Montgomery just got word...

[AURainman 6]

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January 26, 2006

Bryant's death stunned media

By Mike Tankersley

Montgomery Advertiser

Keith Dunnavant was in high school. Bill Lumpkin was at his office. So was Phillip Marshall. And Al Benn.

Paul Finebaum, ironically enough, was at Legion Field. John Pruett and his staff were out to lunch.

But all of these members of the media, like average fans throughout the state, knew where they were and what they were doing the moment they heard the news 23 years ago today.

Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was dead.

All of these writers said then that Bryant's death and his funeral two days later were the biggest stories they had covered in their careers.

Today, they feel the same way.

"I was one of the first people to get the news," said Benn, then the Selma bureau chief for the Montgomery Advertiser who still writes for the paper today. "A lady at Ziegler's, the meat company that has a big plant in Selma, called me at my office in Selma and told me Coach Bryant had just died.

"The first thing I did was call the office (in Montgomery). They didn't believe it."

Disbelief was the emotion of the moment.

"Nobody believed the son of a gun would ever die," said Lumpkin, then the sports editor at the Birmingham Post-Herald. "Somebody had called our city desk and told them. I picked up the phone to call Jim Goosetree to see if it was true."

Goosetree, now deceased, was Alabama's trainer and one of those considered closest to Bryant.

"He had already gone to the hospital, but I got his wife (Mary) on the phone, and she told me it was true," he said.

Also on Lumpkin's staff was a young sports writer named Paul Finebaum. He was at Legion Field, covering a Birmingham Stallions practice.

"I was interviewing Russ Wood when some guy came running through saying Coach Bryant had just died," Finebaum recalled. "Russ had played for Coach Bryant, and I noticed he started tearing up.

"I went to a pay phone and called the office and found out it was true. I went back to the office, obviously."

Pruett, then as now the sports editor of the Huntsville Times, was caught completely off guard.

"We had just seen reports on the Associated Press that he was improving from the night before, when he was in the hospital for tests," Pruett said. "There were four or five of us in the office, and for one of the only times I ever remember, we all went out to lunch as a group and didn't leave anyone in the office to catch the phone. We went to Friday's to eat, and when we got back, there were editors and reporters scrambling all around the office asking, 'Where are all the sports people?'

"We asked what was wrong and they said Coach Bryant had died. That's when we all found out about it. Of course, then we started scrambling around trying to figure out what we were going to do."

Marshall, then sports editor of the Montgomery Advertiser and now the Auburn beat writer for Pruett and the Huntsville Times, was thinking the same thing while sitting at his desk. Bryant's death occurred about 1:30 p.m. at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa. Marshall worked for the morning Advertiser, so his deadline was later that night.

The Alabama Journal, though, had just published that morning. Journal editors decided to put out a special edition that afternoon, making over just the front page with a bold headline and story reporting the shocking news.

Jim Earnhardt, who then worked on the Journal editorial page and holds a similar position with the Advertiser today, remembers the special edition.

"We printed 5,000 copies and we should've printed 25,000," he said. "People were lined up outside our building and around the block wanting to buy a copy. Seriously, we could've sold 10,000."

Earnhardt remembers hearing some of the old hands on the Journal copy desk saying it was the first time the newspaper had printed a special edition since World War II. He also remembers something else about that issue.

"We only made over the front page, so on the front we had a story reporting his death, and in the sports section we had a story saying his health was improving," Earnhardt said.

Marshall and his staff put out a special section in the next day's Advertiser. It was more than 20 pages and filled with Bryant stories.

"It was all black and white and a lot of it was stories that had already run," Marshall remembered. "I had gone to Fordyce (Ark.) a couple of years earlier, and some of the stories I had written from that trip ran in the special section.

"I never remember putting together a section like that in one night."

Dunnavant also was a sports writer, but his circumstances were a little different than the others. He had covered Alabama and Auburn for papers in Athens and Decatur since he was 14. He was still in high school in 1983 and had interviewed Bryant the previous summer, setting off a series of events that changed his life forever.

