Paul William Bryant was born on September 11, 1913, and spent his early years in a home in Moro Bottom. One of twelve children of Monroe and Ida Bryant, he earned the nickname "Bear" as a young teenager by entering a carnival promotion in which he wrestled a bear. At Fordyce High School, he was a football standout and played on the 1930 state championship team. He attended the University of Alabama, where he played on teams that won the Southeastern Conference, a national championship, and the Rose Bowl. Bryant later worked as an assistant coach at Alabama and Vanderbilt, served in the Navy in World War II, and after the war became head coach at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M before returning to Alabama as head coach in 1958. In thirty-eight seasons, he compiled a record of 323-85-17, including twenty-nine bowl games, and his teams won fourteen SEC titles, one SWC title, and six national championships. He was honored as National Coach of the Year three times and SEC Coach of the Year twelve times, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan four weeks after his death on January 26, 1983, and at that time was the most successful coach in college football history. His career was later commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp in 1997.