Question: Is Calling Coach Bryant "The Bear" OK with Everyone?

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I will leave the definitive response to your good question to those who have been far closer to the program than I have been - living up here in Canada 'n' all - but, by way of anecdotal evidence, I recall a post from one of our esteemed and lovable Mods in a thread a few years ago politely pointing out their dislike of that particular appellation.

Hence my avoidance of it ever since...

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I usually use "Coach Bryant" out of respect. Calling him "Bear" is like calling your father by his first name instead of calling him "Dad". Just how I see it, anyway. It's a respect, reverence type thing.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

When Coach Mal Moore was being recruited as a QB, he made the mistake of calling Coach Bryant "Bear" to his face. He never did it again. You won't ever hear a former player, assistant coach, or staff member under Bryant refer to him as "Bear," or even "The Bear."

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

MN-Tide said:

I have noticed a few recent threads that make reference to "The Bear". I thought that I read somewhere that he didn't particularly care for the nickname. Because of that I have always referred to the man as "Coach Bryant" or "Coach Paul Bryant". I know that no one on this site would ever intentionally show disrespect for the man. Could someone set me straight on this?

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I'm a Coach Bryant or Coach Paul Bryant man. Give The Man a little RESPECT!

Growing up in Alabama I respected him as a man, probably, more than anyone else, except Billy Graham. I sorta considered him a father figure. I think he was a great down-to-earth philosopher. He disseminated a lot of Wisdom, maybe not as much as Solomon in Proverbs, but still a lot for a man of his Coaching position and humble Arkansas background. His "momma" did a good job in raising that man.

It's like if he was talking, you needed to be listening. Those Sunday shows at 4:00 p.m. were awesome. Everyone in my home was totally attentive when he talked. Sometimes, it was hard to understand him as he growled so you had to be attentive in listening to him.

Coaches today want all the glory. He ALWAYS gave credit to his assistant coaches and his players. It was NOT I, I, I did this or that or me, me, me! He gave credit to others when we won and he took credit for those losses. Why wouldn't anyone want to play for someone like that.
He was an awesome leader and motivator.

Sometimes we even had Coke and Golden Flake to snack on while he was on the air! "Bingo!" When you heard that you knew someone was getting some praise for a job well done. I can still picture that Billboard near a certain highway that said "Great Pair says the _ _ _ _!" Oh well, he's still Coach Bryant or Coach Paul Bryant to me.

Now I wish he had left those Chesterfields on the store shelves. We may have had him as a Coach for a couple of more years. I think Aretha sang it right: "Respect". I highly respected him as a Man and as a Coach of the Crimson Tide.

After I get passed St. Peter at that certain gate, I want to see family, then Coach Paul Bryant among many more.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

TIDE-HSV said:

You're right. He detested it and his real friends never used it. I also never use it. However, if someone places "the" before it, which was the way it was used when he was coaching, I let it go by. I'll change it when someone who wasn't even alive when he was coaching starts using just "Bear," like he was a favorite uncle, then I'll change it or delete it...

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I've never read any official board policy on the subject until just now. But just from reading others' comments, I gathered that using the nickname was frowned on. So I just say Coach Bryant or sometimes Paul Bryant.

I was 15 when he coached his last game, so I probably used the nickname to refer to him when he was alive, but that isn't something I'd do now.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

TIDE-HSV said:

You're right. He detested it and his real friends never used it. I also never use it. However, if someone places "the" before it, which was the way it was used when he was coaching, I let it go by. I'll change it when someone who wasn't even alive when he was coaching starts using just "Bear," like he was a favorite uncle, then I'll change it or delete it...

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Earle, not to sound impertinent, but if in fact he detested the B word, I have to ask: why then did he allow both his TV show and his autobiography to incorporate it in their titles?

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

TIDE-HSV said:

I'll say this. Even in his 40s, he was inhumanly strong. Breaking up a fight on the field, I saw him pick up LB Jim Blevins, about 230 - huge for two-way football - and literally fling him about 15' off the field. In those days, late 50s, early 60s, he would get down in the trenches and demonstrate. I would not have bet on the bear against him...

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Sounds like you too were at the Georgia game in 1958.

You're right about his friends not calling him Bear, my parents and several of their friends were contemporaries of the Bryants at Bama and knew them well, I never heard any of them ever call him anything but Paul.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

Sometime in the late 70s. We played Rutgers. The radio station carried the post game press conference. One reporter addressed him as Bear and my mother said that had to be a New Jersey reporter since none here would do that.


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Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

TIDE-HSV said:

Thanks for supplying the opponent. I couldn't remember if it were UGA or Miami. In sports, once you acquire a nickname, it's yours forever. I'm sure he would have traded the money he made off it for it's being forgotten forever...

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I've heard his son called Bear Junior, he probably hates that as well.




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Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I understand the way that the question was asked - my opinion has nothing to do with what Coach Bryant might have preferred, for a reason. It is my opinion that anyone speaking of Coach Bryant in a respectful way is promoting his legacy in a positive way, no matter the appelation used.

If I read an article about my FiL in which they referred to him as Dick instead of Richard, but the article was positive and loving, I would look past the fact that he hated it when people called him Dick. They did not know him the way that I did, so I would assume that there was no disrespect intended.

I would just be appreciative that his story continues to be told. It will not always be so.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I remember " The Bear Bryant Show" at 4PM on Sundays showing the highlights of the game the day before. Coach Bryant and AD Charlie Thorton. It was funny as well as educating. Some of Coach Bryant' s famous lines while narrating the black and white replay film: " Now, There' s a Goody"!...." Here we are not hitting anyone"....
" Bingo"!!. I also remember one particular show..They would always have a big bowl of Golden Flake Potato chips and Ice Cold Coca Cola on the table in front of them ( The TV Sponsors) and I guess part of the agreement was they both had to show themselves munching on the chips, and taking a few swings on the Coke during the show. Well one Sunday, Coach Bryant said to AD Thorton: " Charlie, hand me some of that belly swell"!!!! It was hilarious! Calling Coca Cola ( The Sponsor) ":Belly Swell". Just being his folksy self!!

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Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I don' t know if this story is true or not...When Joe Namath first arrived on campus he went into Coach Bryant' s office and said:
" Are you Bear". That was the first and last time he ever called him that..

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Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

I have always called him Coach Bryant. I got this from my Brother in Law who played and coached for him. He was clear that it was ALWAYS Coach Bryant or just Coach unless it was a contemporary that was close enough to call him Paul. It was simply respect from his players and most coaches. If it's the way they understood it to be, then that's good enough for me.

Re: Is Calling Coach Bryant 'The Bear" ok with Everyone?

Not only would I never refer to the man that way (using a nickname) I prefer to call all coaches by their proper title.....Coach Bryant.

I hate it when folks refer to our football coach as just Muschamp. Please have the decency to call the man Coach Muschamp (or Coach Boom if you must!)