He's been on the board for 13 years or so. Bryant got the name right; "Susie" was scrawled on the outside. He's an honorary assistant coach for the 1975 season. Paul William Bryant Jr. was born circa 1945. "Too many football games," he says. If I'd changed jobs, I would have been making $50 more a month. [3], Bryant founded the People's Bank in the late 1960s,[1] and later sold it. 'We give thanks to God for his personal strength in leading men and the tenderness with which he could touch a child,' the Rev. His moniker came from a carnival promotion where he promised to battle a caged bear when he was 13 years old. John C. Wyatt established and maintained the collection's original organizational scheme. They are retired ones that mostly just get loving, pets.. "What's your name?" "He's young all the time here," Billy says. Like his boss before him, Billy Varner has come to the place where he must consider what he did with his time. Bryant entered Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa on January 25, 1983, after feeling chest discomfort. Jos haluat muokata valintojasi, napsauta Hallitse tietosuoja-asetuksia. After an hour and a half, Bryant, looking tired and old, walked into his bedroom. Later he started other tracks in Idaho and Texas and made millions in the process. His clarity comes and goes. It is the most extensive, single collection of still photographic images documenting Lexington's 20th Century history in existence. The database includes around 700 names, and the museum manages to track most of their whereabouts via both old-school correspondence and newfangled social media. I didn't do either of those. "I ended up playing football.". Bryant Jr. also has clear ties to a federal insurance fraud case that drew a 15-year prison sentence for Allen W. (AP Photo). Most afternoons, Bryant would slip into the bar and play cards with friends. He was born in Birmingham while his father served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Few appear to believe that and instead see the trustees, with Bryant Jr. at the helm, as a force that for years has refused to support the team. The local paper interviewed him, and Billy cried. Everyone gifted with some version of Coach's moniker wears a nametag, so as to keep them all straight. Neither his wealth nor his legacy as the son of the man who retired as college football's all-time winningest coach, however, has inclined him to lead a public life. SUFFOLK - Paul Bryant Jr., 67, retired employee of Perry Lumber Co., died Saturday, Dec. 14, 1996. Sanders Memorial at The University of Alabama honoring alumni who served the Confederacy. Today his memories seem to orbit around the idea of protecting Bryant from some unseen enemy. City Editor Ken Roberts contributed to this report. Some wore Alabama caps and others were . The University of Alabama System: Board of Trustees: Paul W. Bryant Jr. Greenetrack shareholder lawsuit alleges president, management misused funds, Four stockholders file suit against Greenetrack CEO and board officers. "If you're gonna be in, be all-in," explained James Turner, Bryant Denny Turner's father. When the bar was empty, the two men talked. The patrolman understood and backed off. "At the University of Alabama it's really important," Bryant told Deas. Because of the overflow crowd, the service also was piped into the nearby First Baptist Church, which seated 1,300, and the Presbyterian Church, which accommodates 600. Billy tells Susie that he talks to the coach. #RollTide pic.twitter.com/C5wakg73d7. Billy's voice drops back down, and the words press together, a slurry of confusion and rearranged thoughts, part truth, part fiction. ph, Casket of Alabama coach Paul Bear Bryant at the Elwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. Friday Jan. 28, 1983. [7], He served on the board of trustees of the University of Alabama[3][6] until September 2015 and previously served as its chairman. Bryant, who was born in Birmingham when his mother was living there with her parents while his father was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, is a 1966 graduate of UA with a degree in finance. The roots of this bond, like many things with Bryant, are full of mystery, myth and misinformation. Watts has said he, not University of Alabama System trustees made the decision to shut the football program down. Cities and towns -- Growth -- Kentucky -- Lexington. She plays it sometimes. Joe Namath - Bear Bryant Funeral. I've had some different ones not work, too, Bryant said recently in a rare and revealing interview. Paul Bryant's dedicated service and leadership have been invaluable to the board of trustees and to the University of Alabama System, Witt said. Stewart. The walls are covered with certificates and mementos of his service. "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. 1983 Press Photo Alabama-Air view of Coach "Bear" Bryant's funeral procession, Alabama-Air view of Coach "Bear" Bryant's funeral procession The Birmingham News, Mae Martin Bryant Tyson, Stella Gray, Anna Laurie, The daughter of Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Mae Martin Bryant Tyson, left, and son Paul Bryant Jr., right, attend a memorial service on the campus at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Jan. 27, 1983. Nobody ever has a plan. Even Knowles sheepishly admits she has a houndstooth umbrella. Billy sits in his big brown chair and looks at an oddly familiar man. ", There were also no Sabans at the reunion. Alabama-Funeral-Young man gives final salute to Coach "Bear" Bryant. "Then," he added, "I'll do the same with Paul.". I'm a pretty good risk-taker, I guess. He remembers his mother,. Coach Bryant died Wednesday. I remember all of them. Research Account set-up and use instructions can be found at: http://libguides.uky.edu/SCRCaccount, Wyatt, John