The Biggest Shadow Of Them All.

     The biggest shadow of them all still hovers long after his last ride to Elmwood. It'll still be hovering too, after we've all taken our last own last ride. It's fighting a bear and leaving a mule team in the dust of Morrow Bottoms. It's playing in the Rose Bowl with a broken leg. It's the Junction Boy's and losing with class. It's taking his'n and beating your'n or taking your'n and beating his'n. It's the tower. It's Woody and Cholly Mac and Shug and the General.

     It's Johnny Vaught and Johnny Majors and victory cigars at Neyland Stadium. It's six National Titles and a few that got away. It's Ara and Notre Dame and a loss that haunts us still. It's an uncrowned champion beaten by the polls and the politics of the times. It's dodging whiskey bottles in a helmet at Grant Field. It's Pat Trammel and cancer. It's the Saturday Evening Post or at least it was. It's Coke and the Bear and "Bingo, that's a goodie."

     It's a handstooth hat never worn indoors. It's, "Call your Momma, I wish I could call mine." It's the tailspin of the late 60's and a fall from grace. It's the wishbone and the seventies and the cover of Time. It's Musso and Hannah and Shealy and Castille. It's Ozzie and Billy Neighbors and Tommy Johns. It's Kenny running through the mud. It's 315 at Legion Field and the freezing cold of the Liberty Bowl.

     It's Stallings and Brother and Ken Donahue. It's Pat Dye and Howard and Hank Crisp and John Forney. It's Mary Harmon hiding Joe Willie in their basement. It's late nights and Chesterfields and too much whiskey. It's a coach that can walk on water. It's handshakes in winning opponents locker rooms. It's winning with pride and losing with class. It's grown men crying as our hero fell to earth. It's a state in mourning that mourns to this day. It's him leaning against a goalpost forever etched in time and the shadow of his legend burns brightly in my mind.

     JoePa? Woody? Shembeckler? Devaney? Shug? Bowden? Osborn? Pete Carroll, for crying out loud. Compare them? Mere men. Coach Bryant transcended football and was bigger than life itself. He still is.