During the interview, Dunnavant had asked Bryant a tough question. Bryant's reaction scared Dunnavant, and afterward he was summoned to the sports information department. There, SID Jack Perry told the young writer the old coach had been impressed during the interview and wanted to offer him a scholarship to work in the sports information department.

It was assistance that helped shape Dunnavant's career. "It was the only way I could've gone to college," he said.

But on Jan. 26, 1983, Dunnavant was still in high school in Athens. During a break, while changing classes, Dunnavant was stopped in the hall by principal Marvin Clem.

"He knew my situation with Coach Bryant, and he pulled me into a room and said he needed to tell me something," Dunnavant recalled. "That's when I found out."

Dunnavant went on to Alabama and later wrote a popular book on Bryant, "Coach: The Life of Paul 'Bear' Bryant."

The funeral

Jimmy Smothers, sports editor of the Gadsden Times, recalls going to Bryant's home in Tuscaloosa after getting the news of his death.

"The thing I remember was going through the front door," Smothers said. "I was very close to Mrs. Bryant (Mary Harmon), and she always said we were family. So every time I went to their house, I went in the back door, like we were family.

"But this time, I thought it was better to go in the front door. That was the first time I had gone through that front door."

Pruett was at the Bryant home that day, also. He was in the corner of a room, talking with Bryant's longtime driver, Billy Varner.

"I was having a real good conversation with Billy, if you know what I mean, and all of a sudden Mae Martin (Tyson), Bryant's daughter, pulled Billy away from me, saying, 'Billy, you know poppa wouldn't want you talking to the media.' I remember not being very happy with Mae Martin at that very moment."

Reuniting with old friends was a special memory to the writers covering Bryant's funeral. But it was the procession on I-59 from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham that is the most lasting memory of all to those who took part.

"To see all those 18-wheelers parked on the side of the road was quite a sight," Smothers said. "There were signs hanging on the overpasses."

Lumpkin just remembers people being everywhere.

"There were crowds outside the church," he said. "They had to have the service piped into several churches because there were so many people. I remember one time looking up and seeing Woody Hayes. Frank Broyles was also there. It was a big deal.

"But seeing all those truck drivers with their hardhats over their hearts, that's what I'll always remember."

This is news, because?!

[Aubie7 0]

News Flash- This item just in:

COACH STILL DEAD! HE WON"T BE COMING BACK, NOR WILL ANYONE LIKE HIM TAKE OVER AT UAT!

[WeagleDMS 0]

This is news, because?!

It'll look great framed beside #3 flag above the mounted squirrel next to the pyramid of old milwaulkie cans and across the trailer from the mural of "the Bahr" and the daniel moore print of "the catch"

[abrnfanatc 6]

This is a last ditch effort by the media to play up the tradishun to the trio of recruits who are still considering the tahd. Nothing to see here, move along. Don't look at them and they will go away...

[WarTim 3,456]

Just proves what some of us have KNOWN to be true for decades. To say the "media" in this state does not have a bias towards west Vance is like saying there is no liberal slant in the national media.

Funny stuff indeed.

p.s. I will anxiously await the follow up story that discsses the death of Coach Jordan.

[WeagleDMS 0]

p.s. I will anxiously await the follow up story that discsses the death of Coach Jordan.

Can I interest you in some winter clothes for when hell freezes over?

[TigerOne 1,150]

this why Auburn continues to pull further ahead of uat. We don't keep digging

up stories on something more and more people could care less about.

Idol worship at it's worst.

[WarTim 3,456]

p.s. I will anxiously await the follow up story that discsses the death of Coach Jordan.

Can I interest you in some winter clothes for when hell freezes over?

214764[/snapback]

Typical uat reply: "You mean HE is DEAD? I ain't believe'in it 'till paul finbum says it's so!"

[sogaaufan 27]

Pitiful. I guess if Tradishun is the only card you've got, you play it every chance you get.

[Jenny AU-92 0]

MAYBE a story on a siginificant anniversary... like 50 years or something...

MAYBE a story if Shula-boy managed to equal some football related feat of Coach Bryant recently... like, I don't know, BEATING AUBURN.

MAYBE if his great great grandson was a walk on this year at Bammer...

