PASADENA, Calif. — As a high school running back in Tennessee, Mack Brown proudly wore uniforms patterned after Alabama's, with a number on the helmet just like the Crimson Tide, and a coach who loved talking about Bear Bryant.
Bryant was a favorite of Brown's beloved grandfather, too. So imagine how excited he was a 17-year-old, sitting in the legendary coach's office and asking if he could help 'Bama as a punt returner.
"That was the school that I thought was the place that it all happened," Brown said. "I wanted to coach there, I wanted to play there, I just wanted to get around Alabama as much as I could."
Funny how life turns out.
Brown ended up following his big brother, Watson, to Vanderbilt, and over the last decade has sealed his reputation as a head coach by turning Texas back into the kind of perennial national power it was during the days of another famous name, Darrell Royal.
Through all the twists and turns, Brown has remained steady in his affection toward Alabama — the team his No. 2 Longhorns will play Thursday night for BCS championship.
"Alabama football excites me," Brown said. "This is a dream matchup for me, personally."
With a victory over the top-ranked Tide, Brown could match Royal with two Associated Press national championships, depending on what voters decide in the final poll. Bryant won five.
"Coach Bryant and coach Royal were two of those guys that all of us looked up to," Brown said. "They were the Bobby Bowden and Joe Paternos of today. All of the younger coaches looked to see why they were winning so many games."
Brown hasn't stopped seeking the secrets to their success.
Getting to know Royal was easy. They've spent so much time together and become so close that Brown has often asked Royal about Bryant: What was he like? What did he say?
Brown has sought more answers from other mutual friends with Bryant, Gene Stallings and John David Crow. Stallings and Crow were coached by Bryant at Texas A&M.;
Stallings also worked for Bryant and later followed in his footsteps by coaching Alabama to the 1992 national championship, the school's first and only title since Bryant. Brown called Stallings "one of my best friends and mentors."
"I would ask coach Stallings, 'Why did coach Bryant win? You were there as a player, as a coach — tell me why he won and how he did it,'" Brown said.
In his 26 years as a head coach at Appalachian State, Tulane, North Carolina and Texas, Brown had only faced 'Bama once before Thursday night, in the 1993 Gator Bowl.
Coming off a national championship, the Tide went into the game 8-3-1 and ranked No. 18. North Carolina was 10-2 and ranked No. 12.
"They had a lot of guys hurt, but they got healthy for the bowl," Brown said. "It wasn't a good experience for us."
Despite absorbing a 24-10 loss, Brown came away with one fond memory.
He and his wife, Sally, had dinner one night with Stallings and his wife. Sally Brown had noticed all the questions Stallings got about Bryant, so she asked whether he ever tires of it.
"And coach Stallings, in his deep slow voice said, 'No, not really. My legend's dead. Yours is Dean Smith. He's alive and he's across the hall, so you have to talk to yours every day,'" Brown recalled.
In fact, Stallings hit on an important reason Brown left the Tar Heels for the Longhorns: because football would never the No. 1 sport in Chapel Hill, while it always will rule in Austin.
As soon as this matchup with Alabama was set, Brown wanted his old high school coach, Bucky Pitts, to be in the stadium because of how neat it would be for him to see his former pupil take on his favorite program for such high stakes.
"He was from Guntersville and all he talked about was Alabama every day of our lives," Brown said. The Texas coach joked his only reservation was that Pitts would cheer for the Tide.
When Pitts heard about that, he sent Brown an e-mail with the message: "You fool, I'm pulling for you!"
Pitts is 76 and opted not to travel all the way to California. But he certainly planned to watch the game.
"He's going to be pulling for us against his Alabama ties," Brown said. "He's a wonderful man and a great role model in my life."
College Sports
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AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Discussion
January 7, 2010
Texas coach Mack Brown a lifelong Crimson Tide fan
BCS Championship Game, 7 p.m. Thursday, ABC
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