Word: bryants
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...deciding to step down one year before reaching the state's mandatory retirement age of 70 (if the state could make that stick), Bryant was influenced by the recruits he had been losing in growing numbers, as more and more mothers sought to know exactly how long he would be around to smile on their sons. A year ago, perhaps the three leading prospects in the state of Alabama all chose Auburn, and one of them scored the touchdown that brought the Tigers their first victory over the Tide in ten years...
That 23-22 loss goes down on the ledger as the last regular-season game in Bryant's 38 head-coaching years at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama...
...Sometimes," says Bryant, "I wish they wouldn't keep records. You count the games because it's too hard to count the kids, the parents, the high school coaches, the preachers, everyone who has touched every kid. Multiply a whole lot of years by a whole lot of people and you've got 300-and-some victories, and all of the bowls couldn't hold all of the people who hold the record...
...hard to see why Bryant is a cherished man, but he is not a candidate for sainthood. "All of the other schools were doing it, so we did it too," he openly confesses his Texas A&M recruiting sins, the usual ones involving cash and cars. While the infamous Junction, Texas, training camp of 1954 is a fond piece of his fable to some, Bryant is not proud of running 69 of 96 Aggie football players off the team. The brutal 110° F heat was not the only brutality. "It was terrible," he says. "All my life...
Something else to wonder about: it is a matter of uncomfortable record that the first black player Bryant ever recruited is still playing football, Washington Redskins Running Back Wilbur Jackson (class of '74). Three years ago, Bryant responded feebly to a lingering charge that he had once talked aloud of never wanting any black players on his team: "I don't recall it. I'd bet my life I never said it. Maybe I did. I don't say anything that would come back to haunt me." But it is also a matter of record that...