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January 27, 1983 Page 13
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> . i 'ii
Fond memories
Bryant’s friends recall ‘a great man’
■
f B
by Frank L. Christlieb
Battalion Staff
Friends, former Texas A&M
football players and associates of
Paul “Bear” Bryant say the for
mer coach of the Alabama Crim
son Tide left an unremovable
mark on many people during his
38-year coaching career.
Bryant, who died of a heart
attack Wednesday afternoon in
Tuscaloosa, Ala., coached the
Aggie football team during the
1954-57 seasons before moving
on to his position at Alabama.
He retired from the profession
after coaching a record 323rd
victory in the Crimson Tide’s de
feat of Illinois in the Liberty
Bowl last month.
Aggie secondary coach Cur
ley Hallman, who worked under
Bryant from 1973-77, says the
experience had a strong impact
on his life.
“Coaching for him for four
years gave me the opportunity
that I didn’t have for four years
as a player under him,” Hallman
said Wednesday. “It was a big
break in my life, and I look back
and it’s still hard to comprehend
that Coach Bryant’s no longer
with us. His impact on people
and the game of football will go
on for years and years because
of the people he’s coached who
are all around.
“It’s a very sad day — I don’t
think it’s hit home yet. I don’t
think we’ll see another one like
him.”
Hallman, who played for
Coach Gene Stallings’ Aggie
football squad during 1966-68,
said: “There may be someone to
break his record, but there just
won’t be another one really like
him. I’m just thankful for hav
ing the contact with him and
being able to learn about the way
he deals with people and his
players.
“I’ve never heard anyone
who’s said they played for Ala-
Coach Curley Hallman says
Bryant’s influence strong
bama. People always say they
played for Coach Bryant, and
that’s the way I am about it. In
stead of saying that I coached
for Alabama, I say that I’ve
coached for Bear Bryant for
four years.”
During August 1954,
Bryant’s first season with the
Aggies, he drew national atten
tion after taking the team more
than 200 miles to Junction to
hold summer workouts. Bryant
took three busloads (96 players)
to the West T exas town to spend
time working out in the 110-
degree heat, but the team re
turned in only one busload after
69 of the players couldn’t com
plete the two weeks of practice.
The trip to Junction and re
cruiting violations by Bryant
and his staff cost the Aggies two
years of probation.
Marvin Tate, a Texas A&M
Athletic Department official un
til 1981 and a starting senior
offensive guard during the 1954
season, described the trip as an
attempt “to build a oneness and
a team togetherness.” One of the
96 “Junction Boys” who made
Former AD Marvin Tate:
“We’ve lost a great man.”
the trip, Tate said the two weeks
weren’t easy.
“He brought us out to Junc
tion to live, eat, sleep and play
football for two weeks,” Tate
said. “He saw it as a resort area,
even though he had never seen
the place. They had had the
worst draught there in 25 years,
I think.
“We lived in little tent-like
setups — they had floors, but no
air conditioning or anything. It
was hot as the devil in the middle
of August, and it was a tremen
dous strain physically and men
tally. Those who could handle it
stayed and those who couldn’t
quit.”
Like many of Bryant’s other
players, Tate said that his for
mer coach has had a strong in
fluence on his life.
“The “great” is overused,”
Tate said, “but we’ve lost a great
man. He’s had a tremendous in
fluence on my lifejust like every-
, one else he’s been in contact
with. He’s a leader. He’s set an
example and has set a mark (his
323 career victories) that I don’t
think will be topped.
“He’s a class person, and any
body who’s ever been associated
with him has been better for it.
It’s hard to explain to people
who haven’t had the opportun
ity to work for him or play for
him. I guess you could say he
was the first one there and the
last one to leave, and he never
asked anyone to do anything
that he wouldn’t have done bet
ter himself.
“One thing that Coach Bryant
had the ability to do is that if you
played for him or coached for
him, he’d never forget you,” he
said. “He was always glad to see
you and he made you feel wel
come. If you tried, then he re
spected you for it.”
Dennis Goehring, who played
for Bryant from 1954-56 and is
now president of the College
Station Industrial Development
Foundation, said he considered
Bryant’s “life is a football game”
philosophy an important one.
“It’s a sad day for me,” said
Goehring, an all-American
guard in 1956 and an all
conference performer in 1955
and 1956. “There are very few
people who have had that much
impact on my life, but he had a
greater impact on my life than
any one individual I’ve ever
known.
See BRYANT page 14
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