ONE NIGHT IN MEMPHIS: A Look Back At Bear Bryant's Final Game Ahead Of 40th Anniversary

TUSCALOOSA, AL — University of Alabama cornerback Jeremiah Castille was a 21-year-old senior when he stood on the stage on the field at the Liberty Bowl in freezing conditions the night of Dec. 29, 1982.

His college playing days were at an end, along with the coaching career of the legendary Paul W. "Bear" Bryant.

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It was a lot to take in for the young man from Phenix City, but the memory of a heavy arm wrapping around his shoulders sticks with him to this day.

"We’re up on the stage there and one of the commentators, I don't remember who it was, is talking to Coach Bryant congratulating him on his career," Castille said in an interview with Patch. "I'm standing next to him, and he says 'Aw I had a great career because I had great men like this,' and he put his arm around me.”

Less than a month after the historic 21-15 win over Illinois in the Liberty Bowl, Castille would be one of eight pallbearers who laid the legendary coach to rest.

"It was really the greatest honor I had received," Castille said of being asked to be a pallbearer. "It’s just humbling. Now, it makes me think back about how I carried myself. Coach Bryant was big on class and character and how we represented our family and the university. I really attempted to do that the rest of my life."

Indeed, Bryant's ascent over three decades at Alabama saw the rough-and-tumble, blue-collar kid from nowhere, Arkansas become arguably the most iconic coach in college football history.

"Prior to that game, media-wise it being Coach Bryant’s last game and him retiring, that game probably was bigger than the national championship in this country," Castille recalled.

Bryant's memory has left an indelible imprint on the state of Alabama and its flagship university, with his story becoming more rich with each passing fall. So, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Bryant's final game, Patch took a look back at that memorable evening.

'I Ain't About To Croak'

It's a little less than 200 miles traveling northeast from the sleepy town of Moro Bottom, Arkansas to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on South Hollywood Street in Memphis — what used to be called "The Liberty Bowl."

Bryant told a newspaper reporter in December 1982 that when he was younger, he would hitchhike from nearby Fordyce to the big city.

The 69-year-old football coach remembered that hard-scrabble upbringing with a sense of nostalgia for the good old days and Memphis seemed as fitting a place as any for his career to come to a close.

"Back in those days, you were lucky if you could get to Memphis from Fordyce in a day," he said the week of the Liberty Bowl against Illinois. "There wasn't much pavement between here and there. There were a lot of dirt roads then."

Even as this story is written, the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the UA campus is gearing up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his final game by opening a new exhibit that will feature, among several items, the now-iconic coat with a fur-lined hood that Bryant wore on the sidelines of the Liberty Bowl on that frigid night in Memphis when temperatures during the game dropped to a wind-chill factor of 25 degrees.

It's crucial to note that, despite a photo existing of Bryant in his now-famous coat and his iconic Houndstooth hat, Bryant eventually opted for a ball cap that night.

"I wanted to stay warm, so I wore the other [hat]," Bryant told a reporter after the game. "Besides, I was afraid the regular hat would blow off.”

Castille remembered the heavy coat in the locker room before the Tide took the field and said the image of the man standing before him was one he would cherish for a lifetime.

"It was cold — rainy, cold day and right before the captains got ready to go out, I was really a quiet person ... a quiet type of person and leader," Castille said. "I just didn’t talk a whole lot and I just had a strong prompting as we’re sitting in the locker room to say something and the prompting is so strong in my gut that, if I don’t get up, I'm going to be sick. So, I raised my hand slowly, Coach Bryant standing there, and asked coach if I could say something and he nodded. He had on that big ol' coat."

The temporary exhibit opened Saturday in time for Alabama's season-opener against Utah State and will be available through the summer of 2023. The coat is on loan from Marc Tyson, the grandson of Coach Bryant.

Bryant Museum Executive Director Olivia Arnold explained that the exhibit will also focus on the legacy and impact of Bryant felt outside of football — a notion the coach likely would have laughed off the week of his final game.

But in another one of many illuminating moments of hindsight, Bryant told longtime Tuscaloosa News sports editor Billy Mitchell in a candid feature story published the day after the 1982 Liberty Bowl, that: "Heck, I ain't about to croak ... Now maybe I can hunt and fish and do some of the things I like. Maybe I can even get my [golf] handicap down to 15 by the spring."

