SEC throwing stones at Kiffin forget how controversial Bear was

When Bear came to the SEC, he was considered by many to be the most brutal coach in America . He taught his players to use their forearms as clubs to the face and play "helmet busting football."

The straw came in the 1961 Georgia Tech came when Darwin Holt literally smashed in half of Natchez's Chick Granning's face, putting him in the hospital. Furman Bisher (later a AJC writer) went after Bear in the Saturday Evening Post r (and later lost a libel suit on the story).

quote:

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Graning was coming downfield on the outer fringe of a punt-covering setup. The ball had already been fielded by an Alabama safety man, who had signaled for a fair catch. Holt, however, veered from his apparent course to the Alabama bench and delivered a sudden forearm blow under the face bar of Graning's helmet as Graning eased up....

"Last year 20 players-six of them in college-died as a result of football in-juries or of complications directly associated with football injury. This is an increase over the number of football fatalities in recent years -14 in 1960, 18 in 1959, 17 in 1958 and 16 in 1957."...

Just how the new violence developed is not easily pinpointed, but there can be no doubt that it exists. Coach Ralph Jordan of Auburn recently admitted that his team was taking up "this new hell for-leather, helmet-bursting, gang-tackling game," and added, "Since Bear Bryant came back to Alabama, it's the only kind of game which can win."

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