Bear Bryant - 25 years later

The morning newspaper had a 2-page tribute to Bear Bryant, who died 25 years ago today. If I had to make a list of the Ten People I Most Admired in my Life, Bear Bryant would be in there. I don't know who the other nine would be, but Bear's in there for sure. I bet Coach Bryant was responsible for more NCAA football rule changes than any other coach. Every year, he'd have a new trick play for the Tennessee game, a play nobody had ever used anywhere before, except maybe in sandlot. It was usually good for a touchdown, and for the remaining month of the season, you'd see other teams trying it. Then the NCAA Rules Committee would create new rules so you couldn't do it anymore.

The man was a genius with the rules. He knew how far he could go with his trick plays and stay within the rules. It was comical, almost, except to Tennessee fans, that he'd have a special play for Tennessee, every year. In 1976 or 77, I think (it's hard to remember), he didn't really need the trick play to beat the Vols, but he used it anyway. Leading 26-7 in Knoxville with just over two minutes left to play in the game, the Bear unveiled one of his yet unforeseen plays to increase the lead to 32-7, resulting in a long chorus of "boooooo" from the Orange faithful.

Then the Crimson Tide lined up and went for two instead of kicking an extra point.

More boos.

The attempt failed, but the boos continued.

After the game, Coach Bryant explained, "We have a chart that tells us when to kick the extra point and when to go for two," and dismissed it with that.

As one Volunteer fan pointed out: "We had two minutes and ten seconds. If we had somehow scored three times and gone for two, successfully, each time, in that two minutes and ten seconds, Alabama would still have led 33-31, if they'd've kicked the extra point. But if we had scored four times and kicked an extra point each time, and Alabama hadn't scored again after a successful two-point conversion, Tennessee would have won by 35-34. So why in the world did they go for two except to rile the fans?"

Gotta love Bear Bryant. He had a reason for special treatment for Tennessee.

But that's another post. Stay tuned.



[p.s. - this is a memory from 30 years ago, and I'm in my sixties and too lazy to look up the details, so if you can correct any faulty memory I have, feel free to do so in Comments, below, but what I've posted is the gist of what happened - B.E.]