Sometimes his mind is clear as a crystal. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. City Editor Ken Roberts contributed to this report. You can reach up and feel it. That's just Alabama.". Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). "Oh, it goes so much deeper than that," Hilburn said, rolling her eyes and grinning. He said he had to rest. Bushwood Country Club. "Right there with the hat on, in the middle. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr.), Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's widow, Mary Harmon Bryant is helped out of the car at graveside in Birmingham, Ala., Jan. 28, 1983. Roll Tide!" "I'm not sure I've enjoyed all of it. Bryant established two dozen operating companies and over 50 real estate ventures and syndicates. Bryant entered Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa on January 25, 1983, after feeling chest discomfort. Billy picked him up in the morning. He smiles and clacks his cane. It follows the changing urban landscape of Lexington, the agricultural, tobacco and horse racing industries, key national events such as World War II and Vietnam, as well as notable regional and national figures. "It was so quiet. We thought we'd do that for the grandchildren and stuff, and there's some responsibility that goes with that, I guess.. The Leader was a Republican, society-based evening edition, and the Herald a more political, heavily Democratic morning edition. (AP Photo), Press Photo Mel Allen At Bear Bryant Funeral In Birmingham, Mel Allen - Birmingham - Bear Bryant Funeral. I walked in front of him. Half a dozen helicopters carrying news photographers hovered near the cemetery, which lies at the end of a black community in southwest Birmingham. We give 100 percent around here. Paul Bryant Jr.'s bank is the tie that binds UA trustees. It was a hand-me-down. "I host the family holidays here at my house in Tuscaloosa, and we have so many Pauls and Marys and Mays that I have to draw up place cards for everyone and I have to use a very sophisticated system of last initials. Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Fordyce, Arkansas. T Being unable to play football, he said, would have made it impossible for him to have the standing to coach the game. Alabama-Funeral-Woman and child mourn the death of Coach "Bear" Bryant. They put him on night traffic, and that first winter, he caught pneumonia. Billy found a phone and called ahead, telling Susie to make her good cornbread. Bryant's son, Paul Bryant Jr., remembers his father's birthday more than the anniversary of his death, but for most Alabama fans, everything changed "the day Bear Bryant died." His clarity comes and goes. "It's my daddy's middle name!" But while the younger Bryant never coached, he has used his personal fortune to support UA to the tune of millions of dollars in donations -- $20 million to the UA football program alone during his time as a trustee. A 1966 UA graduate who earned a degree in commerce, Bryant started People's Bank while still in his 20's. [2] He was also the co-founder of Alabama Reassurance Co., later known as Alabama Life Reinsurance Co., a reinsurance company. He poured a drink and chatted with guests. In 1996, 14 years after Bryant died, he retired from the University of Alabama Police Department. Business districts -- Kentucky -- Lexington. "We hear about people really almost exclusively through word of mouth," explained Ken Gaddy, director of the Paul W. Bryant Museum, located in the heart of the University of Alabama's campus. Paul Bryant Jr., at this time 38 and an established businessman with concerns in real estate, agriculture and dog racing tracks as well as a new reinsurance company, which insures insurance. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Your account has an invalid email address. It's difficult to understand if you're not from here, but when football isn't doing well it kind of hurts, the whole state is kind of in a funk. Collection is open for research by appointment only. The Chester County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) honored Sgt. I didn't do either of those. Despite his famous name, business success and longtime influential role at the University of Alabama, Paul Bryant Jr. has stayed out of the spotlight. Paul Bryant Jr., the son of the late Hall of Fame coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, has clear ties to a federal insurance-fraud case that netted a 15-year prison sentence for a Philadelphia lawyer . Even with names. You start thinking about what you could have been doing. Had he done that, one of those who answered back would have been Paul Francis Murray of Mobile. The University of Alabama System: Board of Trustees: Paul W. Bryant Jr. Greenetrack shareholder lawsuit alleges president, management misused funds, Four stockholders file suit against Greenetrack CEO and board officers. Tobacco industry -- Kentucky -- Lexington. This urge to protect, probably born from seeing the Saturday Evening Post erroneously accuse the coach of fixing a game, is also erasing something. [2] He also served as general manager of minor league baseball's