Schnellenberger Plays for Bear, Then Recruits for Him
Bear's Boys, Eli Gold (2007)
When he accepted the position as head coach at Kentucky in 1946, Paul "Bear" Bryant was only 32 years old. He was determined to win, even at a non-football school such as Kentucky. And he did. During his eight seasons with the Wildcats, he led his teams to a 60-23-5 record, took them to their first four bowl games, and in 1950 scored a Southeastern Conference championship.
The new coach impressed his players from the start. When George Blanda, who played for Bryant from 1946 to 1948, first saw him, he said, "That must be what God looks like."
As a high school player, Howard Schnellenberger was one of the best linemen in Kentucky. He was highy recruited and was ready to sign with Indiana when Coach Bryant came to call.
Bryant was not one to come empty-handed: he brought the governor of Kentucky along on the visit. Schnellenberger's dad was impressed, but his mother said it would be wrong to break the commitment to Indiana.
Coach Bryant, who knew Mrs. Schnellenberger was a devou Catholic, returned a few days later with the archbishop of her diocese. The deal was done.
Schnellenberger told Keith Dunnavant, author of Coach: "When Coach Bryant goes to war, he doesn't just bring the rifles, he brings the howitzers. That's the lesson I learned that day."
The military metaphors don't end there. According to Schnellenberger, football practices at Kentucky were exactly like boot camp. They were also reminiscent of Bryant's famous Junction Boys training camp, the pre-season session endured by Bryant's first team at Texas A&M at an old military base in the dusty town of Junction TX in 1954.
"When I saw the Junction Boys movie a few years ago, it ticked me off," Schnellenberger said. "I didn't know they were only out there for eight days. We were out there for six weeks!"
As Schnellenberger tells it, before there was a Junction, there was a Millersburg.
"He took us to a military camp north of campus. There were probably 132 freshmen on the bus. Only forty came back."
The Kentucky stories sound strikingly familiar to the scenes from Junction Boys. Guys climbing out of windows and sliding down drainpipes to escape in the middle of the night. A rock-strewn field. No water. Collapsing from heat stroke.
    L-R: Bear Bryant, George Blanda, Howard Schnellenberger at Kentucky, Joe Namath Also familiar is the commitment and the bond shared by the players who made it through the experience and stayed with the team.
"He made it so hard," Schnellenberger said. "He was running off the quitters. The ones who stayed were committed."
As he told Dunnavant: "Coach taught me that hard work and sacrifice could get you somewhere in this world. He set the tone for my whole life."
Schnellenberger played for Coach Bryant for two years before Bryant left for A&M. He finished his playing years at Kentucky in 1956 as an all-American tight end under Coach Blanton Collier. He stayed on as Collier's assistant coach at Kentucky for two years. Then he joined Coach Bryant's coaching staff at Alabama in the national championship year of 1961.
"That was a real high time to be at Alabama," he said. "There was no rebuilding going on that year."
As an Alabama assistant coach, Schnellenberger is perhaps best remembered as the coach who recruited Joe Namath. When Joe was a high school senior in Beaver Falls PA, dozens of college coaches were after him.
Namath had committed to Maryland, but when he didn't score the required minimum on the college boards, he was up for grabs. The Alabama coaches snapped into action.
Schnellenberger knew Joe's older brother, Frank, who had been a freshman at Kentucky when Schnellenberger was a senior there. Frank was more like a father figure to Joe and thought playing for Bryant would give Joe the discipline and focus he needed.
Expecting to stay only one day, Schnellenberger arrived in town with just the clothes on his back. He hoped to hustle Joe out of town before other schools found out he was available. But the visit with his star prospect stretched into a week.
Not only did he have no change of clothes, Schnellenberger was running out of cash.
"Before I left, Coach Bryant went into one of his tin boxes and grabbed me some petty cash," Schnellenberger recalled. "I should have brought more on my own, but I didn't have much extra in those days."
Finally, he convinced Joe to come to Tuscaloosa. Schnellenberger had barely enough money to buy their plane tickets, and when a storm forced them to spend the night in Atlanta, Schnellenberger wrote a bad check for their hotel room.
At breakfast the next morning, Schnellenberger, who had only the change in his pocket, was incredibly relieved when Joe only ordered coffee.
Despite the ribbing his fellow coaches gave him for still wearing the clothes he had on when he departed a week earlier, Schnellenberger breathed a huge sigh of relief when he delivered his charge to the practice field.
As legend goes, Coach Bryant took it from there. He invited Joe to join him on his coach's tower–a first for a player or recruit–and the rest is history.
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