Bear Bryant Paul William " Bear " Bryant ( September 11 , 1913January 26 , 1983 ) was an American college football player and coach . He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team . During his 25 - year tenure as Alabama ' s head coach , he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships . Upon his retirement in 1982 , he held the record for most wins as head coach in collegiate football history with 323 wins , a record broken by John Gagliardi in 1996 . Bryant ' s mark has since also been surpassed by Eddie Robinson , Bobby Bowden , and until 2012 by Joe Paterno . At the University of Alabama , the Paul W . Bryant Museum , Paul W . Bryant Hall , Paul W . Bryant Drive and Bryant – Denny Stadium are all named in his honor . He was also known for his trademark black and white houndstooth or gingham hat , deep voice , casually leaning up against the goal post during pre - game warmups , and frequently holding his rolled - up game plan while on the sidelines . Before arriving at Alabama , Bryant was head football coach at the University of Maryland , the University of Kentucky , and Texas A & M University . Early life . Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Fordyce , Arkansas . His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old . He attended Fordyce High School , where tall Bryant , who as an adult would eventually stand , 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 . College . 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 . 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 . 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 . Coaching career . Assistant and North Carolina Pre - Flight . After graduating in 1936 , Bryant took a coaching job at Union University in Jackson , Tennessee , but he left that position when offered an assistant coaching position under Frank Thomas at the University of Alabama . Over the next four years , the team compiled a 29 – 5 – 3 record . In 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 . In 1942 , he served as an assistant coach with the Georgia Pre - Flight Skycrackers . Bryant then 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 . Two hundred others died . He was later granted an honorable discharge to train recruits and coach the North Carolina Navy Pre - Flight football team . One of the players he coached for the Navy was the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham . While in the Navy , Bryant attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander . University of Maryland . In 1945 , 32 - year - old Bryant met Washington Redskins owner George Marshall at a cocktail party hosted by the " Chicago Tribune " , and said he had turned down offers for assistant coaching positions at Alabama and Georgia Tech . Bryant told Marshall that he was intent on becoming a head coach . Marshall put him in contact with Harry Clifton " Curley " Byrd , the president and former football coach of the University of Maryland . After meeting with Byrd the next day , Bryant received the job as head coach of the Maryland Terrapins . In his only season at Maryland , Bryant led the team to a 6 – 2 – 1 record . However , Bryant and Byrd came into conflict . In the most prominent incident , while Bryant was on vacation , Byrd reinstated a player who had been suspended by Bryant for a violation of team rules . After , Bryant left Maryland to take over as head coach at the University of Kentucky . University of Kentucky . Bryant coached at the University of Kentucky for eight seasons . Under Bryant , Kentucky made its first bowl appearance ( 1947 ) and won its first Southeastern Conference title ( 1950 ) . The 1950 Kentucky team concluded its season with a victory over Bud Wilkinson ' s # 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl . The living players from the 1950 team were honored during halftime of a game during the 2005 season . Bryant also led Kentucky to appearances in the Great Lakes Bowl , Orange Bowl , and Cotton Bowl Classic . Kentucky ' s final AP poll rankings under Bryant included # 11 in 1949 , # 7 in 1950 , # 15 in 1951 , # 20 in 1952 and # 16 in 1953 . The 1950 season was Kentucky ' s highest rank until it finished # 6 in the final 1977 AP poll . At Kentucky , Bryant attempted to integrate the football team , but the university administration would not allow it . Texas A & M University . In 1954 , Bryant accepted the head coaching job at Texas A & M University . He also served as athletic director while at A & M . The Aggies suffered through a grueling 1 - 9 initial season which began with the infamous training camp in Junction , Texas . The “ survivors ” were given the name “ Junction Boys . ” Two years later , Bryant led the team to the Southwest Conference championship with a 34 – 21 victory over the University of Texas at Austin . The following year , 1957 , Bryant ' s star back John David Crow won the Heisman Trophy ( the only Bryant player to ever earn that award ) , and the Aggies were in title contention until they lost to the # 20 Rice Owls in Houston , amid rumors that Alabama would be going after Bryant . Again , as at Kentucky , Bryant attempted to integrate the Texas A & M squad . " We ' ll be the last football team in the Southwest Conference to integrate , " he was told by a Texas A & M official . " Well , " Bryant replied , " then that ' s where we ' re going to finish in football . " At the close of the 1957 season , having compiled an overall 25 – 14 – 2 record at Texas A & M , Bryant returned to Tuscaloosa to take the head coaching position , succeeding J . B . " Ears " Whitworth , as well as the athletic director job at Alabama . University of Alabama . Bryant took over the Alabama football team in 1958 . When asked why he came to Alabama , he replied " Momma called . And when Momma calls , you just have to come runnin ' . " After winning a combined four games in the three years prior to Bryant ' s arrival , the Tide went 5 – 4 – 1 in Bryant ' s first season . The next year , in 1959 , Alabama beat Auburn and appeared in a bowl game , the first time either had happened in the last six years . In 1961 , under his leadership , with quarterback Pat Trammell and football greats Lee Roy Jordan and Billy Neighbors , Alabama went 11 – 0 and defeated Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl to claim the national championship . The next three years ( 1962 – 64 ) featured Joe Namath at quarterback and were among Bryant ' s finest . The 1962 season ended with a victory in the Orange Bowl over Bud Wilkinson ' s University of Oklahoma Sooners . The following year ended with a victory in the 1963 Sugar Bowl . In 1964 , the Tide won another national championship , but lost to the University of Texas in the Orange Bowl , in the first nationally televised college game