Paul Bryant died 40 years ago today (1/26/1983)

TexasBama

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Jan 15, 2000
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Coach Paul Bryant died 40 years ago today...the legend has only grown. Why don't we share our favorite Coach Bryant quote? Here's mine...

"It's not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."

So true -- and later quoted by Bobby Knight and many other coaches.
Gene Stallings said " Alabama fans love Coach Bryant and tolerate the rest of us."
 

Padreruf

Hall of Fame
Feb 12, 2001
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Gene Stallings said " Alabama fans love Coach Bryant and tolerate the rest of us."
I've said this before but it needs repeating: A major part of CBP's popularity was that he gave Alabama something to hang their collective hat on when very little else in our state did. There was a great editorial in The NY Times after CPB died which opened my eyes to that reality. I have lost the original clipping -- and cannot find it in the archives...but I know I read it. I even had correspondence with the author Howell Raines.

I found a shorter but related article by Howell Raines in The New Republic:



CNS' record speaks for itself, but he does not carry the same aura as CPB. Totally different era...I shudder to think what would have happened if UA had a lesser person as head coach.
 
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Diogenes

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Jul 7, 2021
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I left Bidgood on my way to BBComer and I overheard folks talking about Bryant dying.

I called the radio station and said I just heard very disturbing news and I need you to confirm it

The voice replied Coach Bryant died 30 minutes ago
 

Con

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News circulated early afternoon in my Jr. High School in Walker Co. when I was in 7th grade. My coach told me.

It's a day I'll never forget...just one day before my 13th birthday.
I’m like you BamaMoon. I was sitting in my 7th grade social studies class when they made the announcement. That was a long time ago but it is still clear as a bell.
 

selmaborntidefan

TideFans Legend
Mar 31, 2000
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The news of Coach Bryant's death was the lead story on the evening news on ABC, CBS, and NBC. We won't see that with a football coach again.
I lived in West Germany at the time - and it was the lead story on the Armed Forces Network, too.

I was 13 when he passed, I'd been an Alabama fan for five football seasons. My mother, of course, grew up in Lanett, where her brother played sandlot ball with Bobby Hunt and Dave Hill, who both later went to Aw-bun and also to the NFL with the Dallas Texas/KC Chiefs. Bryant - to her - was like George Wallace in the sense "I know who he is and what he does," and she knew he won a lot of games.

So on the morning of January 27, I was getting ready to walk to school (19 miles uphill both ways in the snow barefoot), and Mom reached outside the door and got the morning paper, the "Stars and Stripes." She opened it up and as I was headed to the door, she shouted the headline that "Bear Bryant dies of heart attack."

I went to school and not much was said, but I watched the news that night and was just shocked that a college football coach dying was the lead story. Bear in mind - the US economy was in shambles, we were in West Germany because of this thing called the Berlin Wall and a Cold War, and the State of the Union address had been on the previous night (we got it the next day over there).

The newscast came on and mentioned it, did a brief overview - and then said they'd have more during "Sports." And that was most of the sports coverage that night.


Btw - Super Bowl 17 was played just days after Bryant died, and they had a moment of silence at the pregame ceremonies for Bryant, as there were several Dolphins (including Baumhower, McNeal, Nathan, and Stephenson) who played for Coach. I won't say it's never happened again, but I don't recall seeing PRO football take a moment of silence for the passing of a COLLEGE head coach who never coached in the NFL.

I really had no idea how big he was until he died. (There's a lot of people who didn't follow NASCAR in the day who couldn't grasp how big the death of Dale Earnhardt was, either; but Bryant's passing was on a different scale, right below that of a President or head of state).
 

LA BamaCarl

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Never been big on reading books, but I had to get a hardcopy of "Bear" when it came out. Started reading and couldn't put it down. Seeing he had come from a poor, country raising, similar to what I did, only added to the 'larger than life' intrigue I already had of him.

Was fortunate enough to have a friend get a personalized autograph in it for me when he was recruiting Alan Evans in Enterprise. Still one of the most cherished things I have.
 
