful head coach at Louisiana State University from 1962 to 1979; Babe Parilli who finished fourth and third for the Heisman Trophy during his first-team All American junior and senior seasons before a solid pro career; Howard Schnellenberger an All American at UK who went on to a long career as a coach, winning a national championship at the University of MiamiIn 1954, Bryant took over the reins of the football program at Texas A&M University. It was there, in his first year, that he took the team to a notoriously rigorous pre-season training camp in 100°F heat in Junction, Texas. Reports of the "Junction" training camp state that the players were drilled continuously and strenuously in the high heat and humidity without being allowed to drink water or cool down until nightfall. 76 of 111 players, many of them fearing for their lives, left the team within ten days and several suffered permanent, heat-related, physical injury. Any player who complained about the treatment or pleaded on behalf of a "cut" or injured teammate was also cut immediately and sent home. Many years later, during a team reunion in Junction, Coach Bryant apologized to the Junction Boys for the way that he had treated them at the training camp. Most, but not all, accepted his apology. The 35 players who made it through the training camp subsequently suffered through a grueling 1-9 season, with the lone win coming only when Bryant recognized during a film session that the Georgia quarterback always tipped off the direction of the play by the positioning of his feet under center. Only two years later, though, Bryant led the "Junction Boys" to the championship of the Southwest Conference with a 34-21 victory over the University of Texas in Austin. After the 1957 season, having compiled an overall 25-14-2 record at Texas A&M, Bryant returned to Tuscaloosa to take the head coaching position at Alabama. When asked why he left Texas A&M, Bryant replied, "Mama called, and when Mama calls, you just have to come running."The turnaround at Alabama was almost immediate. After winning a combined four games the previous three years, in Bryant's first season the Tide went 5-4-1. The next year, in 1959, Alabama beat Auburn and appeared in a bowl game, the first time either had happened in the previous six years. It was two years later, however, in 1961, that Alabama regained dominance and Bryant first ascended to the throne of college football. The 1961 team went 11-0 and defeated Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl to claim the national championship; the defense allowed a mere 25 points all season, pitched six shutouts, five of them coming consecutively. The next two years, 1962 and 1963, were also successful with victories in the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, respectively. In 1964, the Tide won another national championship, and repeated yet again in 1965. Coming off of back-to-back national championship seasons, Bryant's Alabama team went undefeated in 1966 and annihilated Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, yet Alabama finished third in the nation behind Michigan State and Notre Dame, neither of which were undefeated, and neither of which chose to play in a bowl game that season.1966, however would mark the beginning of a downturn for Bryant. The 1967 team was billed as another national championship contender with star quarterback Kenny Stabler returning, but the team stumbled out of the gate and tied Florida State 37-37 in Legion Field. The season never took off from there, with the Bryant-led Alabama team finishing 8-3-1. In 1968, Bryant again could not match his previous successes, as the team went 8-3. It was in 1969 and 1970, however, that Bryant reached the trough of his coaching career, going 6-5 and 6-5-1 respectively. Bryant was essentially in a funk. Previously in his coaching career, he had recruited smaller players who could play both sides of the ball and on nearly every down and used their speed to beat opposing teams, but by the late 1960s college football had reverted back to its two-platoon system, and thus specialty players who played one specific position began to dominate the game. Furthermore, the lack of black players hurt Bryant even more, and admittedly Bryant stopped focusing as much on the defensive aspect of the game. It was during this time that a frustrated Bryant signed a contract with the Miami Dolphins, only to later rip it up, unable to face the Alabama nation that adored him so.In 1971, however, Bryant re-invented himself, Alabama, and the game when he installed the wishbone offense. He kept the new offense secret until he finally unveiled it against USC in the first game of the 1971 season, as the Tide defeated the stunned Trojans 17-10. Fortunately for Bryant and the Crimson Tide, this was only a sign of things to come. From 1971 to 1979, the Tide won the SEC 8 times, defeated Auburn 8 times, defeated Tennessee 9 consecutive times, and won 3 national championships.All told, he coached at Alabama for 25 seasons, winning six national titles (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979). His standing in the state of Alabama was unmatched by any other figure. In the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Bryant received one and a half surprise votes to be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. His win over in-state rival Auburn University in November 1981 was Bryant's 315th, earning him the record for victories over Amos Alonzo Stagg. When Bryant retired after the 1982 season, his record at Alabama totaled 232-46-9.In his career Bryant participated in a total of 31 post-season bowl games including 24 consecutively at Alabama. He had 15 bowl wins, including eight Sugar Bowls, was a 10-time Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year and a four-time National Coach of the Year. Even today many fans still speak of him in the present tense, and his legacy casts a long shadow over every subsequent head coach at Alabama.
Retirement: Bryant announced his retirement as head football coach at Alabama effective with the end of the 1982 season. His last game was a 21-15 victory in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee over the University of Illinois. He had intended to stay on with the University as athletic director, but died on January 26, 1983 after checking into a hospital in Tuscaloosa with chest pains. His death came less than a month after his last game as a coach.
