Wright Stuff: 25 years, yet he still looms larger than life...

25 years ago today the legendary coach Paul William 'Bear' Bryant died.

Bryant said one time, "I'd probably croak in a week if I ever quit coaching." He was off by a little bit. Just 37 days after retiring, coach Bryant died of a heart attack at the age of 69.

His funeral was fitting for a President. So many people showed up in downtown Tuscaloosa that they filled three churches. The five-mile procession rolled slowly down tenth street, past the stadium where he coached for 24 years, past Memorial Coliseum where his office was. Then on to I-59, where all traffic stopped to allow its passage. People lined the interstate from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to pay their final respects. Officials estimated nearly one million people lined the 53 mile stretch from Tuscaloosa to Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, just blocks away from Legion Field which was a home away from home for Alabama.

Homemade banners hung from overpasses, construction workers in hard hats held up messages of "Bear, We Love You and We'll Miss You." Dozens of former players along with other famous coaches mourned his death. Eight players from his last team carried the coffin to the grave site.

Bryant grew up poor as the eleventh of twelve children in Arkansas. Years of hard work had made Bryant strong and hard headed. One day, a man in a covered wagon came to Fordyce, Arkansas offering a dollar a minute to anyone who would wrestle a bear. Young Bryant jumped at the chance since it was better than picking cotton all day for 50 cents. He entered the ring and quickly charged the bear and got it into a bear hug. The bear broke free and bit Bryant on the ear. When he saw blood he quickly left the ring and the man skipped town before Bryant could collect his money. But that was when he became known as "Bear" Bryant.

One afternoon while he was in eighth grade he watched a varsity football practice. The coach walked up to him and asked if he knew how to play. Bryant explained that it was his first time seeing the game. Then the coach told him "See that man down there with the ball? You just go down there and try to kill him." Bryant knew how to do that. When the player caught the ball, Bryant ran him down and destroyed the poor safety. The following Friday he was in the starting lineup. Soon he was an all-star on the very talented team and won a state championship in 1930.

Bryant was enamored with the University of Alabama. He had heard about the Crimson Tide and coach Wallace Wade who had taken his men to three Rose Bowls. Bryant was offered a scholarship to Alabama, the only problem was he was one class short from graduating. It didn't matter, he jumped at the chance to play for the Crimson Tide. He moved to campus in 1931 and attended and graduated from Tuscaloosa High while practicing with the team. Then he enrolled soon after.

Bryant was a good football player but was overshadowed by the legendary Don Hutson, his former high school rival. He was known as "the opposite end" but earned a reputation as a tough player. During a game against Tennessee in 1935, Bryant would reaffirm this reputation by playing with a broken leg. He had the game of his career and an Atlanta new paper requested and received an x-ray to prove his leg was broken.

While as a player at Alabama, he did not win a National Championship but in 1933 and 1934 Alabama captured the first two SEC championships.

Head Coach Frank Thomas hired him as an assistant coach when his playing days ended. Bryant was 23 years old. He married his college sweetheart Mary Harmon and they would have two children. After four years as an assistant coach, Bryant took a job at Vanderbilt and earned the reputation as a demanding coach and strict disciplinarian.

After the 1941 season, Bryant was invited to be interviewed for the head coaching job at Arkansas. The job was his at 28 years old. But Bryant was driving home and was proud. But the day was December 7, 1941 and he overheard on the radio that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day he became Leuteniant Commander Bryant in the US Navy.

After four years in the Navy, he came home and eventually became head coach at Maryland. Bryant got into a dispute with the president at Maryland after he fired one of his assistants without telling him and reinstated a player that had been kicked off the team. He quit and took the coaching job at Kentucky.

Quickly Kentucky turned into winners going 7-3 in his first season. He led them to their only SEC title in 1950 with an 11-1 record after an upset over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and snapping their 31 game winning streak. In 8 years at Kentucky he took them to four bowl games. However, Kentucky was a basketball school led by Adolph Rupp and football was rivaling basketball in popularity. Rupp wanted basketball to be number one and Bryant wanted football to be number one. During a Kentucky sports banquet, after both teams won the conference championship, the university presented Rupp with a brand new Cadillac and presented Bryant with a brand new cigarette lighter. He knew it was time to move on.

So, in 1954 he moved west to Texas A&M. He thought he had the formula for success and wanted to test it out at another school. He inherited an aweful program with few good players. Texas A&M was a tough places to lure players to. No girls, no glamor, military uniforms and at first glance it looked like a penitentiary instead of a college campus.

Bryant knew that he had to instill dicipline and toughness in order for them to compete. So one day during summer practice he loaded up the unsuspecting Aggies into two buses and headed to Junction, Texas. This practice is arguably the toughest training camp in football history. He started with 48 players and came back with 29. Gene Stallings, one of the Junction Boys was quoted saying, "We left in two buses and came back in one, and that one was half full." He put them through hell to build character and to make them realize that things were going to be done his way. While that team had heart and determination they finished the season 1-9, Bryant's only losing record as a head coach. The next season Texas A&M won the Southwest Conference Championship.

During this time the once proud Alabama football program had fallen on tough times, winning only 4 games in the previous 3 years. They fired coach Ears Whitworth after losing 40-0 to Auburn. A press conference was held in Houston, Texas and Paul "Bear" Bryant was announced as the new head coach at Alabama. He called a meeting beforehand with his A&M players and said simply "Gentlemen, I've heard Mama calling and now I'm going home." Crimson Tide football was about to enjoy an era that may never be matched again in the history of college football.

