The Paul W Bryant Museum Describes the Legend Himself

The Paul W Bryant Museum is located behind the Campus of the University of Alabama, at 300 Bryant Drive in Tuscaloosa Alabama.

Its doors opened to the public on October 8^th, 1988, and it sets directly across the street from Coleman Coliseum.

The Paul W Bryant Wall of Honor

This museum, made after the bigger than life coach, exhibits artifacts as well as memorabilia that trace the long history of the University of Alabama’s football program.

The History of Paul W Bryant Museum

The Paul "Bear" Bryant Museum

There are state of the art displays that are enhanced by videos that highlight not only great players, but great plays, as well as terrific games of monumental Tide History.

The Paul W Bryant Museum is open 7 days a week to the public, from the hours of 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and the admission is more than reasonable.

Adults are $2.00, and Senior Citizens and children 6-17 are only $1.00

Students with activity cards are free.

Parking is located behind the museum, and in most all cases there’s more than adequate parking.

The history of Paul W. Bryant Museum is quite interesting as it came about from a suggestion of the legend himself.

He suggested that a museum should be created to honor the former coaches and players who helped Bryant set intercollegiate coaching records,

To honor his request, a planning committee was set up in 1981 to not only do that, but to find a way to make it happen.

They considered the coach’s suggestion and decided to establish a museum that had two distinct missions.

They included the following

To include the entire history from the very first team in 1892
Create collectible components establishing the foundation of Alabama’s current institutional beliefs.

Thus, the Paul W Bryant Museum was born.

However, in following their own rules, they soon discovered that the vast majority of this new museum would be about the man and legend himself.

Since its creation in the year 1985, it has really grown in all areas.

Jersey Exhibits in the Paul "Bear" Bryant Museum

Exhibit One From the Paul W. Bryant Museum

In fact, it has become a central source of information for both writers and current journalists that write or study the history of university football in all areas.

It has since become one of the largest drawing cards to the area, in addition to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Although it was originally organized under the University’s Museum system, it has since become a free-standing entity and reports directly to the Vice President of the University.

The reason for this is quite simple, its growth, its function, as well as its mission.

It is still part of the Alabama Museum system however, which also includes the University of Alabama Arboretum, The Alabama Museum of Natural History, and Discovering Alabama.

The Exhibits at Paul W Bryant Museum

Picture Exhibits in the Paul "Bear" Bryant Museum

Exhibit Two at the Paul W. Bryant Museum

There are five main exhibits at the Paul W Bryant Museum.

They include the following.

The Hall of Honor
The Tide Through Time
Coach Bryant’s Office
The Crimson Tide Moments from the Broadcast Booth
The Crystal Hat

The Hall of Honor

The first of the exhibits at the Paul W Bryant Museum is the Hall of Honor.

It keeps in line with the original request of the legendary coach and the concept of a Hall of Honor.

The legendary bust of Paul W “Bear” Bryant is surrounded by team photos of each and every one of his teams.

The famous sculpture, Blair Buswell from the state of Utah, sculpted the artwork that makes the introduction to the museum what the coach had in mind when he made the request.

The Tide through Time

The second exhibit in the Paul W Bryant Museum is the Tide through Time.

Again, starting with the coach’s request, it begins with the 1892 team and goes all the way to last year’s 2018 team.

This exhibits chronicle’s the history and tradition of the Crimson Tide and the history is told through three main factors.

These factors are the people that were involved, the places that were involved, and the events that laid out the foundation that is today's Tide.

Coach Bryant’s Office

The third exhibit at the museum is the Coach’s office, and the former players describe it the best.

To a man, those players that played for this legend say that in this exhibit they feel the awe and inspiration the exact same way they did when they were in the real office.

Paul W Bryant Museum Exhibit

The Crimson Tide Moments from the Broadcast Booth

Perhaps the most popular of the exhibits at the Paul W Bryant Museum is the moments form the broadcast booth.

For the older 50 plus age visitors, before you could watch everything on television, the radio was your only outlet.

This outlet let you be right there with the action, even if you were hundreds of miles away for the actual game.

In fact, the broadcast crew, whoever they were, became part of every Alabama football fans family.

However, the main function of this exhibit is to pay tribute to these broadcasters.

The Crystal Hat

The last of the Paul W Bryant Museum exhibits is the Crystal hat, which is the Waterford crystal replica of the coach’s famous hounds tooth hat.

It was created by internationally acclaimed sculptor Miraslay Havel and is presented by the Waterford Crystal Company of Ireland.

The Paul W. Bryant Museum is full of past as well as present Crimson Tide football history and is a “must see” on your list of Tuscaloosa day trips.

References

http://bryantmuseum.com/

The Paul W Bryant Museum Describes the Legend Himself

The History of Paul W Bryant Museum

The Exhibits at Paul W Bryant Museum

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