Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach with CD [Hardcover]

Paul "Bear" Bryant (Author), John Underwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2007

Paul "Bear" Bryant created legendary, successful football programs at Kentucky, Texas A&M, and the University of Alabama. Bryant redefined coaching excellence through his unique communication and care for players. Using his coaching methods, he achieved an amazing 323 victories and shaped players such as Babe Parilli, Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow, and Joe Namath. In Bear and the audio CD, Bear Bryant: Speaking from the Heart, Bryant tells his life story with candor and insight, giving the reader a chance to understand the man behind the legend.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"I want to be as close as I can with a boy without destroying the coach-player relationship. I remember so well, after I played my last game, how alone I felt, and I want my boys to always feel they can come to me. And I'll say this, you can learn as much from them as you can teach them." --Paul "Bear" Bryant

"...I realized that the implications were greater than that. ...the things Paul `Bear' Bryant did, and the things he said, achieved a relevance far beyond the context he said and did them in. Beyond anything even he would have dared imagine, actually. I believe now that the length of his shadow might very well be endless. A coach for the ages, yes. But much more." --from the Introduction by John Underwood

From the Inside Flap

The great George Blanda, a football icon in his own right, once said this about Paul W. "Bear" Bryant: "When he walked into the room, you wanted to stand up and applaud." Bryant's poignant autobiography with best-selling author John Underwood tells you exactly why Blanda's assertion was shared by so many who came in contact with the legendary coach. With 323 coaching victories and a record six national championships, Bryant was undoubtedly the most successful football coach of his era. He turned around losing teams at every college for which he coached. He coached people, not players, as Bum Phillips, one of his longtime assistants, used to say. In Bear, Bryant tells how his communication with and care for his players became a coaching methodology, and how this extended well beyond the football field. Bryant's persona and accomplishments, both on and off the field, contributed equally to his status as an American icon. His own inimitable words display a frankness that is both remarkable and revealing. Experience Bear's hardscrabble youth in Moro Bottom, Arkansas, and his playing days at the University of Alabama. Learn of Bryant's greatest challenge off the field, a defamatory accusation of game-fixing from The Saturday Evening Post, which created unbelievable heartache for him and his family. The particulars of the pain they went through to combat these lies are presented here in detail and with surprising candor. All of the experiences that shaped Bear Bryant are recorded in his words--from his earliest coaching experiences and subsequent head jobs at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M to his legendary reign at his alma mater. Despite his death more than 20 years ago, Bryant's life is still profoundly relevant. This reissue of his autobiography includes a new introduction and an accompanying audio CD, Bear Bryant: Speaking from the Heart, of Bryant discussing his life in, and outside of, football.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (July 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572438886
• ISBN-13: 978-1572438880
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Coaching > Football (American)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, November 15, 2007

By 

Doster McMullen (Southeast USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach with CD (Hardcover)

Growing up in Tuscaloosa, and being around during the period Coach Bryant was coaching at Alabama, I can really appreciate this wonderful book. Over several years, the author spent hundreds of hours with Coach Bryant, and had the opportunity to record many hours of interviews with the Coach. These interviews cover his years of early childhood, his playing days at Alabama and his coaching stints at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and of course, Coaching at Alabama.

The book is written like Coach Bryant was dictating the whole book....you can just hear and see Coach Bryant telling the story as only he could tell a story. He talks freely and honestly about his early life growing up in Arkansas and his career as a Football Coach. He (Coach Bryant) talks about his misstates during his coaching career and his successes in coaching.

This book and a book by Kirk McNair (editor of Bama Magazine) entitled: "What It Means To Be Crimson Tide" are two of the best books on Alabama football and its rich tradition. Both are a must have for any sports fan.


Buy "Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach" if you are a Alabama fan, a coach (of any sport), a businessman or if you just want to read a very good book about a true American Sports Hero.

(The CD of Coach Bryant talking is worth the price of this book.)

Great Trivia question from this book: What year did Coach Bryant first get a job offer to be the Head Coach at Alabama? (1957 or 1958 is wrong.) ......1946...page 107....this book is great!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective and Accurate, December 17, 2007

By 

Jason (Gadsden, AL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach with CD (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent depiction of a man (not a god). Underwood masterfully relays events and conversations first hand and resists the temptation to sensationalize. This is not just a book for Alabama fans but for any football fan or someone who simply wants to know how to win. Winning, for Bryant was an art of knowing your opponent and motivating your team. Underwood doesn't shield for Bryant's shortcomings and displays them almost as if Bryant himself were there to say "This is what not to do". Great read

5.0 out of 5 stars best coach ever, September 5, 2011

By 

Sonja K. Townsend (Double Springs Alabama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach with CD (Hardcover)

This book was bought as a gift for a hugh bama fan. He loves the book. Will continue to buy bama products.