Alabama players had heard how tough he was and how things were going to change. It wasn't long before they saw it first hand. Bryant called a meeting for the afternoon and were warned not to be late. One of Alabama's best players showed up late and was locked out. After a few minutes of him pounding on the door, coach Bryant turned to his assistant and said, "Go see who that is. And tell him, whoever it is, that we don't need him." Then he spoke to the players saying this.

"I'm not worried about whether I'm going to win or lose. I know I'm going to win. I know that. And I'm not worried about my assistant coaches. I know they're winners. And I'm not worried about whether Alabama is going to win. I know that. The only thing I don't know is how many of you in this room are winners, and how many of you will be with us."

While recruiting his first class of players he told his freshmen that if they followed his rules and played the way he demanded, they would win the National Championship before they graduated.

He instantly turned the program around with a 5-4-1 season, which was more wins that in the previous 36 games. His second year they went 7-2-2 and earned a trip to the Liberty Bowl. Then in 1961 he went 11-0 and won the National Championship after beating Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. His promise to his freshmen proved accurate. It was Alabama's sixth National Championship and Bryant's first.

Then a young quarterback from Pennsylvania was impressed by Bryant's reputation and decided to sign with the Crimson Tide in 1962. He was Joe Namath. He threw three TD's in his first game beating Georgia 35-0. Alabama won the National Championship in 1964 with Namath and repeated in 1965 with Steve Sloan as quarterback. Kenny Stabler then succeded Sloan in 1966, but the undefeated Crimson Tide lost the National Championship to Notre Dame team with an inferior record. If you want to read about this story, look for the book "The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize."

Alabama would field good teams through the 60's going 90-16-4. But a 6-5 season in 1969 was the only disappointment. Alabama was named team of the decade and Bryant coach of the decade.

Another disappointing season in 1970 going 6-5-1 had critics and fans wondering if Bryant's magical touch had aged too much. Bryant himself had wondered if the college game had passed him by. He considered retirement and even offers from the NFL. He knew he had to do something different.

The 1971 season would be a turning point for Alabama. First, Bryant was credited with helping to stimulate the integration of southern college football by recruiting Alabama's first black player. Secondly, Bryant would engineer an offensive change from the pro-attack to the wishbone and setting us the dominance of the 70s.

While the University of Alabama and other southern schools had an integrated student body for years, no SEC school had a black athlete on their team. Bryant was by no means a racist but simply did not pay much attention to the issue of integration, mainly because he continued to win with his formula. His formula needed some adjusting.

Bryant saw good black players moving out of state, then coming back and beating his teams. He knew this was an unfair advantage and the trend had to change. Within a year all of the other SEC schools had black athletes on their roster.

Leading up to the '71 season he secretly worked on the new offense. Even putting up tarps to hide it from the public and the press. When they did invite the press to watch some practice they would show the old pro-attack offense until they left. Alabama surprised the heavily favored USC Trojans and won 17-10.

The wishbone triggered Bryant's dominance of the 70s where he won three more National Championships in 73, 78 and 79 and won 8 SEC championships. Alabama finished the decade with an incredible 103-16-1 record. Considering 1970 was 6-5.

On November 28, 1981 when Alabama rallied with 2 touchdowns in a 28-17 win over Auburn, Bryant surpassed Amos Alonzo Stagg's record of 314 wins.

The Liberty Bowl was a fitting place to end his career. It was his first bowl game as the head coach at Alabama and the last. After a disappointing season in 1982 he announced that he was retiring at seasons end because he wasn't pleased with himself anymore.

"This is my school, my alma mater. I love it and I love my players. But in my opinion they deserved better coaching than they have been getting from me this year."

That last game was a win over Illinois 21-15. A fitting end for the legend. It capped off 323 career wins, at that time the winning coach in college football history.

Paul "Bear" Bryant concluded his Tide career with a 232-46-9 record with an 82.4 winning percentage, six national championships, 25 winning seasons, 24 bowl game selections, national coach of the year 3 times, SEC coach of the year 10 times, and broke Stagg's record of 314 victories. He was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Bryant was more than a coach, he was a motivator. He knew people and he knew how to get them to play above their expectations. William Poling said, "Coach Bryant knew more about you than you knew about yourself, he knew when to give you hell, and he knew when to pat you on the back." Florida A&M coach, Jake Gaither said of Coach Bryant, "He can take his'n' and beat you'rn', and he can take you'rn' and beat his'n'." Former Kentucky player, George Blanda often stated, "This must be what God looks like. He'd walk into the room and you wanted to stand up and applaud."

The lives that he touched were probably the most telling witness to his greatness. He understood that there were more to a player than a strong arm or fast legs. Building character was essential to the building of a winning team. His intentions over the years were to help the players to be better persons every day, to help themselves, to teach a lesson on and off the field.

Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. The name es an inspiration in itself, conjuring images of a man in a hounds tooth hat standing by the goal post, coaching his team to yet another victory. Years of experience were etched in his gentle face, but behind the grand fatherly exterior lay what could 'be described as the right stuff, the stuff that created a legend.

They feared him as a coach but were the best of friends after graduating. He knew what his former players were doing and would be the first to call them to congratulate them, or the first to call to console them.