Bear Bryant

He married Mary Harmon in 1935 and had two children with her.

He died of a heart attack in 1983 within weeks of his retirement.

The Paul W. Bryant Museum was opened in the campus of the University of Alabama in 1988 in his honor.

Bryant was the son of Wilson Monroe, a farmer, and Ida Kilgore. He had 11 siblings of whom three died in their infancy.

He acquired the nickname ‘Bear’ after he agreed to wrestle a captive bear at a carnival when he was 13.

He attended Fordyce High School where he started playing on the school’s football team as an eighth grader.

He helped his team win the 1930 Arkansas state football championship during his senior season and earned a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama in 1931.

Since he had left Fordyce High School before graduating, he enrolled at a Tuscaloosa high school to finish his education.

He became a coach at the Union University in Jackson after his graduation in 1936.

He was offered the position of an assistant coach under Frank Thomas at the University of Alabama. He held this post for four years till 1940.

During the World War II he joined the United States Navy. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was discharged from the Navy in 1944.

In 1945, Bryant became the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins. In his first season he led the team to a 6-2-1 record. However, he quit after a single season over a dispute with the president of the school.

He was appointed the football coach at the University of Kentucky in 1946. He coached the team for eight seasons during which he led them to victories in the Southern Conference (1950) and Sugar Bowl (1950).

Bryant was Alabama’s head football coach for 25 years during which he led them to win six national titles. His all-time record as a coach was 323-85-17. He had 37 winning seasons out of his 38 seasons as a head coach.