Years before interviewing for the UA head coaching job, the legendary Alabama coach went to an Arkansas university.
Larry Lacewell had heard plenty about Alabama head football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant growing up. They share the same small Arkansas hometown, Fordyce, after all, and Lacewell’s father had been Bryant’s close friend. As teenagers Bryant and “Chink” Lacewell had hopped boxcars on wild adventures taking them as far as Cleveland.
Lacewell learned more about his dad’s imposing 6-foot-4 friend in 1959 when he took a Crimson Tide graduate assistantship under Bryant. Bryant hooked Lacewell up with a dorm room and made sure he earned his keep.