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27 Years Since Coach Left Us

theBIGyowski

theBIGyowski

All-American
Aug 4, 2005
3,646
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167
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Cumming, GA
The Last Coach passed away 27 years ago this day.

It's a good feeling knowing that our progam is in good hands and that we are back on top of the college football world.

I am only 28 years old, but have seen the impact of Coach Bryant on not only the University of Alabama but the great state itself. He made everyone proud to be from Alabama when so many others in power were doing the opposite. He showed us class and how to win when you weren't supposed to. We can "act like we've been there before" because of him, who took us there.

Thank you Coach.
 
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day before my birthday and on my birthday my aunt gave me a copy of every newspaper she could get her hands on including the Post Herald and B'ham News.
 
Was poking around between classes in the music store that used to be on the Strip when they switched over to the radio feed that announced it. Remember it clearly. Was in one of the overflow churches for Coach's funeral.

Thanks, Coach. Roll Tide!

exiled
 
My Soph. year at Ooltewah High School. Seems I was either in World History (Bill Oliver, Jr. classmate) or in lunch. Sad day.
 
Never met the man, but I find myself quoting him almost everyday. Its amazing how you can take his words and apply them to the business world and get people to respond. I believe he was above all other things a motivator.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
I have used Coach's words with my own kids as well as the Pop Warner kids that I have been blessed to coach. Thanks Coach.

"If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride, and never quit, you'll be a winner. For the price of victory is high but so are the rewards." ​
Coach Bryant
 
I still remember everything about that day when I heard Coach Bryant died. At first it hard to believe and there was a touch of denial that the news was even true. I also remember a feeling of "what are we going to do now" setting in. There have been times when the Tide was high and the Tide was low since that day. All in all I always felt like the team was in good hands as long as Coach Bryant was at the helm and he could bring the team out a winner in any game. You were one of a kind Coach Bryant! Thanks for all the memories!

Roll Tide!!
:biga2:
 
I was working a graveyard shift (in Fuchu, Japan) when I heard the news that Coach Bryant was in the hospital, but expected to be released the next day. That afternoon a big vol fan that lived behind me called and woke me up to give me the news. Though he was usually a big jerk, he was subdued and almost reverent about breaking it to me.

I remember mostly feeling just a terrible loss that could never be replaced. I can still get a little misty-eyed, if I think about it too long.
 
This quote from Coach Bryant sums it all up for Alabama this past year. Amazing how his words are still relevant even today.

"What are you doing here? Tell me why you are here. If you are not here to win a national championship, you're in the wrong place. You boys are special. I don't want my players to be like other students. I want special people. You can learn a lot on the football field that isn't taught in the home, the church, or the classroom. There are going to be days when you think you've got no more to give and then you're going to give plenty more. You are going to have pride and class. You are going to be very special. You are going to win the national championship for Alabama."
Coach Paul W Bryant

http://www.coachlikeapro.com/coach-paul-bear-bryant.html
 
I think Bear Bryant is/was a highly respected coach by all. I am not a Bama fan and still look at him as one of the best ever.
 
I was 16 years old and heard the news in one of my high school classes. Everyone had a sense of disbelief. None of us in that classroom thought this could be possible. I had a sick feeling. I will never forget that day or the feeling I had.

Reality did not set in til later that night when I saw it on the news. It was a sad, sad day.
 
I was not alive when he died but just from what I have learned, the storied I've been told you just know there is nobody like him.
 
No way I am the only one who sees the similarities between Coach Bryant and Coach Saban.

Besides the obvious ones, such as a preference to run the ball over the opposition so as to win in the fourth quarter, I see both men as representing what the South has seen itself as.

I believe the Ole Miss professor's name is Charles Reagan Wilson. He has written a book entitled something like The lost Cause: The Religion of the Old South. I haven't read it yet, but I believe I have read a review, to wit, Wilson says that when the South lay destitute and beaten after the Civil War, our forbears down here took the attitude that we had weathered the storm, that those of us left had become like burnished brass because of the experience, and that this gave us a quality worth showing to the world.

I suppose that this quality was what Paul Bear Bryant learned on the wagon, by his mother's side, selling cabbages and tomatoes to residents in Fordyce, Arkansas, and whatever else they could raise on the farm out from town in Moro Bottom. It seems to be the same quality that Nick Saban learned in a small town in West Virginia, pumping gas at his father's filling station.

Gene Stallings said that one thing lost on the producers of the TV docudrama, "The Junction Boys," was that there was a quality within Coach Bryant "that made us want to please him." I think he must have meant that the man still carried within him his childhood experience in Moro Bottom, and that there was something about this to respect and learn from.
 
I was 17 in the doctors office as my parents where burying my Aunt. I was the one who told my parents as they had not heard the news. What a painful thing to tell them. Honestly; it was because of them I became a Bama fan.... My Dad loved Coach Bryant!

RTR!!!!
 
My Mom heard the news first and called me at my apartment. I was in the shower and ignored the phone for the longest time until I finally grabbed a towel and went and answered it. It was like someone hit me between the eyes with a sledgehammer, I wasn't yet over him retiring even though I knew that he probably knew he had to. It was no less painful than losing a family member. One of the saddest days of my life.
 
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