Quotes About Bear Bryant

#1. The three biggest funerals in Alabama history define the state's contending loyalties, I was told: George Wallace's, Martin Luther King's, and Bear Bryant's.

Paul Theroux

#2. Our coach was absolutely out of his head. He must have read Bear Bryant's book. We had 78 players out. The first day 35 quit. Twenty quit the second day. We ended with 17 players. It was depressing.

Merlin Olsen

#3. Remember this. Bear Bryant retired at age 69, and he died 28 days after he stopped coaching. If you don't have something, and a purpose in your life, you're gonna die.

Lou Holtz

#4. Coach (Bear) Bryant wanted to see who was tough in the spring, who he could count on in the fall.

Gene Stallings

#5. John McDonnell is the Bear Bryant of track and field.

Frank Broyles

#6. An Atheist in Alabama is one that doesn't believe in Bear Bryant.

Wally Butts

#7. Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.

Bear Bryant

#8. If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it's my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price.

Bear Bryant

#9. Recognize winners. They come in all forms.

Bear Bryant

#10. They say I teach brutal football, but the only thing brutal about football is losing.

Bear Bryant

#11. At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.

Bear Bryant

#12. If you don't have discipline, you can't have a successful program.

Bear Bryant

#13. Don't give up. Reach down inside of you and you'll find something left.

Bear Bryant

#14. If they don't have a winning attitude, I don't want them.

Bear Bryant

#15. One man doesn't make a team. It takes eleven.

Bear Bryant

#16. I didn't have a thing to do with picking a coach, and didn't want to. But I didn't think they'd pick one I didn't like.

Bear Bryant

#17. In my lifetime, I may have put too much emphasis on winning, because here I am an old man and the only fun I've had is winning, and that's ridiculous.

Bear Bryant

#18. All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die.

Bear Bryant

#19. The summer day is closed, the sun is set: Well they have done their office, those bright hours, The latest of whose train goes softly out In the red west.

Bear Bryant

#20. The biggest mistake coaches make is taking borderline cases and trying to save them. I'm not talking about grades now, I'm talking about character. I want to know before a boy enrolls about his home life, and what his parents want him to be.

Bear Bryant

#21. I'm no innovator. If anything I'm a stealer, or borrower. I've stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at.

Bear Bryant

#22. When you win, there's glory enough for everybody. When you lose, there's glory for none.

Bear Bryant

#23. Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Bear Bryant

#24. I'm no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.

Bear Bryant

#25. If you don't learn anything but self discipline, then athletics is worthwhile.

Bear Bryant

#26. My approach to the game has been the same at all the places I've been. Vanilla. The sure way. That means, first of all, to win physically. If you got eleven on a field, and they beat the other eleven physically, they'll win. They will start forcing mistakes. They'll win in the fourth quarter.

Bear Bryant

#27. I don't hire anybody not brighter than I am. If they're not brighter than I am, I don't need them.

Bear Bryant

#28. I tell young players who want to be coaches, who think they can put up with all the headaches and heartaches, can you live without it? If you can live without it, don't get in it.

Bear Bryant

#29. Back 12 years ago, when Dr. Mathews was president here, we had a plan that when I got ready to quit, we'd bring a certain guy in and he'd take over that day and I'd leave. But as time wore on, I realized that wouldn't have been good at all.

Bear Bryant

#30. People who are in it for their own good are individualists. They don't share the same heartbeat that makes a team so great. A great unit, whether it be football or any organization, shares the same heartbeat.

Bear Bryant

#31. Get the winners into the game.

Bear Bryant

#32. It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be
unimaginable

Bear Bryant

#33. Football changes and so do people.

Bear Bryant

#34. I've had many a player tell me all through high school and right up until signing day that they were coming to Alabama, then they signed with somebody else.

Bear Bryant

#35. I want to make sure I don't interfere with the success of that team next year. I don't see any way I could go to practice like most of 'em do, and not hurt the team. I'd go nuts if I tried doing that.

Bear Bryant

#36. If a man is a quitter, I'd rather find out in practice than in a game. I ask for all a player has so I'll know later what I can expect.

Bear Bryant

#37. Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you.

Bear Bryant

#38. You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team.

Bear Bryant

#39. Georgia Tech beat us and Mississippi Southern tied us last year, and Texas beat us after we had the game won. We only played about five games the way we were capable of playing and lost one of those.

Bear Bryant

#40. Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it.

Bear Bryant

#41. If we'd beaten 'em, I wouldn't be going out.

Bear Bryant

#42. I've made so many mistakes that if I don't make the same mistakes over, we're going to come pretty close to winning.

Bear Bryant

#43. The fun never goes out, but it changes with the years, with winning and losing.

Bear Bryant

#44. I can reach a kid who doesn't have any ability as long as he doesn't know it.

