August 10, 2006 Issue

It's amazing the effect an individual can have on a town and a state, three decades after his death. Tuscaloosa, Ala. is a fairly typical university town. Its people are more liberal than the surrounding area. People are more educated and have access to more cultural activities than in other places.

In the 196's the state of Alabama consistently ranked at the bottom of every quality of life barometer that existed. In the areas of education, poverty, voting rights, civil rights, human rights, and modern amenities, Alabama ranked near last in every category. The image of Alabama for many people around the world was George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door, denying education to blacks. For others it was the photographs of police dogs attacking peaceful protesters or little girls killed in a church bombing. The actual landscape of the state was peppered with shacks of tenant farmers living in substandard housing.

But in that bleak time, there was one thing Alabamians could be proud of. They had national championship football teams led by a stoic coach with a hounds tooth hat.

Growing up as an Alabama football fan (there was no emphasis on any other sports at that time) involved lots of imagination. The only exposure to Alabama games was to go to them(the stadium only held 40,000 fortunate people), listen to them on the radio, watch the Auburn game (the only game, other than bowl-games that was televised), or watch the Sunday morning replay of the previous day's game. The only blacks able to see games in person were those selling soft drinks or peanuts.

Radio was the medium for the huge majority of Alabama fans. Because of that football became mythical. Its popularity was not from tremendous exposure rather, it was because of a lack of visibility. Radio broadcasts allowed a kid to picture Joe Namath, Lee Roy Jordan, and Kenny Stabler in a way that makes heroes much bigger than life.

There was the opportunity to watch those Sunday morning replays. Bear Bryant would sit with a bowl of Lays potato chips and a bottle of Coca Cola, and in his deep, gravelly voice worn by years of cigarettes and bourbon, mumble about this player or that, who their parents were and what town they came from.

Bear Bryant won national championships with teams whose players were all from Alabama. That wasn't the case at schools like Notre Dame and Southern Cal who recruited across the country. He won with players who were under-sized and too slow. He was the classic coach who "could take his and beat yours, or take yours and beat his."

The first year that he put two black athletes in the backfield at the same time, I watched as he described successive plays. "There goes Calvin Culliver up the middle for five yards," he growled. The next play Willie Shelby ran a sweep to the right. "There goes the other one," he said.

There are many rivalries in college sports. There is only one Auburn versus Alabama football game. One Saturday years ago I had a pre-game lunch at Ollie's Bar-b-que with my parents. They left the restaurant to go to the game at Legion Field and I left to drive back to Destin. It also happened to be the opening day of hunting season. I left Birmingham just before game time and watched the last five minutes of the game at home. There was virtually no traffic in the entire state. Van Tiffin kicked a field goal to win the game for Alabama.

Legion field and Alabama football are only a memory now. This year there are eight home games, all in Tuscaloosa. The new stadium seats 92,000 people. It will be a huge boost to the economy in this small town. There will be opportunities for many more people to see the games in person. For those who can't make the games, they will all be televised on some network or other. And they will be broadcast on the radio. But it won't be the same.

You would be hard-pressed to find any gathering spot in Alabama, any cafÈ or truck stop or bar, that doesn’t have at least one photograph of Bear Bryant.

We just opened a restaurant in Tuscaloosa. There are numerous primitive, folk paintings on the old brick walls and there are sleek flat screen televisions to watch an endless stream of football games.

Harbor Docks has fishing photographs that span 50 years of history in the world's luckiest fishing village. We have photographs on the walls of our new restaurant also. There are 17 photos that line a single wall. We are new in town, here in Tuscaloosa. We decided to play it safe. They are all of Coach Bryant.

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