The Last Coach A Life Of Paul Bear Bryant

Author : Allen Barra
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 608 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2006-09-17
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780393254570

Get Book

The Last Coach: A Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant by Allen Barra Pdf

The explosive biography of the greatest college football coach in history. When Paul William "Bear" Bryant died on January 26, 1983, it was the lead story on the all three networks' evening news. New York City newspapers reported his death on their front pages. Three days later, America watched in awe as an estimated quarter of a million mourners lined the fifty-five mile stretch from Tuscaloosa to a Birmingham cemetery to pay their respects as his three-mile long funeral cortege drove by. Bryant's passing was noted with the kind of reverence our country reserved for statesmen or military leaders, though Paul "Bear" Bryant had insisted for much of his life that he was "just a football coach." For millions he was much more, he was the greatest coach the game ever saw, the heir to the tradition established by Knute Rockne. He took his Alabama Crimson Tide teams to an unmatched six national championships. But to the players, journalists and fans whose lives he touched in his more than half a century as a player and coach, he was the last symbol of values that transcended football—courage, discipline, loyalty, and hard work. To his critics, Bryant represented the dark side of big-time college football—brutality, fanaticism and blind adherence to authority. The real Bear Bryant was far more complex than either his admirers or detractors knew. While maintaining a public friendship with Alabama governor George Wallace, he continually sought ways to undermine the governor's segregationist policies, finally forcing a legendary football game in Birmingham with the University of Southern California that opened the floodgates to the integration of football at the University of Alabama, including its coaching staff. Old fashioned in his politics, he was nonetheless an admirer of Robert Kennedy, whom he planning to vote for in 1968. Allen Barra's The Last Coach traces Paul Bryant's rise from a family of truck farmers to recognition as the most successful and influential coach in the game's history. Through it all, Bryant's influence has not only endured but prevailed as his former players and assistants continue to define the best in not only college but professional football. A USA Today and Washington Post Best Sports Book.

Author : Keith Dunnavant
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781501195440

Get Book

Coach by Keith Dunnavant Pdf

The definitive portrait of Paul “Bear” Bryant, the most successful college football coach in history. Just five weeks after coaching his final football game for the University of Alabama, Paul “Bear” Bryant passed away. The impact he had on the state of Alabama and the entire college football world cannot be overstated. For twenty-five years as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, and thirteen years before that at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M, Bear Bryant’s outsized personality and deep charisma made him the dominant figure in the world of college football, turning boys with ordinary talent but extraordinary heart into winners—both on the gridiron and off. At Alabama, Bear Bryant would go on to become the winningest coach of all time, achieving the best record in the country in both the 60s and 70s. He is the only coach to win national championships with both segregated teams and integrated ones. His secret lay not in any strategic brilliance he brought to the game, but in his gift for molding individual talents into a cohesive unit that could achieve far more than the sum of its parts would suggest. That ability made him a great coach, but to many, Bryant represented more than just a coach: He was everything a southern gentleman was supposed to be—tough, principled, charismatic, modest in victory yet quick to assume blame in defeat, and as mindful of where he’d come from as where he was going. Coach is not only about the man and his tremendous ability to succeed, it’s also a tribute to the South and the legacy Coach Bryant left behind. In a divisive era, Bryant gave Alabamians something to be proud of. And, he was simply the greatest football coach of all times.

Author : Paul W. Bryant,John Underwood
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1975
Category : Football
ISBN : 0316113255

Get Book

Bear by Paul W. Bryant,John Underwood Pdf

Author : Don Keith
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
Page : 151 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2006-08-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781620451588

Get Book

The Bear by Don Keith Pdf

Many biographies have been written about the larger-than-life college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant as well as an autobiography containing the coaches own memories. Other works have focused on an aspect of Bryant's career, his coaching methods, or his philosophy. The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant stands alone among them all. Based on a screenplay by the late sportswriter and columnist Al Browning, it showcases many of the most memorable moments of Bryant's life—many of them told by the coach himself—as stories filled with the immediacy and drama that go with a good story told well. The relationship Bryant and Browning shared went beyond that of coach and journalist. They were close friends, giving Browning a unique view of the man that few people had ever seen, especially in Bryant's final years before his retirement and death a short while later. Some of the stories in this book have been heard before, but without the rich background and detail conveyed here. As such, the book validates many of them while clarifying others and occasionally correcting some inaccuracies. "I just have a taken for finding the heart of a football team," Bryant once explained, and it was certainly true. It is equally true that All Browning found the heart of Bryant, and The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant has captured the essence of the man from Fordyce, Arkansas, for whom winning was no just the most important thing. It was the only thing.

