Currently browsing: Paul William “Bear” Bryant

Can I get a Roll Tide Roll?

Football season starts tomorrow. This is absolutely one of my favorite times of year. I’m ready. Are YOU ready, Bama fans?

This just in …

FORECAST ****SEVERE STORM WARNING**** THE CRIMSON TIDE IS ESTIMATED TO HIT LAND IN (3) DAYS … PICKING UP WIND DAILY, EXPECTED TO BE A CATEGORY 5 CATASTROPHE THAT WILL CAUSE MAJOR DAMAGE, EXPECTED TO HIT IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE U.S. ON SATURDAY AROUND NOON AND LAST FOURTEEN WEEKS … SEC TAKE COVER … THE TIDE IS ROLLING IN!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Humpday Hilarities

Last week I was delighted to discover that the iTunes store carries many of the recordings of Lewis Grizzard, so I’m going to share a few of my favorite snippets with y’all today.

Hope y’all are having a great week!

One more week, Bama fans!

One week from tomorrow is Alabama’s first game of the 2010 football season and I can’t wait! Are you excited?

Here’s a few goodies to ‘tide’ us over until next weekend, starting with this funny which has made its way to me via email, Facebook, and Twitter!

And as always, Bama Foundation provides us with a great hype video for the new year:

And let’s not forget these gems courtesy of the U of A Athletic Department!

And to any Bama fan who’s never been, I highly recommend visiting the Paul W. Bryant Museum.

And who can forget, our favorite taunt?

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, “Roll, Tide, Roll!”

There are many days where I will spend my lunch time surfing the web … sometimes with purpose, but usually aimlessly. Facebook is pretty good at helping with the latter. I jump from a friend’s link to another, then another, and half an hour later I’m on a “wild tangent surf”. StumbleUpon and Twitter are also good for this.

Today’s lunch surf session landed me on a lens (topic) at Squidoo on Bear Bryant. In case you don’t recognize my post’s title, that’s one of Bear’s quotes — one of my personal faves.

You know, it’s amazing that you can study a person, idolize them growing up, and still really NOT know everything about them. I remember hearing all the Alabama football “glory stories” growing up from both my parents and grandparents. I still remember watching Alabama play on TV. I remember watching The Bear Bryant Show on Sunday afternoons with my grandfather.

“Golden Flake and Coca-Cola … great pair, says ‘The Bear’!”

I remember the day he passed away. I remember watching his funeral on TV. Even at that young age, I knew that Alabama football wouldn’t be the same for a very long time. Hell, we got a pretty good coach right now. A lot of people say ole Nick reminds them of Bear. A lot of people (mostly other teams) tell us that we live in the past. But growing up here, how could you not? Over the years I’ve read and re-read some of my favorite Bear stories. There are tons of pages out there on the internet of quotes and tons of books about the man. Sure there, are tons of webpages and books on lots of worthless people, but their legends do not live on like Bear’s has!

So excuse me for being a living-breathing crimson-blooded outrageously-obnoxious Alabama fan, but Coach William Paul “Bear” Bryant was more than “just a coach” to me. He was more than a great motivator. He was more than a great leader. He was more than a friend, a confidant and a mentor to his players. He was a great man … and he was a veteran.

I didn’t know that last one. Did you?

I happily discovered via Wikipedia that Bear Bryant joined the US Navy following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He served just off North Africa, but never saw any combat action. But the article does say that his ship, the SS Uruguay, was rammed by another ship and ordered to be abandoned. Bear disobeyed that order, which saved the lives of his men. It goes on to say that while in the Navy, he attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

The article goes on to describe the rest of his coaching career, but it surprised me that I hadn’t heard about his service before. I can’t say I’m surprised. Like I’ve always said Bear was a great man, and so many of our greatest can be found in our military. So many great men have served this great country before, and so many great men (and women!) are serving now.

While most will never gain Bear’s level of fame, if at all, they all richly deserve it in my eyes.

God bless your soul, Coach. And God bless our troops, vets, and those who love and support them!

Tide, get ready to ROLL!

H/T: Beth C

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Quotes for Football Fans

My mother just sent me this one:

#1. ‘Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas ‘ – Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

#2. ‘After you retire, there’s only one big event left… and I ain’t ready for that.’ – Bobby Bowden / Florida State

#3. ‘The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.’ – Lou Holtz / Arkansas

#4. ‘When you win, nothing hurts.’ – Joe Namath / Alabama

#5. ‘Motivation is simple.. You eliminate those who are not motivated.’ – Lou Holtz / Arkansas

#6. ‘If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, ‘Roll, tide, roll!’ – Bear Bryant / Alabama

#7. ‘A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.’ – Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

#8. ‘There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.’ – Woody Hayes / Ohio State

#9. ‘I don’t expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.’ – Bob Devaney / Nebraska

#10. ‘In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn’t believe in Bear Bryant.’ – Wally Butts / Georgia

#11. ‘You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.’ – Paul Dietzel / LSU

#12. ‘It’s kind of hard to rally around a math class.’ – Bear Bryant / Alabama

#13. When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. ‘No, but you can see it from here.’ – Lou Holtz / Arkansas …

#14. ‘I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.’ – Bear Bryant / Alabama

#15. ‘There’s one sure way to stop us from scoring- give us the ball near the goal line.’ – Matty Bell / SMU

#16. ‘Lads, you’re not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died.’ – Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

#17. ‘I never graduated from Iowa , but I was only there for two terms – Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.’ – Alex Karras / Iowa

#18. ‘My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor.’ -Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

#19. ‘I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.’ – Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

#20. ‘Always remember… Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David.’ – Shug Jordan / Auburn

#21. ‘They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that’s real small pieces’ – Darrell Royal / Texas

#22. ‘Show me a good and gracious loser, and I’ll show you a failure.’ – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

#23. ‘They whipped us like a tied up goat.’ – Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

#24. ‘I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn’t recruit me and he said: ‘Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren’t any good.’ – Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

#25. ‘Son, you’ve got a good engine, but your hands aren’t on the steering wheel.’ – Bobby Bowden / Florida State

#26. ‘Football is not a contact sport – it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.’ – Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

#27. After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his postgame message to his team: ‘All those who need showers, take them.’ – John McKay / USC

#28. ‘If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.’ – Murray Warmath / Minnesota

#29. ‘The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.’ – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

#30. ‘Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.’ – Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

#31. ‘It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.’ – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

#32. ‘We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches.’ – Darrell Royal / Texas

#33. ‘We didn’t tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking.’ – Wilson Matthews / Little Rock Central High School

#34. ‘Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad.’ – Darrell Royal / University of Texas

#35. ‘I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.’ – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

#36. ‘Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.’ – John Heisman