C.Lexington Leader (Lexington, Ky. : Daily)Lexington Herald-LeaderLexington Herald (Firm). He'd eaten some sausage, and it upset his stomach is all. "There's not much really you can talk about Billy," Rutledge said. 1983 Press Photo Alabama-Fans watching T.V. ", The official records show Varner started working for the university police in February 1976, but he'd been around for a decade or more by then, floating in the shadows. Bryant also has a keen interest in the Civil War, and serves as chairman emeritus of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a national historic battlefield preservation organization. Billy is asleep. He says something else, his voice deep, the sentences trailing off. They hoped that through him they might better understand the coach. I had a lot of help starting out.. -- Kentucky -- Lexington. Susie is short, 77, with gray hair and a walker she pushes around. He was 69. Paul W. Bryant Jr. Net Worth in 2021. When things happened, and you were there ". 2023 www.tuscaloosanews.com. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr.), Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's widow, Mary Harmon Bryant is helped out of the car at graveside in Birmingham, Ala., Jan. 28, 1983. I'd drive him. ", These are the stories she can tell. The magazine quoted Bryant, who owned GreeneTrack in Greene County at the time, as saying that the dog track was frequented by low-class, welfare blacks.. Photo by Dave Dieter HVT, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. On the wall, there's a candid shot of Paul and Billy in what looks like a living room. ", Overhearing this exchange was yet another teenager, Bryant Denny Turner, whose parents dared to go even a step further and give their son the name of the legendary Alabama football coach and the name of the arena where the Bear did his homework, Denny Stadium. Bryant was held accountable for the demise of UAB football because of a letter Gene Bartow . Bryant announced last week that he was retiring after this game, which marks his 323rd victory. Once, when a state trooper clocked Varner speeding, Bryant stuck his houndstooth hat in the back window. At home, she keeps the microcassette of the last letter he dictated, the day before he died. Alabama-"Bear" Paul Bryant funeral. He spent his youth in Lexington, Kentucky; College Station, Texas; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama the towns where his father coached. Buy what you want, he told her, not what you need. Often, Coach read the paper aloud. Hundreds of cars were lined up alongside the interstate in Birmingham to watch the procession pass. "It's my daddy's middle name!" The Bear wore houndstooth. Paul William Bryant Jr. (born c. 1945) is an American banker, investor and philanthropist from Alabama. "I wish I'd read this 30 years ago," he told a friend, "I wouldn't have wasted so much valuable time." Persistent Link for this Record:https://lhlphotoarchive.org/ark:/16417/th71m0q2fr6vl, University of Kentucky LibrariesSpecial Collections Research Center. Which non-quarterback group will define each top-25 team's season? It's been a good experience and I've made a lot of very close friends on the board, he said. He also was elected president of C&BA students. We give 100 percent around here. The daughter of Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Mae Martin Bryant Tyson, left, and son Paul Bryant Jr., right, attend a memorial service on the campus at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Jan. 27,. It is unknown how much, if any, of his money has gone to UAB over the years, although it is common place for many of the board's wealthier members to give substantial gifts to all three schools in the system. The university had been spending about $20 million a year on football and the years ahead would only see that number grow and Watts pulled the plug causing a firestorm of protests from players and fans. "He never told me anything personal about Coach Bryant," she says. "I know I've made this journey," he told a reporter just before his final season. Without sounding too hokey, that's why we started the bank.. Bear Bryant looks down from four or five different places. The coach visited this house once. He forms his right hand into a pistol and Susie laughs, but then he starts to get lost again. The funeral service at the First Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa was deeply religious, with little reference to Bryant's career or character. [8], He has donated millions of dollars to the Alabama Crimson Tide football program. Don Siegelman moved in 2000 to have Bryant considered for the board, some legislators protested, saying the vacant seat had been promised to be filled by an alumnus of the UA system's Birmingham campus, UAB. Bryant's net worth is not public knowledge, but he has amassed enough wealth to donate tens of millions of dollars to the UA. Collectively, it saved 41,000 acres of battlefield land in over 120 states during Bryants board tenure. [2] He went on to establish more tracks in Texas (for example in La Marque, Texas), Idaho, and Iowa. 