Mitchell was right to have been concerned about Bryant's health, considering the coach had suffered a series of cardiac episodes and a stroke over the previous years. Less than a month after speaking with Mitchell, Bryant died of a massive heart attack while being prepared for a medical procedure at Druid City Hospital.

Bryant's death and the subsequent time of mourning was reminiscent of Elvis Presley and only a month after local papers printed multi-page special sections with stories lauding his career. This fanfare for a career, however, then turned to newspapers dedicating entire issues to Bryant's life and legacy.

Still, few of the images that have endured through the years like the pictures of Bryant hoisted on the shoulders of his players one last time following the 21-15 win over Illinois on that freezing night.

Looking back on that week and the lead-up to the game, it was one of harmless self-deprecation from the coach in speaking with the media.

His successor — longtime Bryant acolyte Ray Perkins — had already been announced and the entirety of Crimson Tide fandom was skeptical about the end of one era and the beginning of another.

"I didn't have anything to do with picking the coach," Bryant told one newspaper reporter. "I didn't want to, and I didn't know who the coach was going to be. But I knew we had to make a change and that it couldn't wait until after the bowl."

Bryant was quite open to local and national press about his reasons for stepping down from coaching. The rationale was simple: teams that he believed were competitors had consistently not lived up to their expectations. It was a standard Bryant prided himself on developing during his three decades in Tuscaloosa and one that he believed fell short of what the program deserved.

Indeed, Castille as a senior on that team said the four losses were a disappointment, but served as a driver that girded the attitude of the team before they took the field at the Liberty Bowl. After all, Castille remembered the days of watching "The Bear Bryant Show" on Sunday to see the coach flanked by Golden Flake potato chips and Coca-Cola bottles discussing players like Woodrow Lowe — a fellow Phenix City product that Castille credits as being the inspiration for his love for the Tide.

And it was the fatalism over the season that in-part inspired Castille to deliver a locker room pre-game speech that he insists lit a fire under the defense that night in Memphis.

"When I stood up, it was nothing planned, just totally impromptu words to Coach Bryant and to the team," he said. "I said 'Coach I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me as a player. I came here four years ago as an 18-year-old boy, but I’m going to leave here tonight as a 21-year-old man. So, I personally just thanked coach and said 'Coach there’s no way we’re going to lose this game tonight. If I have to play this baby by myself, we’re going to win this game."

Still, despite Castille's pregame inspiration, the last few comments from Bryant to the media that week underscore an unshakeable notion in sports that even legends like The Bear must eventually face — One day, the game will pass you by and it will be time to step away.

"One of the real basic reasons I'm retiring is because Georgia Tech beat us last year, Southern Miss tied us and then Texas beat us in the Cotton Bowl, when I felt like we had the game won," he said the week of the 1982 Liberty Bowl, reflecting on the equally-mediocre 1981 season. "I thought we had the personnel to be a contender last year, and I felt the same way this year until the Tennessee game."

To Bryant's credit, the 1982 contest between the Volunteers and Crimson Tide was a particularly painful one. Ranked No. 2 in the country at the time, Bryant's Tide blew a 21-13 lead at the half to fall 35-28 to Tennessee and longtime Bryant rival Johnny Majors in a game nobody expected the pass-heavy Volunteers to win.

"I think they beat us worse than the score indicated," Bryant said of the loss to Tennessee. "I never like to lose and certainly don't like to lose now, but it could be good for us, for me, for our staff, our players and people. It will teach us, at least, what you have to do to win."

Castille, who was third in the country for interceptions going into the Liberty Bowl, also remembered that Tennessee game — the only other in his college career other than the 1982 Liberty Bowl that he corralled three interceptions in a single day.

"[Tennessee] had explosive wide receivers, that’s how I got those three interceptions," he said. "Willie Gault, Mike Miller ... and those guys were track guys. When you’ve got that kind of speed and Tennessee was one of those teams that wanted to throw the football."

Bryant's final season, unfortunately, ended up a less than memorable chapter in the annals of Crimson Tide football history. The Tide finished 7-4 during a regular season capped off with a heartbreaking 23-22 loss to Auburn in front of 76,000 people at Legion Field in Birmingham for Bryant's final Iron Bowl.

