Remembering the Bear
By Drew Champlin The Crimson White
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (U-WIRE) -- After a 21-15 victory over Illinois in the 1982 Liberty Bowl, the greatest coach in college football history stepped away from the sidelines.
His plan was to remain at the University of Alabama as athletics director while Ray Perkins became the head coach, but it wasn't going to happen. Little did everyone know that Paul "Bear" Bryant had given it his all. Not just in the game of football, but in the game of life.
Bryant went to the hospital for a checkup on Jan. 25, 1983. He came out fine, but went in again the next day. It was there, on Jan. 26, 1983, where Bryant suffered a massive heart attack and died.
The Bear was gone, but the legend remains.
He received his nickname when he was a teen-ager in Arkansas, because he wrestled a bear at a traveling show. The nickname stuck with him for the rest of his life, and it was certainly fitting for a man as determined as Bryant was.
He played for the Alabama Crimson Tide from 1933-35, and went on to coach at Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A&M before arriving in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and achieving legendary status. He rebuilt the Tide program after down years and kept it at the top. His toughness was evident from the start, and he demanded respect.
"You could walk into a meeting room, and you could hear yourself breathe," said Jim Bunch, an All-America offensive tackle who played for the Tide from 1976-79. "You could hear your own heartbeat. Everyone had so much respect for coach Bryant."
With his 315th win in 1981 against Auburn, he broke Amos "Alonzo" Stagg's record for most career wins by a Division I-A college football coach. He wound up finishing his career with a record of 323 wins to only 87 losses and five ties in 37 years of coaching.
Because of his waning health, Bryant wasn't even supposed to coach in that last Liberty Bowl. Then, less than a month later, he was dead.
THE FUNERAL
Two days after Bryant's death, funeral services were held in downtown Tuscaloosa. Thousands of people watched the hearse carry Bryant's body all the way to Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala., where Bryant was buried. Many mourners were turned away from the services, because there was not enough space for all the people who wanted to pay their last respects.
"It was a great tribute to him with all the people there and the way they lined up," said former Georgia football coach and current Athletics Director Vince Dooley. "But it was somewhat of a circus, and I didn't like that aspect of it."
Dooley's first game as Georgia's head coach was against a Bryant-coached team. His Bulldogs lost 31-3 to the Tide.
Many former players and coaches who attended Bryant's funeral remember it fondly.
"The unique thing was that the entire street had people on each side," said Jack Rutledge, a former player and member of Bryant's coaching staff. "The patients and doctors were standing out on the balcony. Kindergarteners were lined up, checked out, sitting there with their hands crossed watching it go by. At every crossover on the interstate, there were people lined up with signs, saying, 'Goodbye, we miss you coach.' Everything was stopped all the way to Birmingham."
"There probably wasn't a funeral like that anywhere in the United States," said Clem Gryska, who coached under Bryant from 1960-82. "The church ceremony was so big that they had it on TV across the street."
It was a tribute to a man who earned respect from a monumental number of people in a monumental way.
TOUCHING OTHERS' LIVES
Bryant was always one to care for others, even if they were not involved with the Alabama athletics program. Though he touched many lives, perhaps the most memorable one to all was that of Kent Waldrep.
Waldrep was a running back for Texas Christian University when the Horned Frogs paid a visit to Legion Field in 1975. While carrying the ball, Waldrep ran into a wall of Alabama defenders and landed headfirst into the ground. He incurred extensive spinal cord damage and was paralyzed from the neck down.
Bryant visited Waldrep the next day. He called every day, dropped him notes through the mail and continued to call him after three months, when he was taken back to Dallas. Waldrep, with Bryant's inspiration, vowed to walk again.
"You have to remember one thing," Waldrep said at Bryant's funeral. "I was an athlete, and athletes are driven by motivation and inspiration. And you have to remember that I wasn't that good of a player, and our team didn't have that good of a record. Yet here was the greatest coach ever calling and asking about me. And they weren't just quick calls either. Some would last 30 minutes or more."
Waldrep eventually became president of the American Paralysis Association. He has not been able to walk yet, but technological advances have made him able to have children. He and his family live in Plano, Texas, and have dedicated their lives to create a brighter future for hundreds of thousands around the globe who are affected by paralysis from spinal cord injury.
"Coach Bryant was always positive when he was in the room with [Waldrep]," Rutledge said. "But his mother and daddy told [Waldrep] later that when [Bryant] would come out of the room, he'd have tears in his eyes talking to his mama and daddy. Kent said that coach Bryant and the University of Alabama did more for him than his own school did."
