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Bear Bryant Is Born
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Bear Bryant's Life
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Bear Gets His Nickname
His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old. -
Bear Bryant Win
He attended Fordyce High School in Fordyce, Arkansas, where 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall Bryant, who as an adult would eventually stand 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), began playing on the school's football team as an eighth grader. During his senior season, the team, with Bryant playing offensive line and defensive end, won the 1930 Arkansas state football championship. -
Scholarship to Universty of Alabama
Bryant accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama in 1931. Since he elected to leave high school before completing his diploma, Bryant had to enroll in a Tuscaloosa high school to finish his education during the fall semester while he practiced with the college team. -
1934 - Crimson Tide
Bryant played end for the Crimson Tide and was a participant on the school's 1934 National Championship team. Bryant was the self-described "other end" during his playing years with the team, playing opposite the big star, Don Hutson, who later became an NFL Hall-of-Famer. Bryant himself was second team All-SEC in 1934, and was third team all conference in both 1933 and 1935. -
Selected
Third team all conference in both 1933 and 1935. Bryant played with a partially-broken leg in a 1935 game against Tennessee. Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon.
Bryant was selected in the fourth round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1936 NFL Draft, but never played professionally. -
Records
Over the next four years, the team compiled a 29–5–3 record. -
- 1941
1940, he left Alabama to become an assistant at Vanderbilt University under Henry Russell Sanders. After the 1941 season, Bryant was offered the head coaching job at the University of Arkansas. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Bryant joined the United States Navy. He served off North Africa, seeing no combat action. However, his ship, the civilian merchantman SS Uruguay was rammed by another ship and ordered to be abandoned. Bryant disobeyed the order, saving the lives of his men -
Bear Bryant Passes Away