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TexasBama

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Never been big on reading books, but I had to get a hardcopy of "Bear" when it came out. Started reading and couldn't put it down. Seeing he had come from a poor, country raising, similar to what I did, only added to the 'larger than life' intrigue I already had of him.

Was fortunate enough to have a friend get a personalized autograph in it for me when he was recruiting Alan Evans in Enterprise. Still one of the most cherished things I have.
I have an autographed copy also. Coach Bryant was at one of the local banks for a book signing and my dad got a copy autographed.
 

aerospace_ray

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Oct 5, 2009
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This is how I'll always remember him. Every game I ever attended, I always looked forward to the moment he would walk on the field during warm ups and "lean against the goal post".

View attachment 31752
Exactly how I choose to remember him as in the photo. First time ever seeing him & last time seeing him he was at the goal post . Absolutely begged parents to take me to Legion Field or BDS to see the Coach and the wishbone offenses of 70's. Great times. Hero status in my book.. RTR
 
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4Q Basket Case

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When Bryant died, I was a below-grunt-level trainee at a regional bank, based in Birmingham. I was on a rotation through the Audit Department, and it was pure random happenstance that at that time, I was on assignment at a bank in Tuscaloosa.

Word of Bryant’s death circulated fast. But a lot of people don’t remember that there had been at least one and maybe two previous rumors of potentially-fatal health crises. So when it hit, I called my stepdad. He was not a true insider, but was a UA employee and pretty plugged in to the Tuscaloosa athletic community.

His secretary put me through, and he knew why I’d called. There were no niceties. He said only, “It’s true. I gotta go,” and hung up.

The Audit team‘s station was near the First Methodist Church, and overlooked the parking lot of what was then the Stafford Hotel. On the morning of the funeral, we watched Bum Phillips, Darrell Royal and a few other nationally known coaches park their cars and walk a block and a half to the FMC.

Memory fades, but I remember it as at about noon when the church portion of the funeral ended. We were already staked out at the corner of Greensboro Avenue and Ninth Street (now Stillman Boulevard), where the First Presbyterian Church property adjoins the FMC. We watched the motorcade go by on its way to Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

Strange, but Major Ogilve and his younger brother Ry were on that same corner. I always wondered why Major wasn’t at least in the church and maybe a pallbearer.

Funny the things you remember 40 years on.
 
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Tenntiderman

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Dec 1, 2017
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Never been big on reading books, but I had to get a hardcopy of "Bear" when it came out. Started reading and couldn't put it down. Seeing he had come from a poor, country raising, similar to what I did, only added to the 'larger than life' intrigue I already had of him.

Was fortunate enough to have a friend get a personalized autograph in it for me when he was recruiting Alan Evans in Enterprise. Still one of the most cherished things I have.
You are speaking of John Underwood's book?? That book is a gem. It is like sitting there in CPBs office hearing his life story and then topping it off with all his football related experiences. My favorite story is the Frank Howard story where Coach Bryant was coaching one squad of college all stars and Coach Howard (Clemson's Head Coach) coached the other all star squad. Howard and Bryant had agreed not to use certain plays. Then Bryant did..and his squad scored a TD. One of the coaches kept telling Bryant that Coach Howard was trying to get his attention. Coach Bryant told him he wasn't going to look at Howard.....then he said the noise level fell down low enough to hear Coach Howard yelling...."Bear??? You lying son of of a **##<*!!"👏👏😆😆
 
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4Q Basket Case

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You are speaking of John Underwood's book?? That book is a gem. It is like sitting there in CPBs office hearing his life story and then topping it off with all his football related experiences. My favorite story is the Frank Howard story where Coach Bryant was coaching one squad of college all stars and Coach Howard (Clemson's Head Coach) coached the other all star squad. Howard and Bryant had agreed not to use certain plays. Then Bryant did..and his squad scored a TD. One of the coaches kept telling Bryant that Coach Howard was trying to get his attention. Coach Bryant told him he wasn't going to look at Howard.....then he said the noise level fell down low enough to hear Coach Howard yelling...."Bear??? You lying son of of a **##<*!!"👏👏😆😆
Howard is quoted as saying essentially the same thing about the weights of Alabama players, especially linemen…which Bryant habitually understated.
 

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