Birmingham Barons. The pitch of his voice starts to drop again, wavering between the treble of here and the deep bass of gone. Sure did. His eyes get wide, bulging, like they do when he's confused. "I never did hear about him dying.". He spends a long minute staring at the remote control, trying to figure out how to turn up the volume. "He could eat pheasant under glass with the president," he said, "or he could eat cheese and crackers with the boys out by the caddie shack, and he'd enjoy it all just the same. A funeral procession three miles long, consisting of more than 300 cars and six buses carrying Bryant's last University of Alabama team and many of his former players, drove the 60 miles to Birmingham behind the white hearse after funeral services in Tuscaloosa. Or at least the part of Alabama that doesn't care about UAB football. He's been on the board for 13 years or so. To his right is the famous painting "315" that shows Bryant on the sideline as he breaks the all-time wins record, and down the wall from that is a pencil-and-ink drawing of Bryant as a young man. Billy was Bear Bryant's driver, bodyguard and valet, one of the few remaining people who knew him as a human being. He'll dress in the middle of the night and try to leave, his pajamas rolled up in his hand. "I ended up playing football.". Twenty-four? Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. By 1977, he established GreeneTrack, dog racing track located in Greene County, Alabama,[1] with A. Wayne May, a veterinarian, and Sam Phelps, a lawyer. He earned his degree in finance from The University of Alabama in 1966. You had more fun on that job. "We knew he'd been offered a lot of money to write a book or help make a movie," says Linda Knowles, Bryant's longtime secretary, "and he would have none of that. He never talked about the private things he'd seen. My dad wanted to set me on the right path as soon as I was born! [1] [2] "Then," he added, "I'll do the same with Paul.". These ties received national press attention when the board of trustees made the shocking decision to kill UAB football. Try 100. S Dr. A's weekly risers and fallers: Jeremy Sochan, Christian Wood make the list. Paul W. Bryant Jr. sat down recently for a rare interview, giving insight into his involvement with UA athletics - both real and rumored - as well as a revealing glimpse into his personality, his background and the school's growth during his time on the board of trustees. In 1937, the owner of the Leader, John G. Stoll, bought the Herald, and both daily papers were published concurrently (the Herald in the morning and the Leader in the afternoon) for the next 46 years. To his right, in the corner of the room, there's the pencil-and-ink drawing, a fresh-faced Bryant, without the deep lines in his face. I had a lot of help starting out.. XFL Week 3 preview: Can AJ McCarron, Battlehawks continue their fourth-quarter heroics? "Well, we don't hardly know the details," he said finally. But many mourners wore crimson and white, the colors of the Crimson Tide. (AP Photo). "He won't make it without coaching.". Former President Donald Trump Saturday insisted his former secretary of state was not taking a dig at him when Mike Pompeo warned conservatives against following 'celebrity leaders'. A member of the board since 2000, Bryant has said little publicly about UAB football. ", Paul 'Bear' Bryant's name persists in Alabama fans, Inside the big-money battle that could decide the ACC's future. That's the man I'll always remember.". He says he's asked. Bryant was the son of legendary college football coach Bear Bryant and his wife, Mary. Over the years, various accounts have given him different titles, but essentially, he was a fixer. The pictures seem to anchor him. [1] His father, Bear Bryant, was an American football player and coach. Bryant moved on to other business interests, keeping a close-knit group of partners in late attorney and civic leader Sam Phelps and his son, Scott, along with veterinarian Wayne May. Bryant's image. Bryant said that he never made the remarks and that the entire article was fabricated. Since then, Moore says, daughters of Joe Namath and Ken Stabler have attended Alabama on . Michael S. Serrill, John Helyar, Anthony Effinger, Paul Bryant Jr.: A legacy of his own; by Tommy Deas, tidesports.com accessed September 5, 2014, Last edited on 15 December 2022, at 18:09, Paul Bryant Jr: His famous father casts a long shadow, one seemingly comfortable to the son, Alabama Football Dominance Powered by Greyhound Fortune. But he never played football past age 12 because of a health issue -- he contracted hepatitis. She'd always ask: "When y'all coming back?". We'd go to the stadium. His first job was as general manager of the Birmingham A's of the Southern League. That led to jobs, bartending at parties and running errands, and by the late 1960s, around the same time the coach traded his brown fedora for a hat with black-and-white checks, Billy began working for Bryant full time. Bryant. Knowles began canceling the next two weeks of Coach's schedule. They have three daughters: Stella Gray Bryant Sykes, Mae Martin Bryant Murray, and Anna Laurie Bryant McKibbens, all graduates of The University of Alabama, and three grandchildren. 