Bryant, Bear

Bear Bryant, byname of Paul William Bryant, (born September 11, 1913, Kingsland, Arkansas, U.S.—died January 26, 1983, Tuscaloosa, Alabama), American college football coach who set a record (later broken) for more games won than any other collegiate coach, with the majority of the victories coming during his tenure (1958–82) at the University of Alabama.

Bryant played tackle and was all-state at Fordyce (Arkansas) High School. He went on to the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (1932–36; B.S., 1936), where he played blocking end. During his collegiate career the team won 23 games, lost 3, and tied 2. He played on the team that beat Stanford University in the Rose Bowl game (1935).

Bryant was an assistant coach at Alabama (1936–40) and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee (1940–41). After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he began his career as a head coach in 1945 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Bryant resigned after the president reinstated an athlete Bryant had dismissed for breaking training rules. At the University of Kentucky, Lexington (1946–53), his team won 60 games, lost 23, and tied 5; won the school’s first Southeastern Conference championship; and won three of four bowl games. Bryant left Kentucky after losing a battle of wills with Adolph Rupp as to whether basketball or football should be the dominant sport.

In 1954, Bryant’s first year as a coach at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, College Station, the team lost 9 of 10 games. In the next three seasons, however, they lost only four games and won one Southwest Conference championship.

In 1958 Bryant returned to Alabama, where he spent the rest of his coaching career. In 1971 he recruited the first black player on the Alabama team, and he was credited with helping to stimulate the integration of college football at mostly white Southern universities. Alabama won six national championships (1961, 1964–65, 1973, 1978–79), and Bryant was named national coach of the year three times. Alabama played in 24 straight bowl games, including the 1982 Liberty Bowl, played on December 29, which was Bryant’s last game and final victory. In all, Bryant, who prowled the sidelines in his trademark houndstooth fedora, took Alabama to 28 bowl games. Bryant’s teams at Alabama averaged 9.28 victories a year, an average unequaled by any other college coach. Bryant’s career coaching record of 323 regular season wins, 85 losses, and 17 ties broke the long-standing record of Amos Alonzo Stagg for most games won by a college coach. The record of 323 wins stood until it was broken by Eddie Robinson in 1985. Notable among Bryant’s players were the future professional quarterbacks George Blanda, Joe Namath, and Ken Stabler.