Bear Bryant
The recently published book, The Last Coach: A Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant, by Allen Barra, features a number of Chattanooga connections to the iconic former coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation – and one that has apparently never been publicized in Chattanooga – is that the late fiery coach with the houndstooth hat and mumbling voice had a longtime affinity for Krystal hamburgers.
The W.A. Norton and Company book – which is being praised by some as the best-researched biography of Coach Bryant ever written – said that he liked Krystal burgers at least as far back as 1945.
It said that when he took his first head-coaching job at Maryland that year, his family stayed behind initially while he lived in the George Washington Hotel near the college. Mr. Barra wrote that Coach Bryant “conducted strategy sessions at a Krystal hamburger joint across the street. For the next couple of months, they (he and his assistant coaches) would eat hamburgers morning, noon and night.”
Later in the book, Mr. Barra quoted Coach Bryant’s grandson, Marc Tyson (son of Baylor School graduate John Tyson), regarding the famous coach’s eating habits. He said that if he had time, Coach Bryant would stop somewhere and eat a country breakfast. “On days when he didn’t have time, he’d go for Krystal hamburgers,” Mr. Tyson said.
Although this is not mentioned in the book, Chattanoogan Kurt Schmissrauter – who lettered as an offensive lineman on Coach Bryant’s last teams at Alabama in the early 1980s – said that the late Krystal executive Gordon Davenport was one of the coach’s local friends. So, perhaps this friendship continued to fuel his interest in Krystal hamburgers.
He had other acquaintances in Chattanooga as well, Mr. Schmissrauter said, including Tom Prestwood, whose son, Tommy, had played for Coach Bryant in the 1970s, and former Alabama baseball player Charlie Olgiati, the son of former Chattanooga Mayor Rudy Olgiati.
Mr. Prestwood and perhaps others brought him to the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club to play golf at least once, and Mr. Prestwood would often talk to him on the phone from the Mountain City Club.
“(Bartender) Noah Oliver down at the Mountain City recalled on several occasions when Mr. Prestwood would come into the Mountain City Club, he would ask him to get Coach on the phone,” Mr. Schmissrauter said. “Noah would call Coach Bryant and many times Mrs. (Mary Harmon) Bryant would answer and retrieve Coach saying Noah was on the phone in Chattanooga.”
Reached last week, Mr. Oliver said that Mr. Prestwood would ask him to call so regularly that Coach Bryant’s home number was kept on the wall in the bar.
On one occasion, Mr. Davenport brought Coach Bryant into the club, and Mr. Oliver had a chance to meet him. “He walked in and I said, ‘Coach, I didn’t know you were that tall.’ He was a really nice guy,” Mr. Oliver said. “He didn’t speak harshly or anything toward anybody.”
Mr. Schmissrauter said that former Read House liquor store owner Paul Stone told him that when Coach Bryant would stay in Chattanooga, he would often stay on the top floor of the Read House. “He spoke about Coach pretty much having the run of the place,” he said.
Mr. Schmissrauter said that in 1978, when he was a junior at Notre Dame High, Mr. Prestwood and Mr. Olgiati brought Alabama assistant coach Bill Oliver to meet him at the Nautilus Fitness Center in North Chattanooga. Coach Oliver later signed him to a scholarship to Alabama but took the UTC head-coaching job a few weeks later.
While playing at Alabama, Mr. Schmissrauter became acquainted with Mrs. Bryant. He had injured his knee in practice his sophomore year, and she had called his hospital room after he had surgery, as was her custom with injured players.
“I got to know Mrs. Bryant pretty well in college and would visit her from time to time,” Mr. Schmissrauter remembered. “Sometimes it would be awkward visiting when Coach would come home.”
When Coach Bryant died in January 1983, just a month after coaching his last game at Alabama, Mr. Schmissrauter received a rare honor – getting to be Mrs. Bryant’s escort during the large and memorable funeral. “I am not certain that Mrs. Bryant requested me, but I was honored to be chosen as the player to escort Mrs. Bryant into and out of the church that day of Coach's funeral,” he said.
