Did Coach Bryant really call Reggie Jackson the N-word?

Somebody in this state needs to stand up for Coach Bryant.

If Paul Bryant once called Reggie Jackson an “N-Boy” to his face, it doesn’t seem to have bothered Jackson too much.

Author’s note: While my target market with The Troy Citizen is local readers, I also plan to write articles and commentaries that might appeal to a state-wide audience. This subject might qualify as it seems I’m the only journalist in our state who questions the validity of an eye-opening story from a few months ago.

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“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” -  A line made famous in the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

A converse statement might also be true: when a dubious statement - one that jibes with contemporary “politically correct” conventional wisdom - is accepted as “fact,” journalists apparently can go ahead and print this “fact” without checking the veracity of what should perhaps be considered alleged facts.

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Earlier this summer, Hall of Fame baseball player Reggie Jackson made state and national headlines when he returned to Birmingham for a Major League baseball game held at Rickwood Field.

At a press event, Jackson recounted how he he experienced racism when he was a player for the Oakland A’s minor league team, which played its games at the same field in 1967.

As recounted in this column by al.com columnist Roy S. Johnson, according to Reggie Jackson, Alabama’s legendary football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant visited the team clubhouse after one game - where Jackson hit the winning home run - and proceeded to call Jackson the N-word.

At the time, Coach Bryant’s young son, Paul Bryant, Jr. was the general manager of the team.

“I was getting changed, finishing a shower and putting my shirt on,” Jackson said. “Bear Bryant walked up to me and paid me a compliment.

“He said to the group, ‘This is just the kind of n..... boy we need in order to compete with Bo [Schembelcher], Woody [Hayes], Ara [Parsegian] and Johnny [Robinson] … and Joe Paterno of Penn State.”

Sports Illustrated, among many other media outlets, picked up the story, noting (incorrectly as we shall see): 

“Those names referred to the then-head coaches of Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and USC, respectively, all racially integrated teams at a time when major Southern schools still weren't fielding Black players ..”

“He meant it as a compliment,” Reggie Jackson said. “I didn’t take it as such.”

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As far as I know, the veracity of this event - whether Bryant really said this to Jackson - has never been challenged. For reasons outlined in this article, I have serious doubts Coach Bryant really said this. 

Since I figured no other journalist would take on this project, I spent two days trying to find interview sources who could corroborate that Bryant actually said this to Jackson. 

(I tried to get in touch with Jackson’s fellow Hall of Fame teammate Rollie Fingers, the family of the team trainer and Birmingham sports scribes who would have covered this team and might have also been in the locker room or later heard of this story. Alas, I struck out finding anyone I could interview or who would go on the record.)

Nor have I ever found a quote (besides Jackson’s) where Bryant directed the N-word at any other black athlete or any African-American person.

In short, while I can’t be 100-percent certain, I believe it’s possible Reggie Jackson either made this quote up or his memory is faulty. 

One thing I know is when Jackson first mentioned this story in 1987 (in a Sports Illustrated article), Bryant had been deceased for five years and couldn’t refute it. 

Nor would any sports journalist working today likely call the quote into question as the story fits a contemporary narrative that Alabama’s famous football coach was probably a racist.

Many people believe no one would make up fictional racial incidents although this is actually not an unheard of event (the Duke Lacrosse Scandal being perhaps the best known example.)

I should stress I don’t doubt that Jackson experienced racism when he was a minor league player in Birmingham in 1967. 

For example, other stories - corroborated by Jackson’s white teammates - mention how hard it was for Jackson or any black baseball player in the South to find integrated hotels, restaurants or apartments in the mid-1960s.

Reasons I doubt the veracity of this story …

Paul Bear Bryant was not only, arguably, the greatest college football coach ever, he was also very media savvy. He was not a dumb man. He knew people were watching him and he rarely if ever made statements that could harm his reputation or hurt his football program.

Whenever Paul Bryant entered any room, everybody was watching and listening to him, something Bryant would have known. The possibility Coach Bryant would enter a baseball clubhouse, search out the team’s greatest prospect and immediately call him a racial epithet seems remote to me.

(In addition to allegedly calling Jackson the N-word, Bryant also allegedly called Jackson a “boy,” which would be a double insult).

If Bryant did make these comments, it’s very strange Reggie Jackson is the only person who remembers them or who has ever reported this event.

Furthermore, Bryant’s own son was a young general manager for the team (which was owned by Bryant friend Charlie Finley, a native of Birmingham).

If Coach Bryant called the team’s star player the N-word - in front of a “group” in this clubhouse - this certainly would not have made his son’s job easier. Presumably, the elder Bryant would not have wanted to do anything that might harm his son’s fledgling career.