"If we had beaten them, I wouldn't be going out," Bryant said of the series of devastating conference losses to rival opponents during the previous two seasons.

The Last Game

Alabama junior quarterback Walter Lewis loved the options — both literal and figurative — that the wishbone offense gave him. Lewis, a former national youth punt, pass and kick champion who tallied more than 2,000 yards during the 1982 campaign, was even vocal in the media about his passion for an offense that let him make the most out of his speed, arm and athletic ability.

But as reporter Donnie Anthony pointed out the night of the Liberty Bowl: "Lewis won't be directing the University of Alabama in a wishbone attack in Ray Perkins' first season as head coach. The Tide's use of the wishbone retired with Paul 'Bear' Bryant here Wednesday night."

Even this bit of hindsight gives a glimpse into the mindset of playmakers like Lewis, who knew a wholesale regime change would alter every facet of the program in order to make a swift transition toward an era of renewed success.

Bryant admitted in interviews the week of the Liberty Bowl that he had become distant with players with respect to individual coaching relationships.

The game — and the program itself — had evolved by eons compared to when Bryant said "Mama called" him back to Tuscaloosa to coach his alma mater. He had a full staff of coaches and minders to take care of the more tedious work, leaving the coach little more than a figurehead overseeing his dominion from his tower on the UA football practice field.

Bryant said this in an interview the week of the Liberty Bowl:

"It's been years since I've had any real coaching input. But I've tried to keep the players away from all these distractions as much as possible. But it's been hard. We had final exams, then this thing came up (coaching change) and then Christmas.

As for the change. I'm sure some of 'em are tickled to death, especially the skilled people since they'll be puttin' it up a lot next year. But you know they've got to be wondering about the new coach even while they're thinking about this game. The thing about this game win or lose, is that everybody on this team is going to think about it for a long, long time."

After the loss to Auburn to close out the regular season and even as anticipation was already building around the coaching change, Bryant seemed to have been focused on the season going out on a positive note.

"We have one more chance for our seniors to go out winners," he told newspaper reporters the day before the Liberty Bowl. "There's no doubt in my mind that they are winners, but they seem to have some doubt and now we'll just have to see how they'll react."

Even with his health in serious decline, in tandem with the waning success of the football program he had elevated to previously unseen heights, there's little that could make one doubt Bryant's fighting spirit.

Indeed, as one childhood friend later recalled, Bryant once got into a fist-fight during a basketball game in Arkansas with another high school player he thought was being overly physical. It was The Bear's world and everyone else just lived in it.

"Paul took all he could stand and hit him right in the mouth, too," the old friend said. "I'll never forget that one, 'cause that boy's teeth sounded like somebody took a handful of corn and threw it across the floor."

Bryant was a long way from the basketball court at Fordyce High School, though, and knew Illinois and its pass-first offense would be no easy task for a final moment of victory.

Still, it was a night of jubilation for America as it celebrated the end of historic era. During the television broadcast on Metro Sports, Neil Diamond's "America" was played at least a half a dozen times whenever the game cut to commercial break.

But after Castille's inspiring speech before the team headed out of the tunnel, Alabama took the opening kickoff in front of a reported television crowd of 20 million people and advanced to the Illinois 42 before losing possession on a Linnie Patrick fumble.

Illinois Quarterback "Champagne" Tony Eason — who held nine NCAA passing records going into the game — drove the field before Alabama's Randy Edwards blocked a kick, which was recovered by Mike Pitts.

Lewis then took immediate control of the game, tossing a ball 50 yards to future Mountain Brook High and South Alabama football coach Joey Jones, who went down just short of the red zone.

The signal-caller then followed up with a 19-yard strike to Jesse Bendross to put the Tide on the seven yard line. Leading rusher and fullback Ricky Moore eventually got the touchdown on a four-yard run to put the Tide up 7-0 following a Peter Kim extra point.

Despite the slow start in front of an estimated 54,000 fans, it would be Castille who throttled Dwight Beverly on an Illini drive in the first quarter, forcing a fumble on the Alabama six-yard line to stop a score in the first quarter, before deflecting a Tony Eason pass on an attempted two-point conversion.

