Run for ‘Bryant’ autobiography; pass on Pittmans’ ‘Paterno’

By KELLY P. KISSEL

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Triumph Publishing seeks to score with a pair of books on football coaching legends Bear Bryant and Joe Paterno.

Fans of the college game will want to run to bookstores for an updated version of Bryant’s autobiography, rereleased with an audio CD. Pass on “Playing for Paterno,” in which Charles and Tony Pittman apply football metaphors to business opportunities.

“Bear: The Hard Life & Good Times of Alabama’s Head Coach” by Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant and John Underwood (Triumph Books, $24.95, 2007)

There are no great revelations in Bryant’s book, which mixes stories suitable for booster club chicken dinners with anecdotes about the beauty queen who became his wife.

Game details seem to drift into minutiae, but Bryant eventually makes a point from most — sometimes at his own expense. At Kentucky, where Bryant coached from 1948-53, Dick Shafto scored on a fourth-and-6 play to gain a 6-6 tie against LSU, and Bryant “chewed the team out good for losing.”

Eventually, the Wildcats’ radio announcer mentioned “the tie” in a post-game interview.

And in Bryant’s own words is the story of the bear he agreed to wrestle for $1 a minute at Fordyce, Ark., near his home at Moro Bottom, as part of a traveling attraction.

“I felt this burning on the back of my ear, and when I touched it I got a handful of blood. After the show was over I went around to get my money, but the man with the bear had flown the coop. All I got out of the whole thing was a nickname,” wrote Bryant, who coached his final season 25 years ago and died a month after retiring.

“Playing for Paterno: One Coach, Two Eras” as told to Jae Bryson,
Charles Pittman and Tony Pittman (Triumph Books, $24.95, 2007)

Paterno wrote the foreword to the Pittmans’ book and in 11⁄2 pages hits the points Charles and Tony Pittman struggle to in the next 191: To succeed in business, practice hard, learn from your failures and don’t back away from challenges.

Charles Pittman played for the Nittany Lions in the 1960s and his son, Tony, played in the 1990s. At every opportunity, they remind readers that, in games they started, Penn State was 45-0-1 — though at times they acknowledge that 21 other young men started, too.

Penn State fans will enjoy game-by-game memories and nod in agreement as the Pittmans argue their team should have won the 1994 national title when Penn State and Nebraska finished undefeated.

They weaken their argument, however, in suggesting poll voters in 1994 rewarded Nebraska coach Tom Osborne for bypassing overtime in a 31-30 loss to Miami in the 1984 Orange Bowl, which determined that season’s championship. There was no overtime in major college football then.

And left unanswered is how sour grapes relate to business — though they do acknowledge that life isn’t fair.

Throughout, the Pittmans oversimplify when they try to apply practice field logic to the business world in a pat-ourselves-on-the-back narrative.

Despite the suggestions that practice builds character and brings opportunities, Charles Pittman undermines the book’s premise when he notes Paterno intervened to help him land two jobs — once after Pittman was fired for hiding a delinquent loan from his supervisors at a bank.

Pittman’s openness is appreciated, but here’s some better business advice:

U Don’t stray from company guidelines.

U Network with people who can make telephone calls on your behalf.

U Buy two copies of the Bryant book and give one to a friend. In return, ask for a stock tip.

XKelly Kissel covered Penn State football and coach Joe Paterno for The Associated Press from 1990-94, and covered Southeastern Conference football for other media from 1980-83.