Reply #60: Bryant didn't care a lot about what people thought of him...

[ProdigalJunkMail]

that is true. His goal in life was to win football games...and along the way he helped a hell of a lot of players become better men. Yeah, he screwed up a few too, but the vast proportion he helped.

The atmosphere at the University and in the south in general did not lend to recruiting blacks at any in the 60's and in fact was fought over well into the 70's. Bear saw many black athletes that he would have loved to have recruited and gotten to his team...the region was FULL of talent that he lamented not being able to obtain.

You can say that the University had racists policies that prevented the recruiting of black athletes...that would be very true. You could say that the vast majority of athletic support for the University had no desire to see blacks in college or on their precious football team. But to say that Paul Bryant was a racist is sadly uninformed and quite rude. I'm sorry you didn't know the man...you certainly would not have this opinion of him.

theProdigal