Author : Randy Roberts,Ed Krzemienski
Publisher : Twelve
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2013-08-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781455526345

Get Book

Rising Tide by Randy Roberts,Ed Krzemienski Pdf

The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime. During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath-two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports-changed the game of college football forever. Brilliantly and urgently drawn, this is the gripping account of how these two very different men-Bryant a legendary coach in the South who was facing a pair of ethics scandals that threatened his career, and Namath a cocky Northerner from a steel mill town in Pennsylvania-led the Crimson Tide to a national championship. To Bryant and Namath, the game was everything. But no one could ignore the changes sweeping the nation between 1961 and 1965-from the Freedom Rides to the integration of colleges across the South and the assassination of President Kennedy. Against this explosive backdrop, Bryant and Namath changed the meaning of football. Their final contest together, the 1965 Orange Bowl, was the first football game broadcast nationally, in color, during prime time, signaling a new era for the sport and the nation. Award-winning biographer Randy Roberts and sports historian Ed Krzemienski showcase the moment when two thoroughly American traditions-football and Dixie-collided. A compelling story of race and politics, honor and the will to win, RISING TIDE captures a singular time in America. More than a history of college football, this is the story of the struggle and triumph of a nation in transition and the legacy of two of the greatest heroes the sport has ever seen.

Author : Al Browning
Publisher : Cumberland House Publishing
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 158182159X

Get Book

I Remember Paul "Bear" Bryant by Al Browning Pdf

Paul Bear"" Bryant was arguably the greatest football coach in the history of college football. Beloved by fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, by the time he retired from coaching following the 1982 season, his teams had won 323 games, a feat unmatched by any coach in college football history. Before arriving in Tuscaloosa, he had coached at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M; his teams at Alabama won six national championships and thirteen Southeastern Conference titles. On July 17, 1981, Coach Bryant sat in his office at Memorial Coliseum reminiscing with sports columnist Al Browning of the Tuscaloosa News. Contemplating the twilight of his career, he calmly said, ""They'll forget me as soon as I croak and am buried"". When Browning objected, Coach smiled slightly and said, ""No, that's the way it is. Life moves on, and people find interest in other things"". While Bryant's memory may have faded slightly, he certainly has not been forgotten, and I Remember Paul ""Bear"" Bryant is a glowing testimony to the love that those who knew him best continue to have for him to this day. Here dozens of his contemporaries, former players, childhood friends, family, competitors, opponents, and his ""boys"" offer in their own words their favorite memories of this man they loved so much. They recall ordinary moments as well as extraordinary ones; they recall moments of joyful victory and bitter defeat; they recall memories of the gridiron discipline he dished out and the thoughtful, helpful guidance he offered to his players, even long after they had graduated and gone on to their own careers. While Bryant has moved on from this life, he has not been forgotten, and the personal memories included in IRemember Paul ""Bear"" Bryant proves it beyond doubt. ""

Author : Don Keith
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
Page : 151 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2006-08-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781620451588

Get Book

The Bear by Don Keith Pdf

Many biographies have been written about the larger-than-life college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant as well as an autobiography containing the coaches own memories. Other works have focused on an aspect of Bryant's career, his coaching methods, or his philosophy. The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant stands alone among them all. Based on a screenplay by the late sportswriter and columnist Al Browning, it showcases many of the most memorable moments of Bryant's life—many of them told by the coach himself—as stories filled with the immediacy and drama that go with a good story told well. The relationship Bryant and Browning shared went beyond that of coach and journalist. They were close friends, giving Browning a unique view of the man that few people had ever seen, especially in Bryant's final years before his retirement and death a short while later. Some of the stories in this book have been heard before, but without the rich background and detail conveyed here. As such, the book validates many of them while clarifying others and occasionally correcting some inaccuracies. "I just have a taken for finding the heart of a football team," Bryant once explained, and it was certainly true. It is equally true that All Browning found the heart of Bryant, and The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant has captured the essence of the man from Fordyce, Arkansas, for whom winning was no just the most important thing. It was the only thing.

