The Last Coach: A Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant

The best book on football I've ever read, pro or college. The best sports book of the year.The photos alone are worth the price.

It's great to see a biography that doesn't hold back from telling the truth. This is the story of football's greatest coach in all his glory and with all his flaws. The chapters on Bryant's college playing days during the Depression are fascinating, and the chapters on his years at Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A & M show how with patience and hard work he built Alabama into the greatest football dynasty of all. Bryant's relationships with Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler and Ozzie Newsome, to name only three great players who he coached, are examined in detail. Highly recommended not only to football fans but to anyone interested in how this country changed from 1920 to 1980.

In the spirit of Dave Maranaiss' When Pride Mattered, The Last Coach isn't so much a football book as a portrait of a true American original. Barra presents a nuanced portrayal of a man who was loved and feared in equal parts, and who could have been Governor of Alabama-if he got tired of being King. While there's plenty of artfully described gridiron action in these pages, at its core this is a book about leadership as it is practiced in the real world, not in those 13-Steps-to-Excellence books that weigh down the shelf at your local bookseller. The Last Coach is not only a great book, it's an important one, as well.

I've was never entirely convinced that Bear Bryant was the greatest football coach of all time until I read this book. The author's analysis is clear and penetrating, and he never overstates the case but lets Bryant's record speak for itself. But I needed no convincing that this is a great book. From the start it kept me reading, beginning with the story of Bryant's rise from abject poverty in Arkansaas to the way the entire country munrned him at his death. The book reminded me a lot of Davide Maraniss' biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered, which is one of the best things I could say for it.

For those how have lived in the State of Alabama during the last half of the 20th Century, there is no escaping the presence of Coach Paul W. "Bear" Bryant. As a fan of the University of Alabama's sports programs, a graduate of the University, a football season ticket holder, friend of the author, and a person who assisted the author in obtaining a minor amount of the information that went into this ambitious undertaking, I am somewhat hesitant to publicly write anything about it. However, it is also with that particular knowledge, that I know what I say may mean more to others. I have always had an interest in biographies. Whether they be of Eddie Rickenbacker, George F. Kaufmann or, even, Harpo Marx, biographies held my facination from an early age. With Coach Bryant, the books purporting to give one the "insight" into his persona could fill-up several shelves in ones bookcase. Some retell the story John Underwood undertook in the 1970's with Coach Bryant in BEAR. Others talk of specific instances and moments the author and Coach Bryant shared. Still, others discuss his humor, his quotations, his ______ (you fill-in the blank). With THE LAST FOOTBALL COACH, Allen Barra has taken a very complex man, who had values that he adhered to throughout his life, and has written as thorough a book on Coach Bryant as will ever be written. As a biography, it is not a book that dwells on the Coach's life as one who is infallible, yet it does not shy away from those infamous qualities Coach Bryant's detractors were quick to bring-up: his brutal practices, his drinking, his mistakes. Allen Barra, whom I have known since his days as the Entertainment Editor of the UAB KALEIDOSCOPE in the early 1970's, is a gifted writer, but I have to tell you, most of his stuff is complicated as heck. The comparison of this baseball player from this era with another player from another era. I mean, I understand him, but if I am going to be using that much energy understanding what I read, I might as well be picking-out stocks that will produce a 200% profit in two years. HOWEVER, and this is a big, in more ways than one, "however," with THE LAST FOOTBALL COACH, Allen Barra has crossed the threshold to being an author who will make a difference in other's lives: those young men and women who read this book, whether they be football players or not, will understand just a little bit better, what went into being the "Last Football Coach," a man not too big to climb down from his tower to show a guard or an end how to "do it right." I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the college football game and would like to have a lot of insight into what made Coach Bryant click. As a bonus, well to me it's a bonus, you get to read how Coach Bryant gave one ten-year-old, me, a "try out," as I imagine he gave a thousand other boys try outs, with an intensity and focus that made one ten-year-old boy want to "do it just a little bit better for the coach."