The Bear's Superstudents: Trials and Triumphs

NAMATH: "Never Beaten" Joe Willie Namath was the starting quarterback for Alabama from 1962 through 1964. In January of 1965 he became the first big bonus baby of the pro football bidding wars when he signed with the New York Jets of the A.F.L. His $420,000 salary and his love of the bright lights brought him fame as Broadway Joe, worker of the miracle victory over the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl. Namath reminisces about Bryant:

I was a late signee. The team was already practicing, and he was up in the tower. He calls me up and points out over the field and is talking to me, but I didn't understand a word he was saying. He's pointing down at players, saying, "That ole stud." I didn't know what the word meant, but he was trying to relate to a young kid, Stud. That was the only word he said that I understood my first three weeks there.

He was a stern disciplinarian. If you cut classes, for example, you had to take study hall in his office at 4 a.m. You had to be there waiting for him when he got to work. Nobody wanted to do that. He was frightening. He was the boss, the main man, the leader. You looked forward to getting away from him. Every time I got called to the coach's office, it was, "Oh, damn, what did I do? I didn't do anything, did I?" And then he'd just want to say goodbye before I went home for Easter.

Coach Bryant rarely touts his own team. The growth of his players is his main concern. The most important thing, he says, is their convincing themselves that they're getting better. He wanted to show what he expected of us so we'd all be confident in one another. That really helped me in the pros. Understanding people and having them understand him are very important to him. If he doesn't understand something, he asks. He wants everybody to do the same. He teaches an individual to take a certain pride in himself, and that takes discipline.

He taught you the difference between losing and getting beaten. Sometimes you can't do anything about losing. Sometimes the guy on the other side of the line is just better than you. But getting beaten is ugly. It's humiliation. At Alabama, we did lose some. But we never got beaten.

STABLER: "Needed Guidance"

From 1965 to 1967, lefthanded Kenny Stabler quarterbacked the Tide. Picked by the Oakland Raiders in 1968, he was their starting quarterback from 1973 through 1979, leading the team to a Super Bowl title in 1977. Traded to Houston last spring, he now finds himself working under Bum Phillips, a former Bryant assistant. Like Namath, Stabler was once thrown off the 'Bama team and reinstated after serving his penance. Stabler recalls:

I'm not your basic conformist, and he was tough on me for my own good. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for Coach Bryant. I needed guidance.

At the end of my junior year, I had a knee injury and had been kept out of spring practice. I got frustrated, started running around and chasing ladies. One thing led to another, and I ended up in Foley, my home town. He sent me a telegram that said: "You have been indefinitely suspended. Signed, Coach Paul W. Bryant."

I enrolled in summer school, and every week I had to report to him. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I'd go in and see him. He looks like he weighs about 500 lbs. sitting across that desk. He never said anything until the end of the summer. Then he looked at me and said, "You don't deserve to be on this football team." I didn't say anything at first. But I'm kind of stubborn, like him. Finally I said, "Well, I'm coming out there anyway." One of the assistant coaches told me later that that sold him on me. Then I went out and bought a case of beer and drove back to Foley, throwing the empties at every stop sign. I was happy.

I cussed him a thousand times in practice. Not to his face; I'm not crazy. I smoke cigarettes, but never in front of him. Figure that one out. If he ever called me up on a Monday and said he needed help, I'd be on the first plane to Birmingham. Sunday would be tough because I am Houston's quarterback. But you know, I think I'd get on the plane. That would never happen, though, because of the kind of man he is. He wouldn't call me on a Sunday no matter how much he needed me. He'd wait until Monday.

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