Author : Paul "Bear." Bryant,John Underwood
Publisher : Triumph Books
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2007-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781617499166

Get Book

Bear by Paul "Bear." Bryant,John Underwood Pdf

A reissue of Paul "Bear" Bryant's autobiography, this edition features a completely new introduction and an accompanying audio CD of Bryant himself, in his own voice, talking about his life and football. It's all here, in his own inimitable words and with a candor that is both remarkable and eminently revealing. From his hardscrabble youth as the third youngest of 13 children of a dirt-poor farmer in Moro Bottom, Arkansas, to his playing days at the University of Alabama and fortuitous marriage to the remarkable Mary Harmon Black, to his first stabs at coaching as an assistant coach, to his 38 years as a head coach, coaching marquis names like Namath and Crow and Parilli, to his 323 victories and a record six National Championships.

Author : Birmingham Alabama News Staff
Publisher : R. J. Berg Company
Page : 118 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1983-12
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0897301110

Get Book

Remembering Bear by Birmingham Alabama News Staff Pdf

A series of news articles written by Birmingham News sports writers at the death of Bear Bryant. Bear Bryant coached his teams from Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A & M, and Alabama to the greatest coaching record of all times.

Author : Jim Dent
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2000-09-09
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781429972840

Get Book

The Junction Boys by Jim Dent Pdf

The Junction Boy is now a television movie produced by ESPN, starring Tom Berenger as Bryant. The legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant is recognized nationwide as one of the greatest coaches ever. So why did he always cite his 1-9 A&M team of 1954 as his favorite? This is the story of a remarkable team - and the beginning of the legend. The Junction Boys tells the story of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's legendary training camp in the small town of Junction, Texas. In a move that many consider the salvation of the Texas A&M football program, Coach Bryant put 115 players through the most grueling practices ever imagined. Only a handful of players survived the entire 10 days, but they braved the intense heat of the Texas sun and the burning passion of their coach, and turned a floundering team into one of the nation's best. The Junction Boys is more than just a story of tough practices without water breaks. An extraordinary fellowship was forged from the mind-numbing pain. The thirty-five survivors bonded together like no other team in America. They profited from the Junction experience; the knowledge they took back with them to College Station, about themselves and what they were capable of, would be used for the rest of their lives. In vivid and powerful images reminiscent of Friday Night Lights, Hoosiers, and The Last Picture Show, these young men and their driven coach come to life. The Junction Boys contains all the hallmarks of a classic sports story, and it combines America's love of college football with an extraordinary story of perseverance and triumph.

Author : Lars Anderson
Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-09-03
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781538716496

Get Book

Chasing the Bear by Lars Anderson Pdf

A dual biography of two coaching legends -- Bear Bryant and Nick Saban -- who built the Alabama Crimson Tide into a true football dynasty. Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships -- six apiece -- than anyone else in the history of the game. Chasing the Bear examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports. Bear Bryant and Nick Saban never met, but they have more in common than either of them realize. Both grew up in small towns -- Bryant in Moro Bottom, Arkansas, a dot on the map, and Saban from Monongah, West Virginia, population five hundred. As a child, Saban pumped gas at his father's service station, washing and waxing cars and doing anything he could to help the business. Bryant's father suffered from multiple physical ailments, which forced Bryant to work to keep the family farm going. Both men knew the value of hard work from the time they were young boys, and both understood that there were no shortcuts to success. But both dreamed of escaping their hometowns, and both used football as the means to do so. Separated by two generations, Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are mythic figures linked by a school, a town, and a barroom debate centering on one question: Which is the greatest college coach of all time?

