My Aunts funeral was about 1 hour ahead of Coach Bryant at Elmwood. We were still somewhat in shock. A very sad day.
"We're going to play UCLA, the No. 1 team in the country, the next Saturday. On Wednesday, they come down and they say to me, 'Coach Bryant's just passed away.' So I went to Paul Jr. and I said, 'How do we need to handle it? CBS is there.' He always called him Poppa, and he said, 'Poppa would have wanted you to play.' So we put black armbands on, went to UCLA and won the game by two."
It's somewhat ironic that on the day Coach Bryant died our basketball team defeated number one ranked UCLA in Los Angeles.
Only regret in my life is not staying on the team after walking on in 1974. I didn't think I was big enough after seeing those fellas up close. Sure loved the Bear. Miss him today as I know everyone here does.Sophomore in HS in Jacksonville Ark. We just came into shower after Off-season conditioning drills and I overheard our coaches discussing it. A couple of weeks later I quit football because the only thing I ever wanted to do was play for Coach Bryant. I've regretted ever since.