By Randy Galloway
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Flashback to nearly 40 years ago — 39 to be exact — and Paul Bryant was the biggest Bear in the college football woods.
Gary Patterson was a seventh-grade football player in rural Kansas.
Doug English was a college football star at the University of Texas.
And the Moritz Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealership had recently opened on a little two-lane road, with a bar ditch on each side, known as Collins Street in north Arlington.
Nearly 40 years ago — 39 to be exact — Kent Waldrep, all of 19 years old, heard his number called on an October afternoon in Birmingham, Ala.
“Red right 28,” said the quarterback.
Waldrep wanted the ball. He knew then he was going to get it, even though his TCU Horned Frogs were already being blown out by Bryant’s powerful Crimson Tide. But Waldrep wanted the ball.
To this day, he remembers the defense was not tricked. A swarm of tacklers met him in front of the ’Bama bench.
Waldrep’s next memory was waking up in a Birmingham hospital — waking up at all was considered somewhat of a miracle — and the first face he saw, the first voice he heard at his bedside, was, as Kent described it, “Like talking to God for a young football player.”
Bear Byrant was there. In a way, Bear never left Waldrep’s side. Bear said he never would. He didn’t. Even 30 years after his death, Bear remains by Waldrep’s side.
For more on this story, go to http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/15/4940610/kent-waldrep-gets-new-wheels-with.html.
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