As I chronicled the Alabama history of hiring head football coaches, most after successful – outstanding, even – men, I had thoughts regarding my personal recollections or thoughts about the transitions. Just as a bottom line, I feel the most difficult men to follow would be Paul Bryant and Nick Saban, not coincidentally because they were the most successful. There have been others: Frank Thomas following Wallace Wade, Red Drew following Thomas (Wade and Thomas both earning Hall of Fame status), and Mike DuBose following another Hall of Famer, Gene Stallings.
My only memories of the hiring of Bryant are of the excitement of adults, who knew much more about Alabama football than did I. I did know that Auburn was th dominant program in the state, and I remember J.B. Whitworth on his final playback show – following a 40-0 loss to Auburn – and the host (I believe Maury Farrell) saying something along the lines of, “Well, Coach, I guess this is it.” It was known that Whitworth was gone.
The first college football game I saw in person was the 1961 Alabama-Georgia Tech game, a 10-0 Crimson Tide win at Legion Field that would be Bama’s fourth consecutive shutout, en route to five in a row with the following week’s 34-0 win over Auburn, and a national championship. The national title was Bama’s first under Bryant, and more significant than any previously in part because Bryant had promised his first freshman class in 1958 that “if you’ll do what I tell you, you’ll win the national championship.”
Here’s what I remember from 1961 about the hit by Alabama linebacker Darwin Holt on Tech punt return man Chick Granning: the game was held up for a while. Only later did we learn of the severe injuries suffered by Granning and of the on-going debate as to the legality of the hit (there was no flag), but Tech Coach Bobby Dodd wanted Bryant to suspend Holt and sportswriters even called for Holt to be kicked off the team. Bryant declined to do either.
Alabama-Georgia Tech would be prominent in my mind for many years to come, in part because of a falling out between Bryant and prominent Atlanta sportswriter Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal.
