Joe Paterno has won more games than any major college football coach, and his achievements have shadowed most of their feats. But there was always one who stood above Paterno.
Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama U. ‘s coach from 1958-82, won the four meetings against Paterno, but both became their school’s icons, not to mention legends, on a national scale.
This weekend, 28 years since the coaches last met head to head, the Nittany Lions face the Crimson Tide again, but the mystique of the rivalry between the two still carries on Perhaps fitting, Saturday’s game falls on what would have been Bryant’s 97th birthday.
The effects can be seen in current players understanding the rivalry, the hype surrounding the game and the effect Bryant has had on Paterno.
“We didn’t get the best of them most of the time,” Penn State defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu said. “That’s something that we look forward [to], and it motivates us to give Joe a win.”
The rivalry between Alabama and Penn State took hold in the 1980s, but it began as a result of head-to-head matchups between previous Penn State and Alabama teams of which Paterno and Bryant coached. The two icons last met as head coaches in 1982, when Alabama beat Penn State 42-21, part of a 10-year series that began the year before. Bryant retired after the 1982 season and died less than a month after his final game.
But before there was ever the 10-game series between the two schools, there were the two Sugar Bowls — one being the 1978 national championship.
Paterno had yet to win a national championship at that time and failed in his first national title on January 1, 1979. Bryant had already cemented his legacy with six national titles as the Crimson Tide coach.
Former Penn State radio announcer Fran Fisher said the two coaches weren’t necessarily friends but comrades who respected each other. Just like college football coaches look up to Paterno and appreciate his legacy today, Bryant acted as a kind of role model for the Penn State coach.
And like any other pupil, Paterno wanted to beat his mentor, but it never happened. Despite his heartbreak with never defeating Bryant, Fisher said Paterno never let it linger.
“Joe is always looking ahead to the next game,” Fisher said. “He was never looking back.”
Paterno has publicly referred to Bryant’s death as a reason why he shouldn’t retire. As was the case with Bryant, the Penn State coach has no other love but football and figures he’ll face a similar fate if he retires.
The unique mentor-protégé relationship was intertwined with the development of the Alabama-Penn State rivalry, now coming to the forefront again.
Saturday’s Penn State-Alabama game will be the first time the two meet since 1990, but 20 years later, interest has resurfaced about past meetings, and the hype of the crimson and white helmets clashing again has reached its peak.
Right guard Stefen Wisniewski, whose father Leo played during two Bryant-Paterno meetings, said he understands the magnitude of the upcoming game because of the two coaches.
Paterno, though he and Bryant are forever linked with Penn State-Alabama lore, refused to talk about his past relationship with Bryant at Tuesday’s press conference. For the Penn State coach, this game is a new and different situation. But his players understand the magnitude.
“There is tradition and a big rivalry there, and I know it’s something not to take lightly,” linebacker Nate Stupar said. “We’re excited to keep the tradition alive.”