By the end of 1957, Paul Bryant was one of the hottest coaches in the country. He had won an SEC title at Kentucky. At Texas A&M he had survived the brutal 1954 camp at Junction, Texas, where most of the roster quit and the survivors went 1–9, and turned those players into a Southwest Conference champion by 1956.
Alabama, meanwhile, was in the worst stretch of its history. From 1955 through 1957 the Crimson Tide won four games total.
The answer
Bryant had played at Alabama in the 1930s, an end on Frank Thomas's 1934 national championship team, and he had coached there as an assistant afterward. When his alma mater asked him to come back, he gave the explanation people still quote. Mama called, he said. He meant his alma mater, and everybody understood.
Starting over
The turnaround was not instant. His first Alabama game, in Mobile in September 1958, was a 13–3 loss to LSU. But that first team finished 5–4–1, more wins than the three previous seasons combined. In 1961, his fourth season, Alabama won the national championship.
Twenty-five years
He stayed for 25 seasons. His Alabama teams went 232–46–9, won six national championships and 13 SEC titles, and went to 24 straight bowl games. His last game was a 21–15 win over Illinois in the Liberty Bowl in December 1982. A month later, on Jan. 26, 1983, he died of a heart attack in Tuscaloosa at 69.
Most coaches leave a good job for a better one. Bryant left a winning program for a losing one because it was home, and Alabama has measured every coach since against what happened next.