Another name that comes to mind is former Tide quarterback Pat Trammell, who was the starting quarterback on the 1961 national championship team, Bryant's first at Alabama. Trammell went on to medical school, became a doctor and married his college sweetheart. Then his life came crashing down, as he was diagnosed with lymphoid cancer.
"Coach Bryant flew to New York with him to get another opinion," Gryska said. "It's safe in saying that he was one of coach Bryant's favorite players."
Trammell died a year later at the age of 28.
HE MEANT WHAT HE SAID
When Gryska was an assistant coach, one of his responsibilities on game day was to take the captains out to the field 10 minutes before kickoff for the coin toss. He'll never forget the day he didn't respond to Bryant with a "Yes, sir."
"He would say to check the wind, watch the sun, and he'd tell us whether he wanted to kick or receive," Gryska said. "He said, 'Check that damn wind.' I said 'Coach, I checked it during warm-ups. I looked at the press box and the flags were going this way.' He said, 'Don't you know that g--d--- wind can change?!' You think he didn't get my attention? He just knew how to do those kind of things."
Bryant was always harder on his coaches than his players. If he had a problem with how coaches did something in practice, he wouldn't tell them on the field. He'd give them their awakening in the coaches' meeting.
"I was in meetings for a year as a graduate assistant," Bunch said. "I told him what I thought, but evidently I didn't have my facts lined up straight. He blasted me for 10 minutes in front of everyone. You always had to have your facts straight."
TRIBUTES VIA MOTION PICTURES
Not long after Bryant died, the movie "The Bear" was produced and released in 1984. The movie starred Gary Busey, and while many people agreed that it was a factual movie, many also did not think Busey was the right man to portray Bryant. Many said Busey's demeanor just did not compare to that of Bryant.
"When I heard Gary Busey was going to play the role of Bryant, I decided there was no way I was going to see it," said Charles Land, sports editor of The Tuscaloosa News from 1955-70. "There's no way he could do him justice."
Last year, ESPN produced "The Junction Boys," a movie based on the book by Jim Dent about a preseason camp in Junction, Texas, where Bryant took his Texas A&M Aggies in his first season as head coach. The movie, starring Tom Berenger, drew criticism from many close to Bryant, saying that it didn't convey Bryant's personality at all.
"I didn't appreciate it," said Rich Wingo, a linebacker for the Tide from 1976-78. "I never saw coach Bryant act that way or use the language that guy used. Don't get me wrong; he was tough, but he wasn't barbaric."
"The glare that actor did was pretty close," Bunch said. "He wore that hat like him, too. But as far as the actual movie, I couldn't see him head-butting or kicking someone like he did."
The best among the best
What made Bryant such a great coach, according to those who played and coached for him, was the way he motivated people and made them realize that fear wasn't an excuse. Time and time again, he knew how to bring the best out of people, no matter what their skill level was.
"The neatest thing about coach Bryant is that fear would not work anymore," Wingo said. "He was able to do things, because he was smart enough to motivate them while striking fear."
Bunch remembered a game during his junior season against Florida when he wasn't supposed to play due to an ankle injury. Before the game, Bryant approached him and asked him how he was doing. Bunch, who thought he was inquiring about his general health, said, "I'm great, coach."
"Before the game coach Bryant said the starting lineup," Bunch said. "He said, 'Bunch at right tackle.' I wasn't even supposed to play. All of a sudden, that pain in my right ankle disappeared. The adrenaline rush of knowing that I was going to play ... it was probably the best game of my junior year."
What also made him good was the fear he struck into other teams. Some opponents were in awe of him so much that they lost sight of the game itself and, in turn, lost the game.
"We played somebody one game," Bunch said. "He [Bryant] would always lean on the goal post [before the game]. Evidently, the lead guy coming out of the tunnel had his eyes fixed on coach Bryant, and he fell. Then everyone else fell right after him. Coach was always good for a touchdown."
Aside from being a coach, Bryant was a friend, a confidant and a mentor. Bryant never forgot his players after they left the football realm. He may not have been their best buddy while they were on his practice field, but he made sure they knew exactly how much he cared for their lives.
"He always wanted to learn about his players," Wingo said. "Here was a 60- or 70-year-old man, a generation apart from us, and he wanted to know what was going on in our lives. He was extremely personable."
Twenty years have passed since Bryant died. Tributes to him span from naming the University's football stadium Bryant-Denny Stadium to a bronze likeness of Bryant in front of Legion Field in Birmingham.
Two other coaches, Joe Paterno of Penn State and Bobby Bowden of Florida State, have passed him in all-time wins, but no one will ever be what The Bear was.
"He was the best among the best," Dooley said. "It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. Time sure flies by."
The Bear is gone, but the legend remains.