Another strong Chattanooga acquaintance was former Moc football coach A.C. “Scrappy” Moore. Coach Moore’s son, Scrappy Moore Jr., remembered in the book, Mocs Football: A History, that Coach Bryant would regularly visit the Moore home.
Former University of Chattanooga head coaches Frank Thomas and Red Drew also later served as head coaches at Alabama and were both closely connected with Coach Bryant. Coach Thomas’ son, Frank Jr., who went to Baylor, said in the Mocs book that Coach Bryant developed many of his coaching strategies from Coach Thomas, who had been his head coach at Alabama.
Several other Chattanoogans played for Coach Bryant, including Ronnie Robertson of City High and Baylor boarding students John, Charles, and David Hannah, among a number of others.
Another former Baylor boarding student who is mentioned prominently in the book is Chick Graning, who played at Georgia Tech. His injury after getting hit by Alabama player Darwin Holt in 1961 touched off a very public disagreement between the two schools and between Coach Bryant and Tech coach Bobby Dodd.
Another Chattanoogaan mentioned prominently in the book is General Sessions Court Judge Ron Durby. Mr. Barra wrote that in 1967, when Alabama was having trouble stopping the passing attack of Florida State, Coach Bryant began yelling from the sidelines for the defensive coaches to send in Mr. Durby, who had been an outstanding pass rusher.
Future Auburn Coach Pat Dye, who was then an Alabama assistant, figured he better do as Coach Bryant wanted and began frantically shouting, “Durby. Where’s Durby?” Finally, according to assistant Dude Hennessey, “One of us worked up the nerve to tell Dye to tell Coach that Durby had graduated three years before.”
According to the author, Coach Bryant stood with his hands on his hips and stared at Coach Dye. After a moment, Coach Bryant in peppered language told him that he did not care if Durby had graduated; he still wanted him in the game.
Judge Durby recalled recently that former UTC athletic director and former Alabama quarterback Steve Sloan used to like to tell that story.
Judge Durby, who was at Alabama from 1960-64, remembered that Coach Bryant was a very demanding and disciplined coach.
“It was a totally different world,” he said. “It was sort of like being in the military. He hated mistakes and you would pay the price. When you played for him, you either loved him or hated him. But after you played for him, he would do anything for you.”
He remembered hearing stories of Coach Bryant helping former players during times of financial need or other crises.
“If you paid the price to him, he paid it back,” he said.
Judge Durby said that Coach Bryant helped him get a coaching job with the UTC football team by recommending him to Coach Moore. Because the position included teaching responsibilities, Judge Durby declined initially. But when Harold Wilkes became the head coach after Coach Moore retired in 1967, Judge Durby was able to find a suitable position. He stayed with the Mocs until going off to law school.
The biography not only humanizes Coach Bryant by talking in detail regarding some of his vices, it also perhaps adds to his legend by discussing how he was able to get the most out of his players and help them as people.
The book includes several humorous anecdotes, including when he secretly went for a Hollywood screen test while the Alabama team for which he was an assistant coach was playing in the Rose Bowl in the 1930s. Numerous Alabama people saw him and chided him about it.
He also went with some sports writers on a tour of his former hometown in Arkansas one time, and one writer looked at the humble setting and asked him if he was born in a log cabin. His tongue-in-cheek reply was that Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin, but that he was born in a manger.
The biography is also full of moving moments as well. For example, when he was talking to his team a few days before his final game in the Liberty Bowl, he uncharacteristically became choked up emotionally and could not speak for several moments.
Mr. Barra – an Alabama fan himself – ends wondering why Alabama has had such misfortunate since Coach Bryant died, A number of head coaches have not worked out, he said, and the team has had only a handful of successful seasons reminiscent of the greatness to which Crimson Tide fans became accustomed while Coach Bryant was coaching.