Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fordyce, Arkansas

Paul Bryant was born and raised in Moro Bottom, located in the city of Fordyce, Arkansas. He played football for the Fordyce Redbugs. They went undefeated and won the state championship in 1930, his senior year. He eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Alabama.

Answer: True

As a three year starter, Paul Bryant played at the University of Alabama from 1933-1935. He played for the legendary Frank Thomas. His team won a Southeastern Conference Title and a National Championship.

Answer: Wilbur Jackson

Wilbur Jackson from Ozark, Alabama, signed in 1969. Though legend has it that in 1970, USC's Sam Cunningham's performance against Alabama had convinced Coach Bryant to recruit African American athletes, Coach Bryant had already recruited and signed Jackson the previous December. Coach Bryant did say, "Cunningham did more for integration in Alabama in sixty minutes than Martin Luther King did in twenty years."

Answer: Union College, Tennessee

Coach Bryant's first experience as a college coach came in 1935, when he went to Union College in Jackson, Tennessee, to install Notre Dame's box offense.

Answer: True

Coach Bryant's teams of 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978 and 1979 were crowned National Champions. His teams won 15 Conference Titles, including one Southwest Conference Title while at Texas A&M.

Answer: Arkansas

Coach Bryant began his head coaching career at Maryland in 1942. He later coached at Kentucky, Texas A&M and finally returned to his Alma Mater, Alabama, where he finished his career.

Answer: True

A man in a wagon had come into town and offered a dollar per minute to anyone who would wrestle his black bear. Bryant earned his one-dollar, while receiving a badly bitten ear during the brawl.

Answer: John David Crow

John David Crow arrived in College Station, Texas, in the summer of 1954. Freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity football during that era and thus Crowe didn't make the Junction trip of '54. He later won the Heisman Trophy in 1957.

Answer: lighter

Coach Bryant joked he only received a lighter during the annual awards banquet, while the Head Basketball Coach, Adolph Rupp, received a Cadillac. His record at Kentucky was 60-23-5 and they went to four bowl games. This record stands as the program's pinnacle of achievements.

His Kentucky team defeated an unbeaten Oklahoma team, who had already been declared National Champions, and snapped the nation's longest winning streak. Oklahoma's Coach Bud Wilkinson, who had a 145-29-4 record at Oklahoma, went 0-2 against the Bear.

Answer: 1-9

His first team, known as the "Junction Boys" because of the rough practice conditions in Junction, Texas, went 1-9 during his first season of 1954. Their only victory came against Coach Wally Butt's Georgia Bulldogs. Texas A&M would win the National Title two years later, one season after Coach Bryant departed to rebuild his Alma Mater, Alabama.