This year marks the 90th anniversary of one of the great performances in SEC history...

Everyone remembers Paul "Bear" Bryant mainly for his exploits as a collegiate head coach. However, what people forget is that he was also an all-conference collegiate athlete. Playing for Alabama from 1933-1935, Bryant would finish out his final year as a player by being named a Third Team All-American and 1st Team All-SEC as an End. That season he became famous throughout the southeast by playing against Tennessee on a broken leg.

He broke his fibula in the first half of a 20-7 loss to Mississippi State the week prior. Despite the pain, he returned to the game in the fourth quarter with his leg heavily bandaged. X-rays taken of his leg after the game confirmed the broken bone and Bryant was put in a cast. The night before the Tennessee game, however, the team doctor cut the cast off of Bryant's leg and told him that he could dress out (not play) for the game if he wanted to.

The next day, while dressed out, Bryant listened to head coach Frank Thomas and assistant coach Hank Crisp exhort the team with a pre-game pep talk. During this talk, Crisp reportedly said of Bryant the following: "I’ll tell you gentlemen one thing, I don’t know about the rest of you, you or you or you, I don’t know what you’re going to do. But I know one damn thing. Old 34 will be after ’em, he’ll be after their asses.”

Bryant then looked down at his jersey and noticed that he was wearing the number 34 (the numbers worn by players changed from week to week under Thomas). Bryant, who had no plans to actually play in the game, felt like he had been directly called out. So when the teams started lining up for the opening kickoff and Frank Thomas asked Bryant if he was going to play, Bryant said yes.

Despite playing on a broken leg, Bryant recorded the best game of his career. He caught four passes for 87 yards and recorded multiple tackles while playing on defense. Atlanta Constitution sports editor Ralph McGill was skeptical of the fact that Bryant had played with a fractured fibula. He demanded to be shown the x-rays and was surprised to see that indeed Bryant had a cracked bone in his leg.

As McGill wrote after the game: “It was no press agent’s dream, no doctor’s error. I saw the X-rays. And I saw Bear Bryant’s leg still almost twice its size Tuesday. As far as this season is concerned, Paul Bryant is in first place in the courage league. When you have a top for this story let me know.”