Paul 'Bear' Bryant went shopping for a new wardrobe and found a tailor-made friend
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The rangy, stoop-shouldered gentleman walked into Birmingham's Baldone Tailoring Co. that morning to order a couple of suits.
The 18-year-old kid, who was manning the shop while his father was on his coffee break, began taking the gentleman's measurements.
Chest: 53 inches.
Waist: 37 inches.
Sleeves: 36 inches.
Neck: 17 1/2 inches.
"Big and tall," Butch Baldone remembers, more than 50 years later. "Wide shoulders. No (behind). Stooped. Very hard human being to fit."
They picked out a couple of swatches of material, and the young Baldone got the gentleman's name and phone number and said he would call him when the suits arrived.
The gentleman signed his name.
Paul W. Bryant.