Bear Bryant

#45. Most coaches study the films when they lose. I study them when we win -to see if I can figure out what I did right

Bear Bryant

#46. I hope to get out before they start football next year.

Bear Bryant

#47. If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It's in my blood.

Bear Bryant

#48. I'm no genius, but I'm a damn good football coach.

Bear Bryant

#49. Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin' and preachin' were a lot alike.

Bear Bryant

#50. Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you'll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don't have a plan. That's why it's easy to beat most folks.

Bear Bryant

#51. First there are those who are winners, and know they are winners. Then there are the losers who know they are losers. Then there are those who are not winners, but don't know it. They're the ones for me. They never quit trying. They're the soul of our game.

Bear Bryant

#52. Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers.

Bear Bryant

#53. In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first ahead of personal glory.

Bear Bryant

#54. If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear

Kobe Bryant

#55. Don't talk too much. Don't pop off. Don't talk after the game until you cool off.

Bear Bryant

#56. I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude. The coaches must have it. The players must have it. The student body must have it. If you have dedicated players who believe in themselves, you don't need a lot of talent.

Bear Bryant

#57. I don't have any ideas; my coaches have them. I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.

Bear Bryant

#58. You have to learn what makes this or that Sammy run. For one it's a pat on the back, for another it's eating him out, for still another it's a fatherly talk, or something else. You're a fool if you think as I did as a young coach, that you can treat them all alike.

Bear Bryant

#59. Being inside Tiger Stadium is like being on the inside of a drum.

Bear Bryant

#60. Three rules for coaching: 1.) Surround yourself with people who can't live without football. 2.) Recognize winners. They come in all forms. 3.) Have a plan for everything.

Bear Bryant

#61. I'll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we'll be champions.

Bear Bryant

#62. I don't care how much talent a team has - if the boys don't think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how they play tough on Saturday.

Bear Bryant

#63. If you are going to be a successful duck hunter, you must go where the ducks are.

Bear Bryant

#64. It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.

Bear Bryant

#65. It's kind of hard to rally around a math class.

Bear Bryant

#66. There ought to be a special place in heaven for coaches' wives.

Bear Bryant

#67. It's been years since I've had a real input in the game anyway. For this game, I've just tried to keep all the other stuff away from the players and coaches.

Bear Bryant

#68. Be aware of "yes" men. Generally, they are losers. Surround yourself with winners. Never forget - people win.

Bear Bryant

#69. There is no sin in not liking to play; it's a mistake for a boy to be there if he doesn't want to.

Bear Bryant

#70. Don't talk too much or too soon.

Bear Bryant

#71. I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games.

Bear Bryant

#72. Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.

Bear Bryant

#73. You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.

Bear Bryant

#74. Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit.

Bear Bryant

#75. I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.

Bear Bryant

#76. But it's still a coach's game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don't have a good one at the top, you don't have a cut dog's chance. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board.

Bear Bryant

#77. Lee Roy was the best college linebacker - bar none. He would have made every tackle on every play if they had stayed in bounds.

Bear Bryant

#78. I ain't never had much fun. I ain't never been two inches away from a football. Here guys go fishing on the day of the game, hunting, golfing, and all I want to do is be alone, studying how not to lose.

Bear Bryant

#79. I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

Bear Bryant

#80. I can remember loving to recruit. I knew I was going to do my best. But traveling and recruiting doesn't appeal to me any more. It's not as much fun as it used to be.

Bear Bryant

#81. In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it.

Bear Bryant

#82. I'll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop.

Bear Bryant

#83. Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you.

Bear Bryant

#84. I'm known as a recruiter. Well you've got to have chicken to make chicken salad.

Bear Bryant

#85. You have to be willing to out-condition your opponents.

Bear Bryant

#86. When I was a young coach I used to say, "Treat everybody alike." That's bull. Treat everybody fairly.

Bear Bryant

#87. The idea of molding men means a lot to me.

Bear Bryant

#88. Winning isn't imperative, but getting tougher in the fourth quarter is.

Bear Bryant

#89. Set goals - high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.

Bear Bryant

#90. I always want my players to show class, knock'em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle.

Bear Bryant

#91. Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum.

Bear Bryant

#92. Football games are generally won by the boys with the greatest desire.

Bear Bryant

#93. Sure, I'd love to beat Notre Dame, don't get me wrong. But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state!

Bear Bryant

#94. Everybody's got pretty good players now, more players than there've ever been. If you play poorly, you're going to get beat.

Bear Bryant

#95. I'm happy with the coach we have. I think any one of the ones I asked them to consider would've been good.

Bear Bryant

#96. I'm not much of a golfer, I don't have any friends and all I like to do is go home and be alone, and not worry about ways not to lose.

Bear Bryant

#97. I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running.

Bear Bryant

#98. A champion pays an extra price to be better than anyone else.

Bear Bryant

#99. A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won't be happening.

Bear Bryant

#100. Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.

Bear Bryant