Castille, a second team All-American in 1982, then grabbed his second interception of the night on the last play before the half, when Eason heaved a ball as deep as he could into the scrum of crimson and white jerseys as the last second ticked away.

It's worth noting that prior to the game, Castille had tallied seven interceptions on the season.

The legendary Crimson Tide defensive back told Patch his goal after snagging five interceptions the year prior was to get 10 during the 1982 campaign — a number he would reach before the end of the night in Memphis ... although there's no record of it in the annals of Crimson Tide football to preserve the mark.

"I went into that game that night needing three," Castille said with a laugh. "It just was the right matchup for me as a defensive back to play a team that was going to throw the ball that much."

To Castille's point, Eason would go on to set Liberty Bowl records for the most passes thrown, completions and the most passing yardage in the post-season contest.

"I was coached by two great guys [at Alabama] — Bill Oliver and Louis Campbell," Castille said. "Bill Oliver was my freshman coach, so I learned so much under him in that freshman year and playing behind the great Don McNeal, and for us, you play to make turnovers, so the number of interceptions I got was because I was taught how to become a receiver. Today, I don’t think they teach it that way. Today you see so many pass interferences and, to me, the athletes are better athletes now."

Castille secured his third interception in the third quarter of a second half that would be considered boring by many with respect to today's standards, as both teams fought through the cold.

The Illini would, however, get on the scoreboard following an interception and subsequent touchdown pass, before the Tide grabbed back the lead in the third quarter after a 50-yard drive that culminated in a rushing touchdown by Bendross.

In the fourth quarter, Illinois would take possession with 11:53 left to play, which saw Eason shred through the defense for a 13-play, 68-yard drive capped off with a two-yard touchdown pass to Oliver Williams on fourth down.

Eason would then attempt a pass on a two-point conversion that Castille slapped away to keep the Tide up 14-12.

The ensuing kickoff saw Alabama drive 66 yards in 12 plays, scoring on Kevin Turner's one-yard run that represented the last touchdown scored during the Bryant Era. It was followed up by an extra point from Peter Kim — the last point scored by a Bear Bryant player.

As everyone reading this story knows, this is where the game would inevitably end up, apart from a field goal to close the distance to 21-15 for the Illini.

With The Bear's final game in the books, it was time for a short-lived celebration and what everybody thought would be a ride off into the sunset for the legendary coach.

According to one report by the Memphis Press-Scimitar, a Birmingham electrician named Joe Norris brought printing equipment to the Liberty Bowl parking lot in his camper that night and, within three minutes after the game ended, he had 2,000 stickers with the final score that sold out in a couple of hours.

Remembering the moment, Castille was transported back to being a freshman joining the team after its national title win in 1978.

He recalled the pink sticky note on his locker to go see Coach Bryant during preseason two-a-days, the face of Bryant's receptionist Linda Knowles and the black and white couch without legs in Bryant's office that made the sitter feel like they were looking up at a god as he sat behind his desk.

Bryant snuffed out a Chesterfield cigarette and then addressed the young defensive back.

"He said 'Jeremiah you can play here at the University of Alabama,' that’s what he told me," Castille said. "In my mind, I'm thinking that he meant when my turn comes because I'm behind Don McNeal, and his words were, 'You can play this year.' ... Can you imagine that being shared with a 5-9, 155 pound freshman?

"I was getting ready to leave the office and I'm walking out and he said Jeremiah, you see that door right there?'," Castille added. "That door is always open. If you ever have a problem, don’t hesitate to come knock on that door. I’m giving it to you word for word. When Coach Bryant asked us to jump, we asked how high."

Less than a month after Bryant put his arm around Castille on that stage at the Liberty Bowl, however, it would be the star defensive back — who would go on to a commendable NFL career — among the eight men carrying Bryant's casket after the coach died less than a month after his final victory on the gridiron.

Despite losing a father figure and mentor, though, it would go on to be the greatest honor a poor Black kid from Phenix City could have imagined.

"My mind went to the Lee Roy Jordans, Joe Namaths, Kenny Stablers," Castille said. "And you idolized all those guys because Coach Bryant talked about them. But they're asking me to be one of those players to do that. All of the great people he knew that they could have called and here it is that they asked me."

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