Biggest Bear in the Briar Patch

Coach Bryant tries for another national title for Alabama

There are no reliable witnesses left, as is usually the case with the stuff of legends, so no one really knows how young Paul William Bryant fared against that carny bear in Fordyce, Ark. Some say he lasted the $5 limit, at a dollar per minute, and collected his money; others insist that the scrawny old beast tossed the local boy off the stage of the Lyric Theater in short order. Bryant claims he has the scars to prove he was there, but the only thing that really matters is that the episode gave the boy a nickname to grow into--Bear. A perfect name for 50 years of football, a name to match his towering physical presence and deep rumbling voice. In the end, it was a name big enough to fit his influence on the game.

But most of all, it was a name made for a Southern football legend, the right name for the coach of Alabama. During the years before the South became the Sunbelt, football was its way of showing off to the nation, a source of deep, almost xenophobic pride. The conversation on the church steps Sunday mornings was an autumn ritual across the South. The Georgia people would crow, while Tennessee fans sulked and the interlopers from Florida had to listen to the abuse of the Auburn backers. The only time everyone agreed on anything was when one of "our teams" beat a Yankee school--the definition of Yankee being so broadly construed that it included Nebraska, U.C.L.A. and Texas, as well as Penn State and Syracuse.

This fierce football domain is Bear Bryant's briar patch. He was born and raised in it, coming out of Moro Bottom, Ark., with one good pair of shoes to play for the University of Alabama in the mid-'30s. He was the other end on the team that beat Stanford in the 1935 Rose Bowl, doing the blocking while All-America Don Hutson set records for pass catching. He wanted to coach, naturally, and worked his way up to Maryland and then gave Kentucky its only Southeastern Conference title--and an N.C.A.A. probation for recruiting violations. In 1954 he moved on to Texas A&M, and it was there that the teeth in the Bear showed most clearly. His first training camp, held at Junction, Texas, was closer to Stalag 17 than a gathering of young athletes. Two busloads, 115 players on football scholarships, went to Junction. When it was over, 27 men remained on the roster. The surviving Aggies won a single game that year, the only losing season in Bryant's 34-year career as a head coach; they lost just five games over the next three seasons.

Finally, in 1958, the Bear came home to Alabama, the butt of too many Sunday-morning jokes after four straight losing years. Nobody has laughed very much at Alabama's expense since then. This New Year's Day No. 2-ranked Alabama plays in its 20th consecutive bowl game. The match-up against top-ranked Penn State will decide the national championship, and if Alabama wins, it will be the fifth title of Bryant's reign. It will also mark Victory No. 284 for Bryant, 30 fewer than the alltime record held by Amos Alonzo Stagg.

At 65, when most coaches have succumbed to ulcers or failure or both, the Bear is still happily atop his patch. And determined to remain so. With Stagg's record in sight, he left early Sugar Bowl preparation to his aides and went off recruiting. Barnstorming across Alabama, Georgia and Florida in a plane owned by the Alabama Athletic Department, he contracted a cold and ear infection trying to woo blue-chip players to Tuscaloosa. This year, he admits, he recruited during the summer for the first time in 20 years.

Bryant used to be dogged by horror stories about his tough methods, but he has mellowed considerably, and the mountains gladly come to Muhammad. Says Offensive Tackle Jim Bunch: "Every boy who plays high school football wonders what it would be like to play for Coach Bryant and wishes that he could. It doesn't matter where you grow up, Coach Bryant is the standard everyone wants to measure himself by."

The standard is high, and if Bryant no longer goes down into the trenches to shove, pummel and growl at his players as he once did, he is no less a force in their lives. Surveying practice from a high tower overlooking two full-size fields, one grass and one AstroTurf, he notes every detail. Says All-America Tackle Marty Lyons: "He's seen things in me that I didn't know were there." Adds Linebacker Barry Krauss, another of the latest crop of Alabama All-Americas (37 so far): "I love him. The biggest thrill is that I can walk in and talk to him, and he knows and cares about me."

A proven winner and self-made millionaire with investments in a dozen enterprises, Bryant can comfortably insist that he is just a simple country boy who got lucky. His legacy belies that: 39 former Bryant players and assistants have become head coaches in college or the pros, among them the Houston Oilers' Bum Phillips, Maryland's Jerry Claiborne and the Washington Redskins' Jack Pardee. A total of 47 players have gone on to the pros, including such stars as Lee Roy Jordan, Joe Namath and Ken Stabler.

Looking forward to the Sugar Bowl, Bryant cannot find flattery enough for Penn State and Coach Joe Paterno. "Joe is much more knowledgeable than I am, a well-educated person and a very fine gentleman. Penn State has a real sound football team, and they don't make mistakes. I have a great deal of respect for Joe and his team. Me, I'm just a rural old guy who's been around a long time and is not all that bright, to be honest about it." A gleam, a smile, a rumble, and the wily old Bear adds: "But we'll try to give them a good football game."

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