1983 Press Photo Alabama-Fans climb tree to watch "Bear" Bryant's funeral. We can't just have anybody who is named Paul or William or even Bryant showing up and trying to sneak into the group. The Huntsville Times, Graveside services are held in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. for Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Jan. 28, 1983. It's a deification. Bryant served as the chairman of the Civil War Trust. After an hour and a half, Bryant, looking tired and old, walked into his bedroom. Bryant has been called by critics "Little Bear" or "cub," terms which seemed aimed at diminishing him compared to his legendary father, who Bryant calls "Papa. Bear Bryant looks down from four or five different places. "There was so much going on," he says. He says something else, his voice deep, the sentences trailing off. John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald-Leader photographs, https://lhlphotoarchive.org/ark:/16417/th71m0q2fr6vl, This item is 1 of 3716 items in the series ". Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. "Yes, sir, we've got Paul and Bryant covered right there in one house.". Rutledge played for Bryant's first team and was an assistant on his last, and when he realized that he would be sharing new information, he clammed up. Sometimes it cloud up and rain.". The funeral service at the First Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa was deeply religious, with little reference to Bryant's career or character. A lot of them we've got don't hunt because they're older. There is, always, a disconnect between the few people who miss Paul and the legion who worship The Bear. A number of people wore T-shirts that said 'It Took a Giant to Replace the Bear,' referring to former New York Giants Coach Ray Perkins, whom Bryant selected to succeed him at Alabama last month. Selected for Beta Gamma Sigma, he received the Financial Executives Institute of America Award for the outstanding student in commerce and business administration as well as the Alabama Bankers Association Award for the outstanding student in banking and finance. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. I looked at him like, 'What the hell you think I'm here for?'". Arrangements by Crocker Funeral Home. Acknowledged by the National Park Service and leading conservationists as the foremost American heritage land preservation organization, the Civil War Trust is known to be the largest and most effective non-profit devoted to the preservation of Americas battlegrounds. The bird dogs are German shorthaired pointers and English pointers. Paul William Bryant Jr. was born circa 1945. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Otherwise, we'd have no idea what was what and who was where.". In 1977, Bryant opened GreeneTrack, a dog racing track in Greene County. ", As high school student Cameron Bryant Collier mingled with incoming Alabama freshman Bryant Edward Rich (as you've likely figured out, the reunion crowds skew very young), Leonard Bryant Jackson joked that he was going to yell out "Hey, Bryant!" Paul Bryant has stepped up for this project like he . Look at the UA System Trustees website and you will see the names of 15 permanent trustees, but only 14 photos. Others cried openly. George Wallace and former Washington Redskins Coach George Allen, representing President Reagan, were among the 400 dignataries, family members and friends who packed the church for the rites. In addition, he chaired the committee that hired Dr. Robert Witt, past President of The University of Alabama and retired Chancellor of The University of Alabama System. "Coach Bryant used to be the coach at Alabama," he says. Like his boss before him, Billy Varner has come to the place where he must consider what he did with his time. So why change the dog's name? I'm not much better than other people, but the timing might have been good on some things.. Paul Bryant's dedicated service and leadership have been invaluable to the board of trustees and to the University of Alabama System, Witt said. I'm not as big on killing stuff as I am finding it with the dogs. Jos haluat muokata valintojasi, napsauta Hallitse tietosuoja-asetuksia. He not only participated in the creation of this visual resource but he was also responsible for the organization and intellectual control of the collection. Several red and white banners reading 'We Love You, Bear' flapped from interstate overpasses as the motorcade rolled by. "[12] In 2001. a committee of trustees met in secret, just one day after a court barred Auburn's board of trustees from doing the same thing. He co-authored two books about American football in 2013. Bryant's inner circle, those who knew the man, is surrounded by reminders of this. They greet one another by saying "Doctor " "Doctor " "Doctor " "Doctor " in a round-robin introduction that ends up with the title being used 24 times. "I don't ever talk to him now," Billy says. He was with him almost 24 hours a day.". (File Photo/ The Huntsville TImes) The