But on a random year (23rd???) anniversary of his death? How dumb is that...? There's not even a dead horse beating paragraph about his "legacy" - just a "where were you when...?" piece, that apparently (at least to SOME idiots) seems to equal the importance of something like "Where were you when JFK was shot" or "when the men landed on the moon"

Today is also the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster... which story is more important?

For pete's sake, the man was a FOOTBALL COACH. A very good one, at least by the ethical standards of that past day, but a FOOTBALL COACH nonetheless. He did not cure cancer. He did not save a bunch of sick kids from a burning house. He did not bring peace to the Middle East. He won football games. Period. Clinging to his memory is both sick and slightly frightening.

[AWK 0]

[WeagleDMS 0]

p.s. I will anxiously await the follow up story that discsses the death of Coach Jordan.

Can I interest you in some winter clothes for when hell freezes over?

214764[/snapback]

Typical uat reply: "You mean HE is DEAD? I ain't believe'in it 'till paul finbum says it's so!"

214786[/snapback]

They'll always have fairy bahr!

[c-zoner 0]

This is news, because?!

It'll look great framed beside #3 flag above the mounted squirrel next to the pyramid of old milwaulkie cans and across the trailer from the mural of "the Bahr" and the daniel moore print of "the catch"

214738[/snapback]

So what are you sayin bout trailers huh? You got something against them? lol

[WeagleDMS 0]

This is news, because?!

It'll look great framed beside #3 flag above the mounted squirrel next to the pyramid of old milwaulkie cans and across the trailer from the mural of "the Bahr" and the daniel moore print of "the catch"

214738[/snapback]

So what are you sayin bout trailers huh? You got something against them? lol

214822[/snapback]

They are only bad when the residents are NASCAR fans.

[c-zoner 0]

This is news, because?!

It'll look great framed beside #3 flag above the mounted squirrel next to the pyramid of old milwaulkie cans and across the trailer from the mural of "the Bahr" and the daniel moore print of "the catch"

214738[/snapback]

So what are you sayin bout trailers huh? You got something against them? lol

214822[/snapback]

They are only bad when the residents are NASCAR fans.

214826[/snapback]

ok, who is a biffle fan?

[WeagleDMS 0]

This is news, because?!

It'll look great framed beside #3 flag above the mounted squirrel next to the pyramid of old milwaulkie cans and across the trailer from the mural of "the Bahr" and the daniel moore print of "the catch"

214738[/snapback]

So what are you sayin bout trailers huh? You got something against them? lol

214822[/snapback]

They are only bad when the residents are NASCAR fans.

214826[/snapback]

ok, who is a biffle fan?

214831[/snapback]

No one yet, you still have to convince me.

[c-zoner 0]

well all i got to say is living in a trailer or not, GO 17!!!

(this is really off topic, sorry)

[lca408 366]

This is my first post. I've been here for a few weeks so "bear" with me.

I listened to JOX this afternoon after i got outta class and heard the guy who sounded like he was gonna bust into tears. Then I also heard the guy who called in after who ripped into Kelly Hunter because he thought she was "insensitive" to the previous caller cause she asked him if he was alright. If the first guy was taking this a little too far, the second guy was just plain nuts. He claimed that JOX hated bama and that it was all unfair media bias. Ya know, the conspiracy theory. Blah, blah blah.

I mean, I think we can all agree that Bryant did alot for the sport, and SEC football. Reading the book by Coach Dye written a few years ago, he talks about how much of a real standup guy he was. Certainly he was important.

But to raise Bryant to the level of George Washington? To say that he was like a god and did more for the state than did anyone else in history is complete b.s.

Alabama fans who take it to this extreme always remind me of those liberal arts types and poetry nuts who celebrate the day that Edgar Allen Poe died, and then read poetry in hopes of communing with the dead.

War Darn Eagle!

Ryan Alcaino

[vatz22au 142]

To compare Bryant to Martin Luther King Jr. is just lame on all accounts. Your talking about comparing a football coach to a civil rights leader.....Give me a break.

[jumbo 0]

The great thing about bammer fans living in trailers is that if they get to many broken down cars out front...........they can just move it to another tradition park.......I mean trailer park