| FTBL 40 years ago today, Coach Bryant passed away…

I was in 6th grade at Corner Elementary when my teacher came in crying and gave us the news. I had met Coach Bryant a year or two before in the end zone at Legion Field and he reminded me of my great grandfather that had passed away earlier. I told Coach that I was going to play for him one day. Every time we would play football in the yard or at the school, I would pretend to be Stedman Shealey or Jeff Rutledge when on offense or Barry Krauss or Tommy Wilcox on defense. Summer of ‘89, I would report as a walk on.
 
I was in the 5th grade. I remember almost all of the teachers crying when it was announced over the intercom. Even those who were Auburn fans were crying. Just shows you how much he was respected by those who were fans of opposing teams. And I remember my mom coming to pick me up after school and I could tell she'd been crying. A sad day, indeed. And I still remember watching the funeral on TV and seeing that looooooooong line of cars going down the interstate from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, headed to Elmwood cemetery. And all the signs having off of the overpasses...

Here's a few of my "Bear" things:
ehtJSLe.jpg


My mom did the cross-stitch on this.
DbJsRH0.jpg


Cardboard stand-up (not life-size, though. If it was, it'd be much taller)
SBcIfcE.jpg


The magazine covers came from where my dad used to work. The company he worked for made them. He grabbed a few and brought them home. Yep, even a couple that said "Do Not Remove This Magazine From Lobby", lol.
The 2 smaller books are both leather-bound with gilded edges on the pages. I have the regular versions of them, too
UnlaGyi.jpg


You can see the regular versions of the 2 books from the previous image, in this row of books. This isn't all of my ALABAMA books, btw. I have at least this many in the bookcase to the left of this, if not more.
z5MTlIO.jpg


Bobblehead that was not cheap (birthday gift)
R14XwF6.jpg


Stuffed bear #1
c52dGrZ.jpg


Stuffed bear #2
puam8tX.jpg


Golden Flake tin
gpgGcbc.jpg
 
Last edited:
I was in 6th grade at Corner Elementary when my teacher came in crying and gave us the news. I had met Coach Bryant a year or two before in the end zone at Legion Field and he reminded me of my great grandfather that had passed away earlier. I told Coach that I was going to play for him one day. Every time we would play football in the yard or at the school, I would pretend to be Stedman Shealey or Jeff Rutledge when on offense or Barry Krauss or Tommy Wilcox on defense. Summer of ‘89, I would report as a walk on.
I was in 6th grade, too. Mom told me when she picked me up from school. Had a buddy who was a UT fan (I grew up in TN) that called me after I got home and asked if I had heard. I believe that was the only time we ever spoke on the phone.
 
I was in the 5th grade. I remember almost all of the teachers crying when it was announced over the intercom. Even those who were Auburn fans were crying. Just shows you how much he was respected by those who were fans of opposing teams. And I remember my mom coming to pick me up after school and I could tell she'd been crying. A sad day, indeed. And I still remember watching the funeral on TV and seeing that looooooooong line of cars going down the interstate from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, headed to Elmwood cemetery. And all the signs having off of the overpasses...

Here's a few of my "Bear" things:
ehtJSLe.jpg


My mom did the cross-stitch on this.
DbJsRH0.jpg


Cardboard stand-up (not life-size, though. If it was, it'd be much taller)
SBcIfcE.jpg


The magazine covers came from where my dad used to work. The company he worked for made them. He grabbed a few and brought them home. Yep, even a couple that said "Do Not Remove This Magazine From Lobby", lol.
The 2 smaller books are both leather-bound with gilded edges on the pages. I have the regular versions of them, too
UnlaGyi.jpg


You can see the regular versions of the 2 books from the previous image, in this row of books. This isn't all of my ALABAMA books, btw. I have at least this many in the bookcase to the left of this, if not more.
z5MTlIO.jpg


Bobblehead that was not cheap (birthday gift)
R14XwF6.jpg


Stuffed bear #1
c52dGrZ.jpg


Stuffed bear #2
puam8tX.jpg


Golden Flake tin
gpgGcbc.jpg

Your stuff is great....congrats

Looked for a cutout of the standup "bear"l..
Almost had one advertising some birmingham diamond store...just missed it...

But cant have everything...i guess
 
I still vividly remember coming home from school and seeing the Birmingham News in our front yard (the news was an afternoon delivery then). I heard what happened from a prick neighbor who skipped school that day, so I immediately opened the paper...Just lost it. My childhood hero, gone.
Roger Hallmark may have captured all our hearts and souls with this song:


Roger Hallmark was from Cullman, just a skip and a jump up I-65 from Warrior where I grew up. He was a few years older than my Dad, but they knew one another. “Bear” was his best known recording.
 
Your stuff is great....congrats

Looked for a cutout of the standup "bear"l..
Almost had one advertising some birmingham diamond store...just missed it...

But cant have everything...i guess
Thanks.

I got mine from a good friend. He had 2; gave me 1. I wanted one of Nick Saban, but every one that I found was already spoken for. You can buy them, but they usually go for over $100+, form what I've seen.
 
Has never been my experience. The running jokes just after his death were something like "BAMA living off dead bear" , etc. Not sure I can say what other fan bases were like but the Barners in B'ham were filthy nasty.
To this day, the barners STILL say that Bama is living off of a dead Bear, even despite us having had Saban for so long. I guess they have been in a coma since 2008 LOL. Hell, they are still living off of beating us 6 years in a row from the early to mid 2000's :ROFLMAO:
 
Back
Top Bottom