"Uh, uh. Over the years, various accounts have given him different titles, but essentially, he was a fixer. What I would suspect, and it's only a suspicion, but I think he wouldn't want people to think he was trading on his father's name. "What do you mean, I didn't play football? 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. "He's there in the black," he says. Look at the UA System Trustees website and you will see the names of 15 permanent trustees, but only 14 photos. "I don't know whether he died or what" is what it sounds like he says. I think that's one reason, McNair said, that he has put so much money (in the form of donations) into museums at the university., In 2005, Bryant founded Bryant Bank, which he calls my winding-down project.. On the wall, there's a candid shot of Paul and Billy in what looks like a living room. He is chairman emeritus of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a Washington, D.C. - based organization which works to preserve historic battlefields. Many of the members of Bryant's last team held their faces in tense grimaces, obviously fighting back tears, at the graveside. Bryant, at the time less well-known, lived in the historic Redmont home shortly after he married Mary Harmon in June 1935. Hilburn's mother was Mae Martin Bryant, and Paul Murray's mother is Mae Martin Murray, the daughter of Paul "Bear" Bryant Jr. and, like Mary Harmon Hilburn, the granddaughter of Paul "Bear" Bryant . "I just don't know what's going to happen to him," Varner said. OBITUARIES - Daily Press All his memories are still in there, somewhere, only much of the time he can't translate them into words. Often, Coach read the paper aloud. It is the most extensive, single collection of still photographic images documenting Lexington's 20th Century history in existence. He was born in Birmingham while his father served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. My passion is the dogs, really, he said. Bryant Jr. also has clear ties to a federal insurance fraud case that drew a 15-year prison sentence for Allen W. Arrangements by Crocker Funeral Home. Edit Now. Everyone gifted with some version of Coach's moniker wears a nametag, so as to keep them all straight. Hundreds of others gathered silently outside the Methodist church to wave goodbye when Bryant's body was loaded into a hearse for the trip to Elmwood Cemetery. ", "Bryant " "Bryant " "Bryant " "Bryant ". The house--a classic Tudor-style--was owned by Harmon's family. Bryant entered Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa on January 25, 1983, after feeling chest discomfort. We went to the dressing room. ", T Bryant is a family man: He has been married to his wife, Cherry, since 1966, and they have three daughters all UA graduates and three grandchildren. 'I think Coach Bryant was the greatest leader this country ever had,' said his former All-America and Dallas Cowboy linebacker Lee Roy Jordan. Bryant realizes his business career got off to a quick start, and that his family ties were an asset. 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. "Then," he added, "I'll do the same with Paul.". Paul William Bryant Jr. was born circa 1945. Paul Bryant Obituary (2006) - Topeka, KS - Topeka Capital-Journal They married right out of high school. The next morning, on Jan. 26, Varner ran errands, taking Bryant's daughter to the hospital and dropping off a to-do list at the office for Knowles. For his philanthropic efforts, Bryant became the inaugural recipient of the Racing Commissioners Humanitarian of the Year Award by the organization of State and Canadian Racing Regulatory Commissions. Your account has an invalid email address. Paul Bryant Jr - Bhamwiki XFL Week 3 preview: Can AJ McCarron, Battlehawks continue their fourth-quarter heroics? By mid-day, with the sun shining brightly, several hundred waited for the start of the graveside service for Coach "Bear" Bryant. "Yes, sir, we've got Paul and Bryant covered right there in one house.". You want a window into Bear Bryant's power in the state of Alabama? Trustees blocked the hiring of good coaches, limited spending on facilities and opposed a new on-campus stadium for the football team, critics contend. This year's reunion was the first to feature a carnival theme, complete with cotton candy, county-fair-style games and -- wait for it -- a teddy-bear-building station. The Chester County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) honored Sgt. I wasn't really seeking it, he said. City & town life -- Kentucky -- Lexington. That's where he met Alabama's new football coach, and when Varner took the same job at the Indian Hills Country Club, where Bryant lived off the third fairway, they became close. [13] Stewart was found guilty on all 135 counts of fraud. Buy what you want, he told her, not what you need. After services in Tuscaloosa, Bryant was brought to Elmwood Cemetery for interment. Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Fordyce, Arkansas. A 1966 UA graduate who earned a degree in commerce, Bryant started People's Bank while still in his 20's. This was Bryant's last game as the head football coach at the University of Alabama. "Well, that's my middle name!" Bear Bryant looks down from four or five different places. Coach was at Jimmy Hinton's house and didn't feel well. Dr. A's weekly risers and fallers: Jeremy Sochan, Christian Wood make the list. "You was at the hospital when he died," she says. 2004av001. From 2000 to 2015, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System. Even Mrs. Bryant didn't know him as well as Billy did. Several red and white banners reading 'We Love You, Bear' flapped from interstate overpasses as the motorcade rolled by. ", "You didn't play no football," she says. USCALOOSA, Ala. -- Something important is being lost. Coach Bear Bryant at the 1982 Liberty Bowl football game in Memphis, Tennessee. Alabama-Air view of cemetery at "Bear" Bryant's funeral. Alabama Booster Paul Bryant Jr. Has Ties to Insurance Fraud Scheme Alabama Media Group, University of Alabama head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant is lifted onto the shoulders of his players after Alabama defeated Illinois 21-15 in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn., Wednesday night, Dec. 30, 1982. He says something else, his voice deep, the sentences trailing off. 2/28/2023 6:52 PM PT. [2] In March 2015, The Birmingham News revealed that many UA trustees worked or had relatives who worked for the Bryant Bank. "We had a dog named Bear as a puppy, but then we changed it to Bryant," confessed a family from Huntsville that also has two human Bryants on the roster. KATIE J. BUSH SUFFOLK -Katie Jane Bush, 74, died. "I went and bought me one of those. Another large circulating newspaper during this time was the Kentucky Leader (formed by a group of Fayette County Republicans in 1888) which eventually became known as the Lexington Leader in 1901. Each day brings its own reality. No, no. The John C. Wyatt photographs (LHL) consist of an estimated 2 million unique photographic negatives spanning the years 1939-2001. Mr. Bryant was Chairman of the Crimson Tide Tradition Fund, the organization that preceded the Crimson Tide Foundation. The family had asked that cameras be barred from the services. Bryant's image. "It's crazy. His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old. I enjoy those, have a lot of them around the house. "It's exactly like that," Hilburn added. The pictures seem to anchor him. By far the most common name (and most versatile, used by men and women) is Bryant. If I'd changed jobs, I would have been making $50 more a month. Bryant, a member of the University of Alabama board of trustees since 2000 and president pro tempore of the board since 2011, said his business secret as president of Greene Group, a privately-held holding company, has more to do with being able to identify profitable enterprises. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Bryant, who won 323 games in his 38 seasons -- more than any other college coach -- died Wednesday of a heart attack only 28 days after retiring. They reached the end together, sitting in a 14th-floor suite of the Memphis Holiday Inn. There's the framed photograph of Bryant on a football field for the final time, with a "Thanks for the Memories" sign in the background. For many years, Bryant has been accused of running the Alabama board of trustees like a family business, "holding secret meetings, shrugging off public records requests, ignoring or sidestepping the law. Being unable to play football, he said, would have made it impossible for him to have the standing to coach the game. She was accompanied by her son, Paul Bryant Jr., and daughter, Mae Martin Tyson. He spends a long minute staring at the remote control, trying to figure out how to turn up the volume. City Editor Ken Roberts contributed to this report. John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald-Leader photographs, https://lhlphotoarchive.org/ark:/16417/th71m0q2fr6vl, This item is 1 of 3716 items in the series ". Bryant Jr.,today, is perhaps as close as we get to someone who seemingly fits the meaning of Churchill's quote: something or someone that is immensely puzzling to figure out or extraordinarily complex to fully understand, often relying on hyperbole and occasionally sarcasm to describe. "I'm not sure I've enjoyed all of it. "I keep trying to call that the Indian Hills football team. This urge to protect, probably born from seeing the Saturday Evening Post erroneously accuse the coach of fixing a game, is also erasing something. Help me understand the power of Paul Bryant, Jr. | SEC Rant Because this is my wife and it's her middle name! Over 10 years, Bryant Bank has grown to over $1.5 billion in assets, becoming the largest family-owned bank in the state of Alabama. But unlike the others at the namesake reunion, his name wasn't merely a tribute. He's an honorary assistant coach for the 1975 season. Paul 'Bear' Bryant's gift that keeps on giving at Alabama Connelly's C-USA preview, part 2: Which returning teams could rule new-look league? [1] [2] The farm spans hundreds of acres and has catfish farms, cattle and grounds for quail hunting. It was a hand-me-down. If you've been in that, you get looked at close so it helps to do OK in one regulated business you get another one, he said. The price for memories is regret, and somewhere in the middle of all this, Billy considers how he spent his life. He doesn't seek the limelight, that's for sure, said McNair, who served as sports information director at UA under Bear Bryant and who now publishes Bama Magazine. In the Yellowhammer State, they've been giving 100 percent to the Bear Bryant name game for a very long time now. He pauses. omething remarkable happens when Billy figures out where the den is located -- at first, he stood in the living room confused while Susie called his name over and over -- and inches down the hall, through the kitchen where Coach sat one time for supper, into a room decorated with photographs of Bear Bryant. mitataksemme sivustojemme ja sovellustemme kyttsi. The extended family includes about a dozen hunting dogs, who are kept at Bryant's farm in Greene County. Fans stand and cheer. A half-hour or more has passed. The origins of the Lexington Herald-Leader can be traced back over 130 years to the Lexington Daily Press.