Jackson also says Bryant, Sr. never apologized to him and never mentions Bryant Jr. ever apologizing to him. (Word apparently also never got back to the famous team owner that Bryant had insulted his star prospect and Finley and Bryant remained friends).

Some context for the times …

Some historical context also explains why I doubt Coach Bryant used these words.

The minor league game in question happened in April, 1967. This was just a few months after Bryant’s 1966 team had run the table and finished the year 11-0. 

Bryant’s two previous Alabama teams had won national titles in 1964 and 1965. However, the unbeaten 1966 Alabama team finished third in the polls - behind integrated northern teams Notre Dame and Michigan State, who had played to a tie in the regular season.

Many football historians say the fact that Alabama’s team was still all-white probably kept enough voters from picking Alabama for the top spot. That is, racial politics in America (in the early years of the Civil Rights movement) probably kept Alabama and Coach Bryant from pulling off a very rare three-peat.

Again, the media savvy Bryant would have known this so it seems even more unlikely that just a few months after this final 1966 poll, Bryant would have risked giving more fuel to his critics by calling a talented baseball player the N-word in a room-full of possible witnesses.

Also, this particular minor league baseball game took place when Alabama was winding down Spring Football practice in 1967. As this story documents, Alabama had five African-American players who had walked-on to the team and were playing spring football for Alabama at the time.

Jackson also said this “was the most impactful thing that happened to me in Rickwood Field.”

If this comment left an indelible impression on him, one might think Jackson would get details of the quote right. However, his quote features a few details that would have been impossible.

According to Jackson, Bryant wanted black athletes at Alabama so his team could compete with the college teams coached by Bo Schembechler of Michigan and Joe Paterno of Penn State - coaches Jackson says that Bryant called out by name.

Schembechler didn’t become Michigan’s coach for two more seasons (in 1969). Paterno had just finished his very first season as Penn State’s Coach in 1966 (a team that went 5-5) and probably would not have been a famous coach Bryant would have mentioned in April 1967.

Also “Johnny” Robinson didn’t become head coach at USC until 1976. 

It’s also strange that Jackson continued to consider Bryant “a friend” for many years when he was this offended by this alleged comment.

*** (All article shares are appreciated. Maybe a few other people in Alabama doubted this story, but were afraid to say as much?) ***

This story doesn’t make sense either …

This 2012 story from a Chattanooga columnist doesn’t mention anything about this alleged racial slur. In fact, this columnist recounts a story of Coach Bryant attending a Yankees’ practice session in the Bronx in which Reggie Jackson made a point of introducing himself to Bryant.

According to this article, Jackson allegedly said: 

“Coach Bryant … I just wanted to say hello. I have more respect and admiration for you than just about anybody I can name … ”

One file photo that accompanied the story was of Reggie Jackson, sharing a warm and friendly conversation with Bryant prior to an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and Alabama’s baseball team in the late 1970s.

Jackson is and never was shy about making bold statements so it’s strange that Jackson remained so friendly with a man who once left him discombobulated by directing a racial slur at him.

Trying to give Reggie the benefit of the doubt

My conjecture is it’s possible Jackson conflated the later story of black USC running back Sam “Bam” Cunningham “integrating” Alabama by running all over the Alabama football team in a 1970 game at Legion Field.

That story - which is not entirely true but became Urban Legend - is that Bryant knew he had to have black athletes to be competitive and the best way to accomplish this goal is to let a team with several African-American stars whip his own Bama team in a nationally-televised game in Birmingham.

Maybe Jackson remembered the widely-told Sam Bam Cunningham story and substituted himself for Cunningham?

The result of this game probably did convince all Alabama fans they needed black athletes. However, this game didn’t convince Bryant to start recruiting black athletes because Bryant had already signed his first black athlete seven months before this historic game. 

That player was Ozark’s Wilbur Jackson, who watched the game from the bleachers because freshman could not play in 1970. (Assistant Coach Pat Dye recruited Jackson to Alabama).

Bryant ended up coaching hundreds of black athletes and I’ve never heard one of them say he heard Bryant use the N-word. In fact, his African-American players hold Bryant in the same high regard as his former white players, which they probably wouldn’t do if they thought their coach was a closet racist.

No skepticism; no Bryant defenders in the state press

One might hope that a few prominent sports journalists - especially those who still remember Bryant - would have also questioned the veracity of Jackson’s claim.

Long-time and fair journalists would know that this story, if true, would have been completely out of character for Bryant. They would know it was odd that they’d never heard this story from someone besides Reggie Jackson.

They would wonder why Jackson remained friends with someone who had once said something so shocking to him.

In short, they would have expressed at least a little skepticism about this story.

Paul Bryant can no longer defend himself and no state sports writer chose to do this … which leaves the new editor of The Troy Citizen to play the role of skeptical journalist.

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