Paul "Bear" Bryant

While doing some research on Paul "Bear" Bryant for one of my final papers, I found some interesting information pertaining to the University of Maryland.  Bryant was actually the head football coach here in 1945.  The story (via Wikipedia) goes like this:

In 1945, 32-year-old Bryant met Washington Redskins owner George Marshall at a cocktail party hosted by the Chicago Tribune, and said he had turned down offers for assistant coaching positions at Alabama and Georgia Tech. Bryant told Marshall that he was intent on becoming a head coach. Marshall put him in contact with Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd, the president and former football coach of the University of Maryland.

After meeting with Byrd the next day, Bryant received the job as head coach of the Maryland Terrapins. In his only season at Maryland, Bryant led the team to a 6–2–1 record. However, Bryant and Byrd came into conflict. In the most prominent incident, while Bryant was on vacation, Byrd reinstated a player who had been suspended by Bryant for a violation of team rules. After the 1945 season, Bryant left Maryland to take over as head coach at the University of Kentucky.

Interesting to see how small of a world even the sports world is.  I did not expect to see that information when looking up Paul Bryant.  Also interesting to see the "most prominent incident" was Harry Byrd reinstating a suspended player while Coach Bryant was on vacation. I do not think that type of thing would work in today's sports world.