Biography:

Football coach. Born–September 11, 1913,  Kingsland, Ark. Parents– Wilson Monroe and Ida (Kilgore) Bryant. Married– Mary Harmon Black, August 3, 1934. Children– Two. Education– University of Alabama, B.S., 1939.  U. S. Navy, WWII. Served as assistant football coach at the University of Alabama, 1936-1940; assistant football coach at Vanderbilt University 1940-1941; head football coach at the University of Maryland (1945-46), the University of Kentucky (1946-53), and Texas A & M (1954-57); head football coach, University of Alabama, 1958-1983. On his retirement in 1983, held the record as head coach with the most wins (323) in college football.  Won six national championships and 13 conference championships at Alabama.  Honors; Won numerous coaching and citizenship awards, including twelve Southeastern Coach of the Year Awards and three National Coach of the Year awards. The University of Alabama named an athletic hall and stadium in his honor. Statues of Coach Bryant have been placed at the gate to Legion Field in Birmingham and at the entrance to Bryant-Denny Stadium on the UA campus. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan, 1983. Depicted on a U. S. postage stamp, 1996.  Died January 26, 1983.

Source:

Who’s Who in America, 1982; biography.com.

Publication(s):

Bear Bryant on Winning Football.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, 1983.

Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama’s Coach Bear Bryant.  New York:  Bantam, 1975.

Building a Championship Football Team. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-Hall, 1960.

Papers;

Papers and other memorabilia  of Coach Bear Bryant are held by the Bear Bryant Museum and the Hoole Special Collections Library, both at the University of Alabama.