Football's Supercoach

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Bryant has fed his football machine with generation after generation of blue-chip athletes. "You've got to have chickens," says Bryant, "before you can make chicken salad." He now leaves most of the barnstorming to ten assistants, but in his time he was a courtly and soft-spoken charmer who persuaded parents in order to win over their strong and swift sons.* To sell Alabama, his staff tells prospects, with veracity, that they will have a chance to play on a national championship team if they come with the Bear. Rival coaches try to turn Bryant's reputation to their advantage. Says Auburn Coach Doug Barfield: "We have to sell the concept of having a chance to beat him." Bryant regularly gets the sons of former players: John David Crow Jr., for instance, was a running back three seasons ago. And occasionally Bryant steps in to save the day, and a prospect. Says Bryant: "Recruiting is the one thing I hate. I won't do it unless my coaches tell me I've just got to. The whole process is kind of undignified for me and the young man." Not necessarily. Says one former recruit: "Just knowing that that man came into my home to talk to my parents made me an idol around high school."

The man who had once driven players to unconsciousness under the Texas sun hired an expert in tropical medicine to teach him about fluid intake, electrolyte balance and heat-humidity ratios. As the scandals recede in memory, his skills as coach have been increasingly appreciated.

As for his big, grizzly, anything-to-win image, that came into question when he suspended Joe Namath, his most famous player, for breaking training rules in 1963. Neither man will reveal the details of the infraction, but whatever its cause, the coach benched his star quarterback before the final regular-season game against Miami and extended the banishment to include the Sugar Bowl. "I don't guess anybody would think much of what Joe did nowadays, including myself," Bryant says. "But he was supposed to be a leader, so he had to live by the rules. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, and it was to the greatest athlete I ever coached."

Mary Harmon Bryant was there to soothe the wounds. Says she: "When Joe was kicked off the team, I sent for him. When he got here, I hugged him and we both just cried like babies. I said to Joe, 'What happened? You couldn't do anything bad. You're just too good a boy to do anything bad.' All he would say was, 'No, ma'am, Coach Bryant is right.' I told him to stay with me. He came out to the house and stayed several days in a room downstairs. Paul never did know it; I never told him." Says Namath: "She hid me out. It was a tough, trying time in my young life. I was hurt. She knew that and responded by protecting me, helping in a motherly way." The next year Namath came back to star again.