Not many people think Arkansans are smart or will be famous, but there are some famous Arkansans. He was born on September 11, 1913 at Fordyce, Arkansas, and he died on January 26, 1983, in Tuscaloosa, AL and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Alabama. He became a college football player, and later to become a college football coach. He was known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. His name is Paul William 'Bear' Bryant (Hendricks). Bryant was born in Fordyce, Arkansas, on September 11, 1913. Paul's parents were William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant. Paul was the eleventh of twelve children; three of them died in infancy. Paul was born into a poor southern family. Paul's life was hard because his dad was disabled most of his life, forcing Paul and his siblings to run the family farm (Solomon). …show more content…
Paul was six feet one and 180 pounds when he was thirteen.
Paul as a teenager wrestled a bear at the Lyric Theater in Fordyce, Arkansans in 1927. This is how Paul William 'Bear' Bryant got his name as Bear Bryant. Paul made a perfect season and a state championship for his high school team, the Fordyce Red Bugs. Then Alabama assistant coach Hank Crisp comes to Fordyce to pick up twin football players, but walks away with Paul (Hendricks). In 1935 Paul Bryant secretly marries Mary Harmon Black in Ozark, Ala. He doesn't tell his football coach, thinking he will take his schooling away. In 1936 his daughter Mae Martin is born. In 1944, Paul goes into the Navy and coaches the pre-flight team. In 1945 Paul almost becomes the head coach of Arkansas, but becomes coach in Maryland. In 1955 he coaches at Texas
A&M. On December 29, 1982, when Paul was sixty-eight he ended his career with 323 wins, eighty five losses, and seventeen draws. In 1978, Paul had a drinking problem. Later he emitted himself into rehab. Then returned to drinking only one year later. After that in 1983 Paul went into the hospital with chest pains and later on at 1:30 p.m. he died on January 26, 1983 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Alabama. Paul has many buildings named after him such as the University of Alabama campus and in Tuscaloosa are the Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant High School, Bryant-Denny Stadium, Bryant Hall, Bryant Bridge, the Paul W. Bryant Conference Center, and Bryant Drive. Paul William “Bear” Bryant will always be remembered as a football player and a coach. Paul wasn't just a coach and a football player, but a legend known as the “Old Man Who Never Got Tired of Football”. While Bryant coached at Alabama, he won thirty seven seasons and five championships. Coach John McKay said he wasn't just a coach, he was the coach. At the end of his career, he had 315 victories. There was only one person to top Paul; it was Pop Warner with 319 victories. Paul William 'Bear' Bryant was known as a coach and a player now, and then he will always be known as “The Coach Of Football”(Gaddy). Paul William 'Bear' Bryant has a life with a story to tell. Through hard times and good times Paul still pushed through. With that, Paul became the most known football coach in history. With monuments, stories, and legends to be told, Paul William 'Bear' Bryant was '' The Coach Of Football''. Bryant was then and still is now to this day the most legendary coach that goes down in history.
He was born in Palestine, Texas to the parentage of Clyde Burette Woodard and Marye Regina (McClung) Woodard at 9:45 AM at the Palestine Sanatarium. His parents lived in Elkhart, Texas where his father was the owner and operator of Woodard Cleaners and his mother, Bubbie, as he called her, was the owner and operator of a beauty shop.
Crump was born October 2, 1874 to a poor family in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Crump attended public schools until the age of fourteen when he dropped out. In 1892 at the age of 18, Crump moved to Memphis. Crump got educated in bookkeeping and worked a few clerical jobs. It was there that he began dating and eventually married his wife Bessie McLean.
Herschel walker was born in March 3 1962 in Wrightsville Georgia. Herschel was one of the seven children his mother and father. Herschel mother Christine Walker called him the runt of the family because he was least athletic of his brother and sisters. As a child he was overweight and had a speech impediment Walker's mother taught him not to use these problems as excuses in life.
The history of the twentieth century would not be complete without mentioning the impeccable influence of one of the best and biggest singers of all time. But before he started making his indelible mark in the sands of time, he started out from very humble beginnings, under the care of his loving, working class parents. Elvis Aaron Presley was born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi to Gladys and Vernon Presley. Although, Presley was supposed to be a twin, his supposed twin brother, Jesse Garon, sometimes spelled Jessie was stillborn. Elvis Aaron Presley was an incredible American Singer, Musician and Actor with inspirational quotes such as this “Fingerprints are like values; you leave them all over everything you do.”
After turning pro in November of 1954 and signing a contract with Wilson Sporting Goods, Palmer married Winnie Walzer, with whom he would have two daughters. They stayed together until she passed away from cancer in 1997.
Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908 in Texas; he was the oldest child of five other siblings. His father a farmer, Sam Ealy Johnson Jr, also represented the USA as a legislator was married to his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson. Lyndon graduated from Southwest State Teachers College in 1930, today the school is known as Texas State University – San Marcus. To assist in paying for his education he took jobs teaching underprivileged Mexican-American students, it was during this time while talking and teaching he was exposed to discrimination and poverty, which made a deep
Widely considered country music’s first superstar, Hiram/Hank Williams was born September 17, 1923, in mount olive, Alabama. Williams, the third child of Lon and Lillie Williams, grew up in a household that never had much money. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans’ Administration hospital when young hank was just six. Father and son rarely saw each other over the next decade, with William’s mother, who ran rooming houses, moving the family to Greenville, and later, Montgomery, Alabama. (Hank Williams) Everyone knew Hank was a good guy, but like any man had his ups and his downs throughout the short life he lived. Hank grew up rough and he knew it; however nothing was going to stop this young man from doing what he set out to pursue. What he did was astonishing changing art or “so called” music. Hank redefined country music with his personal opinion on what music really was.
Boobie Miles was raised by his uncle L.V. Miles in Odessa. L.V. brought Boobie into the sport. Boobie played for a football team that L.V. coached and
Bear Bryant was a great man and coach, and he changed his life and college football forever with the decisions that he made. Paul Bryant (Bear) was born into a poor family and was the eleventh of twelfth children. Paul William Bryant was born in Moro Bottom in Arkansas. It's a small, unknown city. Legend has it Bryant got his nickname around the year 1927 by wrestling a bear from a carnival. People say that he only did it to impress a girl! From then on he was called "Bear Bryant" and that's where his legend begins. While the bear's owner left town without paying Bear got to take something home with him better than money... a story to tell your kids in the future. (100 years of Bear). When he was young every morning he would plow the fields
When Bryan was 19 he was planning on moving to Nashville, but before he could his brother was killed in a car accident at the age of 26 in 1996. He was devastated about the lost of his brother. After the death of his brother he decided to stay in Georgia, and enrolled himself in Georgia State University where he earned his degree in business. While he was in college, he met his future to be wife. After he graduated from college he started working with his dad (Finan, Eileen).
Paul Bryant was born on September 11, 1913, near Fordyce, Arkansas. Paul Bryant was the son of William Monroe and Dora Ida Kilgore and was the eleventh of twelve children. Bryant grew to six foot one at the age of thirteen. Bryant earned the nickname “Bear” for agreeing to wrestle a bear. At Fordyce High School he was an offensive lineman and defensive end and earned all-state honors for the 1931 Arkansas High School State Championship. When Bryant accepted a scholarship to the University of Alabama, he elected to leave high school before graduating, so he had to enroll in Tuscaloosa high school to finish his diploma. Bryant played end for Alabama opposite to the big star, Don Hutson, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Bryant was also a participant in the school's 1934 National Championship team. Paul was third team all conference in 1933 and 1935, and was second team All-SEC in 1934. With a partially broken leg, Bryant played against Tennessee in 1935. “Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu Social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon,” said Joe Marcin. Bryant was in the 1936 NFL Draft and
Hank Williams Jr as we know him was born Hank Randall Williams, born in small town Shreveport, Louisiana, on May 26, 1949. Hank Jr was only three when his father Hank died, but that did not stop his music dream. At just the age of 8 Hank Jr began singing his dad songs on stage. “Williams made his stage debut at the age of 8 and his first appearance at Nashville's famed Grand Ole Opry at age 11. At age 15, Williams had his first Top 5 hit on the country charts. " (http://www.biography.com/) Even though his father was gone, Hank Jr helped carry on his legacy through music. His mother being his biggest supporter, helped him along the way.
Elvis was born in 1935 in Mississippi, he was supposed to be a twin but his brother was stillborn. He grew up an only child. In 1948 the Presleys moved to Memphis, where in his high school days would hang around Beale Street where B.B. King was known to perform at, drawn into the music style of the blues. After graduating in 1953, he planned out his normal life of becoming a truck driver, and in his spare time recorded a couple songs at a recording service Sam Phillips started up that anyone could record a song for four dollars. Upon going back to the studio he met Sam Phillips who
Johnny Cash was born and raised in Arkansas. He was the son of a poor Southern Baptist sharecropper who moved his family to new farms when Johnny was only three (“Johnny
After living a despairing, inconsolable childhood filled with obstacles Desmond “Dez” Bryant has beat the odds on his path to fulfil his dreams. Dez Bryant is a 24 year old NFL superstar wide receiver, playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Born November 4, 1988 in Galveston County, Texas where he lived with his mother. Dez unlike most kids that grow up with this kind of life used his skilled traits of adaptability, perseverance, problem solving to make it through adversity.