Bear Bryant story for us old guys:

Who?

Great story. I started watching ball about the time Bama unveiled the wishbone and the 70s were awesome. I remember back then you didn’t have the coverage you have now and the old sky writers tour would come to town and Bryant would always be the same. I don’t know who we can beat, I don’t know how we can score, we won’t be able to stop anybody only to see them dominate everyone. Bear was one of a kind and to me, still the greatest.

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Good stuff. Have read many stories like that one about Coach. That's why even with Saban winning as much as he has, us older folks will always think Bryant was the best.

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I took leave, to attend with my Dad, The Bear's last game in Memphis.

So glad that I did.

Roughly a month later I was on a mountain having just jumped into California, the Mohave not far from Marsh, preparing to invade Iran ... when my RTO (PRC 77) came to me and said he had just picked up a TV broadcast out of San Diego saying The Bear had died.

The Bear recruited my Dad to both Kentucky and A&M (complicated story). My Dad kept both of those letters framed, as well as The Commercial Appeal article, on the wall in his office until he died last year.

Yet he ended up being such good friends with Frank Broyles (and almost went to Ga Tech, where he met my beauty queen Mother on a visit) ... anyways ... I have heard some great Bear stories in my lifetime and NONE of them, ZERO, matched the commie hollywood Forest Gump portrayal betrayal.

He was as close as the length of your ying yang..Priceless !!

Thanks for posting. Bear was a true Southern Gentleman.

great story. saban may have the most NC's, but Bryant is still the best ever!

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Good stuff. Have read many stories like that one about Coach. That's why even with Saban winning as much as he has, us older folks will always think Bryant was the best.

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He truly was nothing but a winner. Even at Kentucky and TAMU, when it came to football, he could squeeze water out of the Sahara. Coach Bryant was the right guy to get Alabama through the Wild '60s and bring the Tide through integration. No easy task with the likes of George Wallace and company.

Through it all he won and he won with just white players and he destroyed college football when he could finally recruit the best players in the state. You don't replace coach Bryant at ALABAMA with just wins.

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You don't replace coach Bryant at ALABAMA with just wins.

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Saban has said privately this is the main reason he wishes he had stayed at LSU. He could have been Bryant here but y’all already have one.

He’s not worried about it per se he’s openly said if he could do it again he would have stayed at LSU and that’s part of the reason why. It doesn’t change anything so not sure why you’d be triggered by that

Wonderful anecdote about Coach Bryant, but I'd also like to draw attention to how well this is actually put together.

I miss the days of true beat writers and don't think we'll ever get back there, which is a shame, especially for the younger generations of fans who never got to hear these long-form stories about the (very) real people we love to follow from a distance.

The Sunday musings of Cecil Hurt and Clyde Bolton have given way to shock-jocks and sound clips.

But that right there is a beautifully written piece.