in color . The Crimson Tide would repeat as champions in 1965 after defeating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl . Coming off back - to - back national championship seasons , Bryant ' s Alabama team went undefeated in 1966 , and defeated a strong Nebraska team 34 – 7 in the Sugar Bowl . However , Alabama finished third in the nation behind co - national champions Michigan State and Notre Dame , who had previously played to a 10 – 10 tie in a late regular season game . The 1967 team was billed as another national championship contender with star quarterback Kenny Stabler returning , but the team stumbled out of the gate and tied Florida State 37 – 37 at Legion Field . The season never took off from there , with the Bryant - led Alabama team finishing 8 – 2 – 1 , losing in the Cotton Bowl Classic to Texas A & M , coached by former Bryant player and assistant coach Gene Stallings . In 1968 , Bryant again could not match his previous successes , as the team went 8 – 3 , losing to the University of Missouri 35 – 10 in the Gator Bowl . The 1969 and 1970 teams finished 6 – 5 and 6 – 5 – 1 respectively . After these disappointing efforts , many began to wonder if the 57 - year - old Bryant was washed up . He himself began feeling the same way and considered either retiring from coaching or leaving college football for the NFL . For years , Bryant was accused of racism for refusing to recruit black players , but he merely said that the prevailing social climate did not let him do this . He finally was able to convince the administration to allow him to do so after scheduling the Tide ' s 1970 season opener against a strong University of Southern California team led by black fullback Sam Cunningham . Cunningham rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns in a 42 – 21 victory against the overmatched Tide . After that season , Bryant was able to recruit Wilbur Jackson as Alabama ' s first black scholarship player , and junior - college transfer John Mitchell became the first black man to play for Alabama . By 1973 , one - third of the team ' s starters were black . In 1971 , Bryant began engineering a comeback to prove that he still had it . This included abandoning Alabama ' s old power offense for the newly fashionable wishbone formation . The change helped make the remainder of the decade a successful one for the Crimson Tide . That season , Alabama went undefeated and earned a # 2 ranking , but lost to # 1 Nebraska , 38 – 6 in the Orange Bowl . The team would go on to split national championships in 1973 ( Notre Dame defeated Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl , which led the UPI to stop giving national championships until after all the games for the season had been played - including bowl games ) and 1978 ( despite losing a regular season matchup against co - national champion USC ) and win it outright in 1979 . Bryant coached at Alabama for 25 years , winning six national titles ( 1961 , 1964 , 1965 , 1973 , 1978 , and 1979 ) and thirteen SEC championships . Bryant ' s win over in - state rival Auburn University , coached by former Bryant assistant Pat Dye in November 1981 was Bryant ' s 315th as a head coach , which was the most of any head coach at that time . His all - time record as a coach was 323 - 85 - 17 . Retirement and death . After the 1982 season , Bryant , who had turned 69 that September , decided to retire , stating , " This is my school , my alma mater . I love it and I love my players . But in my opinion , they deserved better coaching than they have been getting from me this year . " His last regular season game was a 23 – 22 loss to Auburn and his last postseason game was a 21 – 15 victory in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis , Tennessee over the University of Illinois . After the game , Bryant was asked what he planned to do now that he was retired . He replied " Probably croak in a week . " His reply proved ominous . Four weeks after making that comment , and just one day after passing a routine medical checkup , on January 25 , 1983 , Bryant checked into Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa after experiencing chest pain . A day later , when being prepared for an electrocardiogram , he died after suffering a massive heart attack . First news of Bryant ' s death came from Bert Bank ( WTBC Radio Tuscaloosa ) and on the NBC Radio Network ( anchored by Stan Martyn and reported by Stewart Stogel ) . On his hand at the time of his death was the only piece of jewelry he ever wore , a gold ring inscribed " The Junction Boys " . He is interred at Birmingham ' s Elmwood Cemetery . A month after his death , Bryant was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the nation ' s highest civilian award , by President Ronald Reagan . A moment of silence was held prior to Super Bowl XVII , played four days after Bryant ' s passing . Defamation suit . In 1962 , Bryant denounced " The Saturday Evening Post " for printing an article that charged him with encouraging his players to " engage in brutality " in a 1961 game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets . The magazine claimed that Bryant and Georgia Bulldogs coach Wally Butts had conspired to fix their 1962 game together in Alabama ' s favor . Butts , also on Bryant ' s behalf , sued Curtis Publishing Co . for defamation . The case went to the Supreme Court . As a result of Curtis Publishing Co . v . Butts 388 U . S . 130 ( 1967 ) , Curtis was ordered to pay $ 3 , 060 , 000 in damages to the plaintiff . Legacy . Many of Bryant ' s former players and assistant coaches went on to become head coaches at the collegiate level and / or in the National Football League . Danny Ford , Howard Schnellenberger , and Gene Stallings all won national championships as head coaches for NCAA programs while Joey Jones , Mike Riley , and David Cutcliffe are active head coaches in the NCAA . Charles McClendon , Sylvester Croom , Jim Owens , Jackie Sherrill , and Pat Dye were also notable NCAA head coaches . Ozzie Newsome is active as the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens . Jack Pardee was a college head coach at the University of Houston and an NFL head coach with Chicago , Washington and Houston . Head coaching record . In his 38 seasons as a head coach , Bryant had 37 winning seasons and participated in a total of 29 postseason bowl game s , including 24 consecutively at Alabama . He won 15 bowl games , including eight Sugar Bowl s . ( * ) Before the 1974 , the final Coaches ' Poll , also known then as the UPI Poll , was released " before " the bowl games , so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship . This was changed as a result of Alabama claiming the 1973 Coaches ' Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the 1973 Sugar Bowl .