Huntsville Times, Former Alabama student Tammy Rogers at graveside service for Alabama coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. on Friday Jan. 28, 1983. "But unlike his dad who was a larger than life figure, the son is among the most private of men, largely a mystery to many, despite leading the public board of the state's largest public university, a position that creates a spotlight. I had a little head start on my friends because I didn't get put in the service when I graduated, and a lot of them did that and went on to law school and to graduate school, he said. On the wall, there's a candid shot of Paul and Billy in what looks like a living room. On the worst, Billy, who is 76, doesn't recognize Susie. S That's been scrubbed for posterity. Billy shuffles into the room wearing gray pajamas and black slippers. . She sits down and tells the story her husband can no longer tell. There are actions that tell of unseen turmoil and doubt, but Bryant is never revealed. Somebody comes up to do something to Coach Bryant, they're gonna have to get me first. Kobe . As she stands by the office exhibit, the speakers to her left loop audio of Bryant reading that devotional: "What I do today is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. I've had some different ones not work, too, Bryant said recently in a rare and revealing interview. He's following me. The young people in the photo above waited at a tombstone, while those in the photo below watched television coverage of the funeral at Tuscaloosa. They have three daughters: Stella Gray Bryant Sykes, Mae Martin Bryant Murray, and Anna Laurie Bryant McKibbens, all graduates of The University of Alabama, and three grandchildren. Bryant, who was born in Birmingham when his mother was living there with her parents while his father was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, is a 1966 graduate of UA with a degree in finance. The family of the late Kobe Bryant has agreed to a $28.5 million settlement with Los Angeles County to resolve the remaining claims in a lawsuit over deputies and firefighters sharing grisly photos of the NBA star, his 13-year-old daughter and other victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash, attorneys and court filings said Feb. 28, 2023. Billy sits in his big brown chair and looks at an oddly familiar man. When he came back, he was a regular campus policeman. Miss Mae Martin Bryant, daughter of Couch and Mrs. Paul Bryant, gives holiday tea. "That looks like him over there," Billy says. The house--a classic Tudor-style--was owned by Harmon's family. When Alabama football is winning, it's just better. According to Social Security records, since 1959 there have been 1,403 Bryants born in Alabama -- so many that it piqued the curiosity of the Bear's original namesake, Paul William "Bear" Bryant Jr. After a lifetime of hearing "I was named for your daddy," it was Junior who approached the museum that honors his father with the idea of compiling a database of those whose names do the same. The database includes around 700 names, and the museum manages to track most of their whereabouts via both old-school correspondence and newfangled social media. This was Bryant's last game as the head football coach at the University of Alabama. Coach Bryant died Wednesday. "I keep trying to call that the Indian Hills football team. "I just don't know what's going to happen to him," Varner said. He spent his youth in Lexington, Kentucky; College Station, Texas; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama the towns where his father coached. The coverage of the newspaper has grown over the years and while its focus has always been on the Lexington Metropolitan area (including 7 additional counties) it presently circulates in 78 of 120 counties throughout central andeastern Kentucky. Paul William "Bear" Bryant would have turned 100 on Wednesday, and the grandson made famous by photos of him walking off the field with the man he calls "Papa" is now 50. Alabama-They began gathering in the early morning fog at Elmwood Cemetery today. Sometimes Bryant visits. It is unknown how much, if any, of his money has gone to UAB over the years, although it is common place for many of the board's wealthier members to give substantial gifts to all three schools in the system. To Bryant's right are his daughters Stella Gray and Anna Laurie. He took a month off, trying to figure out how Coach Bryant would tell him to deal with his grief. 1983 Press Photo Alabama-Mourning fans at Paul "Bear" Bryant's funeral. Varner drove over, helped get Bryant to the hospital. We went to the dressing room. Alabama won the game against the University of Illinois at Urbana?Champaign, 21 to 15. Currently, Bryant is president of the privately held holding company, Greene Group, Inc. which has operated a multi-state business engaged in reinsurance, finance, leasing, par-mutual racing, casino management, cattle ranching, aquaculture, catfish processing and distribution, fuel distribution, outdoor recreation, wildlife management, and concrete/aggregate construction.
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