Coach: The Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant

4.1/5 ( ratings)

"Revised & Updated"

More than two decades after his death, Paul "Bear" Bryant's imposing shadow still towers over the sport of college football.
For twenty-five years at the University of Alabama, and thirteen years before that at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M, Bryant pushed his players to excel with a combination of charisma and fear, winning 323 games and six national championships.
In this definitive portrait of a rough-hewn man with an extraordinary gift for leadership, Keith Dunnavant shows how Bryant survived headline-grabbing controversies and the vagaries of a changing social landscape to become college football's greatest coach and the foremost Southern icon of his time.
Coach is the epic story of a larger-than-life figure who overcame poverty and insecurity with intense desire and steely will, reflecting the transformational power of the American experience while emerging as a beacon of pride for Alabamians who felt defensive about their place in the world.

Praise for Coach

"The definitive Bear Bryant biography.... The first serious attempt to portray Bryant as he really was...."
---John Pruett, The Huntsville Times

"Bryant's story says volumes about America and that story is very ably told by Dunnavant...."
---Geoffrey Norman, American Way Magazine

"Balanced and intelligent."
---Kirkus Reviews

"A masterful job."
---The Christian Science Monitor

"Dunnavant skillfully raised my eyebrows...[in] a robust and revealing biography of college football's greatest coach."
---Paul Finebaum, Birmingham Post-Herald

"A thoroughly captivating read."
---Larry Woody, The Tennessean

"Thanks to Dunnavant, the Bear has a biography that does him justice."
---The Sporting News