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. Paul, who rode in a mule-drawn cart from Moro Bottom, Ark., and in the back of Billy Varner's crimson Buick LeSabre, struggled, season after season. You start thinking about what you could have been doing. He's a 1978 national champion. Associations, institutions, etc. Sometimes they talked. Billy always walked a few feet in front of Bryant, for reasons he's trying to recall. Thereafter, he has been chairman of the Crimson Tide Foundation since its inception. Simply stated, Paul Bryant cares deeply for the university.. Who makes up the University of Alabama Board of Trustees? To his left, surrounded by the small frames, is a large photograph of Bear Bryant at the 1982 Liberty Bowl, sicker than anyone but Billy and a few others knew, bundled tight against the cold. A 1966 UA graduate who earned a degree in commerce, Bryant started People's Bank while still in his 20's. Is the Alabama board of trustees finally ready to kill UAB football? Standing before the exhibit, she can hear his voice all around her, literally, from the museum's video displays. The history of it kind of came up with lobbyists who worked for UAB at the time, some other people opposing my being on the board and it got to be kind of, sort of, a fight.. Sometimes Bryant visits. "Well, we don't hardly know the details," he said finally. The Huntsville Times, Graveside services are held in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. for Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Jan. 28, 1983. Obviously, I had an advantage in that I had met a lot of business people through my parents when I was in high school and college, in the state and out of state. "The white hat. All rights reserved. His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old. I'm probably better evaluating them than running them, I'll say that, he said. She laughs some, with only a little bitterness, about what was gained, what was spent and what remains. In his hospital room, Bryant was joking with the nurses. Since then, Moore says, daughters of Joe Namath and Ken Stabler have attended Alabama on . He has also commissioned two books by Delbert Teed honoring Alabama alumni who served in World War II: When Winning Was Everything: Alabama Football Players in World War II and All of Us Fought the War. "Paul 'Bear' Bryant was my great-grandfather," the eighth-grader said with pride as he sat in his great-grandfather's museum, in a conference room decorated with oil paintings, bronze busts and even a marionette of the man behind his name. Bryant did play high school basketball in Tuscaloosa, but in interviews he has said he was part of a great team and played only sparingly. "Right there with the hat on, in the middle. And yes, there are some Bears, but none made an appearance during the first couple of hours of this year's reunion -- although at least two of the families in attendance said they had a dog named Bear. One person who has known Bryant for years, but didn't want to be named here, said that Bryant is a man who guards his family's privacy. After services in Tuscaloosa, Bryant was brought to Elmwood Cemetery for interment. A lot of them we've got don't hunt because they're older. She liked Bryant, thought he had a good heart, even if he did almost always call her Sally. Former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath -- Bryant's most famous player -- former Oklahoma Coach Bud Wilkinson and Georgia Coach Vince Dooley were among those at the graveside, bathed in bright sunshine. A number of people wore T-shirts that said 'It Took a Giant to Replace the Bear,' referring to former New York Giants Coach Ray Perkins, whom Bryant selected to succeed him at Alabama last month. Billy deflates, his voice and his body sinking back down into the chair. (AP Photo), Press Photo Woody Hayes At Bear Bryant Funeral, Woody Hayes - Bear Bryant Funeral. Twenty-four? A story last year from Bloomberg News, mostly about his extensive business dealings, shows a man who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a fortune gained through a variety of businesses and investments spanning dog and horse racing, the insurance industry, cement making, catfish farming and banking. I had a little head start on my friends because I didn't get put in the service when I graduated, and a lot of them did that and went on to law school and to graduate school, he said. We know Lombardi from David Maraniss' biography, "When Pride Still Mattered," and he comes across as smaller and therefore larger in the retelling, because his humanity is on every page. The extended family includes about a. He died on Jan. 26, 1983, only a few weeks after his final game on the sideline, the '82 Liberty Bowl. Regularly, he refuses to believe that his old boss isn't at home waiting for a ride. This isn't a celebration. "I always did want me the old-timey ice cream freezer," she says. (File Photo/ The Huntsville TImes) The Huntsville Times, Former Alabama student Tammy Rogers at graveside service for Alabama coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. on Friday Jan. 28, 1983. Earlier this month, a retired Alabama assistant coach sat at his kitchen table and gauged how much he could reveal. "He could eat pheasant under glass with the president," he said, "or he could eat cheese and crackers with the boys out by the caddie shack, and he'd enjoy it all just the same. "Paul Bryant Jr: His famous father casts a long shadow, one seemingly comfortable to the son", "Paul Bryant Jr.'s bank is tie that binds UA trustees", "Alabama Booster Paul Bryant Jr. Has Ties to Insurance Fraud Scheme", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_W._Bryant_Jr.&oldid=1127610045, This page was last edited on 15 December 2022, at 18:09. Billy shuffles into the room wearing gray pajamas and black slippers. The 69-year-old Bryant died Wednesday of a heart attack. "[1] In 1995, Bryant acquired Reynolds Ready Mix, a cement company later renamed Ready Mix USA. It's lunchtime. The newspapers had a combined Sunday edition, but their editorial policies remained quite different. Paul William Bryant Jr (born December 19, 1944 in Birmingham) is a Tuscaloosa businessman and chairman of the Crimson Tide Foundation. He collapsed once from nervous exhaustion, chain-smoked cigarettes, ripped the filters off ones he bummed, passed out on couches, checked into alcohol rehab. Vanessa Bryant just received a heck of a lot more money from L.A. County after her initial $15 million win last year .