This story reminds me about planting seeds, you just never know what will grow from it -JeffIT DON’T COST NUTHIN’ TO BE NICE
By Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant
At a Touchdown Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul
"Bear" Bryant told the following story:
I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my
old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect that was supposed to
have been a pretty good player and I was havin' trouble finding the
place. Getting hungry, I spied an old cinder block building with a small
sign out front that simply said "Restaurant."
I pull up, go in, and every head in the place turns to stare at me.
Seems I'm the only white fella in the place. But the food smelled good,
so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a
t-shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?"
I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today? He says, "You
probably won't like it here. Today we're having chitlins, collared
greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know
what chitlins are, do you?"
I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas, I've
probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place."
They all smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate. When he comes
Back, he says, "You ain't from around here then?"
I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the university,
and I'm here to find whatever that boy's name was and he says, “Yeah I've
heard of him. He's supposed to be pretty good.” And he gives me
directions to the school, so I can meet him and his coach.
As I'm paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not
too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him,
but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay. The big man
asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show I'd
been there. I was so new that I didn't have any yet. It really wasn't
that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and
wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one.
I met the kid I was lookin' for later that afternoon and I don't
remember his name, but do remember I didn't think much of him when I met
him. I had wasted a day, or so I thought. When I got back to Tuscaloosa
late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it
under my keys so I wouldn't forget it. Back then I was excited that
anybody would want a picture of me. The next day we found a picture and
I wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had.”
Now let's go a whole bunch a years down the road. Now we have black
players at Alabama, and I'm back down in that part of the country
scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. Y'all remember… and I
forget the name, but it's not important to the story. Well anyway, he's
got two friends going to Auburn, and he tells me he's got his heart set
on Auburn, too, so I leave empty handed and go on see some others while
I'm down there.
Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and
it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still
want me at Alabama?" And I said, "Yes, I sure do." And he says OK, he'll
come. And I say, "Well son, what changed your mind?" And he said, "When
my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no, he
pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama, and wasn't
playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since
y'all met."
Well, I didn't know his granddad from Adam's housecat so I asked him who
his granddaddy was and he said, "You probably don't remember him, but
you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a
picture that he's had hung in that place ever since. That picture's his
pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear
Bryant came in and had chitlins with him."
"My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to
remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him,
and to Grandpa, that's everything. He said you could teach me more than
football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to."
I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were
always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to
do the right thing most of the time, and it costs a lot to lose your
good name by breakin' your word to someone.
NOTE: Coach Bryant was in the presence of these few gentlemen
for only minutes, and he defined himself for life. Regardless of our
profession, we do define ourselves by how we treat others, and how we
behave in the presence of others, and most of the time, we have only
minutes or seconds to leave a lasting impression. We can be rude, crude,
cold, arrogant, cantankerous, or we can be nice. Nice is always a better
choice. Stephen Grellet, French/American religious leader (1773-1855)
said, "I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good
therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let
me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again."