Author : Eli Gold
Publisher : Thomas Nelson Inc
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2010-02-22
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781418574178

Get Book

Bear's Boys by Eli Gold Pdf

Bear's Boys is a collection of inspiring stories featuring 36 men whose lives were altered by their encounter with the legendary coach while they were players and coaches at Alabama. The stories of star players such as Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Marty Lyons, Bob Baumhower, Ozzie Newsome, and Gene Stallings show how the Coach forever changed them as young men and ball players on the field and later in life after football. When Bob Baumhower was released from the Dolphins in 1986, he immediately did what Coach Bryant would have done: he made a plan. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he snapped into practical mode. First, he sold his boat and his big house. Then, he systematically began exploring business opportunities and setting goals for the next several decades of his life. When he started his first restaurant, he knew he had yet another chance to apply the principles he learned on the football field in real life. "Coach Bryant said there's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success," Baumhower said. "That's true in the restaurant business. . . . Today, every success I have, every win that I have, in my opinion, came from the fact that Coach Bryant cared enough to talk to me and turn the light on for me Includes stories for such men as Bob Baumhower Jeremiah Castille Paul Crane Sylvester Croom John Hannah Dennis Homan Scott Hunter Lee Roy Jordan E. J. Junior Woodrow Lowe Gaylon McCollough Don McNeal Mal Moore Joe Namath Billy Neighbors Ozzie Newsome Ray Perkins Gary Rutledge Howard Schnellenberger Ken Stabler Gene Stallings Dwight Stephenson Richard Todd Pat Trammell Tommy Wilcox

Author : Paul W. Bryant,Creed King,Heidi Tyline King
Publisher : Taylor Trade Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Football
ISBN : 096687742X

Get Book

I Ain't Never Been Nothing But a Winner by Paul W. Bryant,Creed King,Heidi Tyline King Pdf

I Ain't Never Been Nothing But A Winner features legendary college football coach Paul Bear Bryant's 323 greatest quotes about success, on and off the football field. Quotes are as fresh and colorful for football fans as they are motivational for business-types.

Author : Pat Williams,Tommy Ford
Publisher : Advantage Media Group
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2010-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781599322100

Get Book

Bear Bryant on Leadership by Pat Williams,Tommy Ford Pdf

Paul Bear Bryant, the legendary Head Football Coach at the University of Alabama from 1958-1982 continues to inspire athletes and fans. Books have been written about Bryant for the last 30 years examining this coaching legend, but never has he been examined under the microscope of leadership.Leadership expert Pat Williams has teamed up with University of Alabama athletics executive Tommy Ford to bring to light what made Coach Bryant so successful and how you can incorporate his leadership principles into your own life.Williams and Ford have interviewed over 200 former players, coaches and members of the media that knew Bryant well. The book uncovers never before revealed leadership insights from Bryants leadership and coaching genius. This 200 page book is packed with riveting stories and illustrations that will appeal to leaders at all levels of society.Football fans will love it and individuals with any leadership role will benefit immeasurably.

Author : Barry Krauss,Joe M. Moore
Publisher : University of Alabama Press
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2016-09-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780817358648

Get Book

Ain't Nothin' But a Winner by Barry Krauss,Joe M. Moore Pdf

A rollicking memoir from the linebacker at the heart of the most famous Alabama football play of all time No university has won more football championships than Alabama, and Barry Krauss played a key role in one of them. The linebacker’s fourth down stop of Penn State’s Mike Guman in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1979, was recently named by ESPN as one of the ten most important plays of the 20th century. The Goal Line Stand, as the play became known, immortalized Krauss among legions of fans. More than twenty-five years later, people still tell him exactly what they were doing and how they felt when he collided in mid-air with Guman that New Year’s Day—and almost never mention his twelve-year career in the NFL. In this entertaining and well-illustrated memoir, Krauss tells of scrimmaging on front lawns with friends as a kid in Pompano Beach, Florida, and of his childhood dream to play for Don Shula. He acknowledges how Coach Bear Bryant tamed his free spirit and shaped him into the football player—and the man—he became. In addition, he emphasizes the importance of team, weaving together the personal stories of his Alabama teammates on the field during the Goal Line Stand, and acknowledges their significant roles in winning the game and the championship. Ain’t Nothin’ But a Winner offers an insider’s look at how a team is built, tested, and becomes a national champion—and how that process sometimes calls upon an individual to rise to the challenge presented by his own personal gut check.