In honor of Coach Bryant

Alajambama

2nd Team
Jul 25, 2012
318
0
0
Fyffe, AL
Thirty years ago today we lost the Coach. I know he would take pride in seeing what the Crimson Tide has become. The current Alabama program looks like something he would have put on the field. I wrote this a couple of years ago and try to post every year on January 26...


Do you remember the day that Coach Bryant died?
A day in the South when grown men cried
We let the world see our tears with nothing to hide
Now after all these years I'm still filled with pride
No other can match him, though many have tried
It is still by his rules that we try to abide
We'll show grace and class with our hearts opened wide
And shake the hands of our rivals from the other side
So I say "Thank you Coach for a heck of a ride"
We were all blessed to know you and forever… ROLL TIDE!!!
 

Crimson57s

1st Team
Aug 18, 2012
557
0
0
Thanks for the post and the poem. We are indeed blessed that we had him so long.

Hard to believe it's been 30 years...
 

selmaborntidefan

TideFans Legend
Mar 31, 2000
36,432
29,735
287
54
Thirty years means we're all thirty years older. That's both good news and bad. The bad news is it means - automatically - that you're old. If you can remember Coach Bryant's passing - ladies and gentlemen - you are old (as am I). The good news is that we're still alive.

I lived at Sembach AFB, Germany (at the same time as a certain former Tide defensive back named George Teague, and I'll give you a hint - he had pulled that play he did on Lamar Thomas before on the sandlot) in 1983. Because of the time difference it was January 27 when I found out - but it was utter shock. I was about to head out the door to walk to school and my mother grabbed her copy of "The Stars and Stripes" from the door step and opened it. And it was how loud she said it that shocked me - "Ex-Alabama Coach Bear Bryant Dies of Heart Attack at 69."

I was numb. I didn't know at 13 you could go numb, but I did. I think if he could see what we have now, he'd be impressed. In fact, I could hear that old mumble from his final years, and it's something like, "Ah program is in the best hands it could be in with Coach Saban." And he'd probably even make a remark about how much better a coach Saban is (not getting into that argument, but I'd bet he would say that).

I went to BDS twice this last fall for the first time - you can still feel what he did there.
 

ccc2259

All-American
Oct 29, 2010
2,571
70
72
Lower Alabama
Thanks for the post and the poem. I remember where I was the moment I heard the news. I agree, Earle, "numb" is the best word to describe the feeling. Selma, you're right.... if he were still around today he would definitely downplay his effect on the program and lift CNS up in comparison. That's just what he did.

I still miss him....can't help it.
 

TideRollsInPa

Scout Team
Sep 13, 2010
130
30
47
Allentown, Pa
Definitely still missed. Growing up in Pa, I had no real ties to the program. Coach Paul Bryant is the one and only reason I became a fan of Alabama football. 1978 to be exact. RollTide and Roll Coach.
 

Bamagator

Scout Team
Jan 12, 2000
147
0
135
He was the only coach I had ever known.

I was walking down University Boulevard, near the SW corner of the Quad. Waiting to cross the street, walking home from class, a guy I knew from my department came up and said, did you hear, Coach Bryant has died. All I could say was, no. No. I only saw the man up close in person, close enough to speak, a handful of times, and I felt like I had lost a family member.

I was shocked, in disbelief. He had said he would die when he quit, and then he went and did it. I knew things would never be the same. We would be good again, even great. I would enjoy my football Saturdays, life would go on, people have to move on.

Thirty years later I still struggle to explain what he meant. If you have to ask, you'll never get it.
 

JDCrimson

Hall of Fame
Feb 12, 2006
5,346
4,417
187
51
I remember they announced it over the intercom at my elementary school shortly before we were to board the school bus home... I distinctly remember seeing all my fellow classmates crying as we walked down the hall. I cried all the way home on the school bus...
 

BamaFanInTally

All-SEC
Nov 18, 2002
1,662
1,164
312
Tallahassee, FL, USA
I was a student at UA when Coach Bryant passed. I remember being stunned and the whole campus was in utter disbelief. Two years and two days later my father passed. Tough times for sure.
 

Al A Bama

Hall of Fame
Jun 24, 2011
6,658
934
132
Wow! Time sure does fly by.

I had just walked into my house from work, the telephone was ringing. My mother had called from Alabama to tell me that Coach Bryant had just died. I also was shocked and stunned. I turned on the TV to see and hear all that I could about Coach Bryant. As I recall Mickey Herskowitz was a reporter for the Houston Post at that time and was interviewed regarding Coach Bryant on one of the local Houston TV new stations. Herskowitz had followed Coach Bryant's career especially after his becoming A & M coach. If I remember correctly, he was at Junction, TX for the baptism or infusion of A & M players into the Coach Bryant philosophy.

While growing up he was like a father figure who could walk on water.

I always watched the 4:00 p.m. Sunday "Bear" Bryant Show. Periodically, I would watch the Shug Jordan Show at 5:00 p.m. especially after a loss to Alabama. We all had Coke and Golden Flake potato chips, sometimes while watching the replays of Bama game. That was a Great Pair!

I would have given anything if I had had the ability, potential to play for that Man's Man. Yep! I would have run through brick walls to please the Greatest Coach in the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970"s.

Yep! Some of us are old codgers!
 

aerospace_ray

All-American
Oct 5, 2009
2,963
397
102
Alabama
Numb and shock I remember. I was finishing basketball and about to get ready for my first attempt at varsity football. It took weeks for me to quit thinking about him every time I looked at the football field house. I still think about CB when I go back home to visit my parents. My old bedroom has newspapers, magazines from that date/time. Sometimes I want to put them in a drawer, but deep down I am glad my sons grow up getting to look through them when they visit and ask me questions about him. RTR
 

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