Paul "Bear" Bryant Award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Paul 'Bear' Bryant Award is an award that has been given out annually since 1957 to NCAA college football's national coach of the year. The Award was named in 1986 in honor of longtime Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant after he died of a heart attack in 1983. It is voted on by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and proceeds from the awards ceremony benefit the American Heart Association.
According to the official website:[1]
The Paul "Bear" Bryant College Football Coaching Awards is an exclusive event that honors a college football coach whose great accomplishments, both on and off the field, are legendary. The award recognizes the masters of coaching and allows them to take their deserved place in history beside other legends like Bear Bryant.
There have been several coaches who have won the award more than one time. Joe Paterno, the legendary head coach of Penn State, has won the award 3 times (1978, 1982, 1986), as did Ohio State legend Woody Hayes (1957, 1968, 1975). Two time winners include: Darrell Royal, John McKay, Johnny Majors, and Lou Holtz. Lou Holtz is the only coach to have won the award at two different schools (Arkansas in 1977 and Notre Dame in 1988). Ohio State coaches have won the award five times (Hayes in 1957, 1968, and 1975; Earle Bruce in 1979; and Jim Tressel in 2002).
Ironically, Bear Bryant himself never won the award. The first year the award was presented, 1957, was Bryant's final season at Texas A&M, and Bryant won six national championships in 25 seasons as the coach of his alma mater, Alabama. Only once has the award been won by a coach at a school that Bryant once coached: Alabama's Gene Stallings (who coached at Texas A&M from 1965-71) in 1992. No coach at Maryland, Kentucky, or Texas A&M have won the award.
