A dual biography of two coaching legends -- Bear Bryant and Nick Saban -- who built the Alabama Crimson Tide into a true football dynasty. Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships -- six apiece -- than anyone else in the history of the game. CHASING THE BEAR examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports. Bear Bryant and Nick Saban never met, but they have more in common than either of them realize. Both grew up in small towns -- Bryant in Moro Bottom, Arkansas, a dot on the map, and Saban from Monongah, West Virginia, population five hundred. As a child, Saban pumped gas at his father's service station, washing and waxing cars and doing anything he could to help the business. Bryant's father suffered from multiple physical ailments, which forced Bryant to work to keep the family farm going. Both men knew the value of hard work from the time they were young boys, and both understood that there were no shortcuts to success. But both dreamed of escaping their hometowns, and both used football as the means to do so. Separated by two generations, Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are mythic figures linked by a school, a town, and a barroom debate centering on one question: Which is the greatest college coach of all time?

Former football coach Gene Stallings brings together many of the greatest players ever to play Alabama football to share their memories.

A groundbreaking contribution to the history of the "long Civil Rights movement," Hammer and Hoe tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 40s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. In this book, Robin D. G. Kelley reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals. After discussing the book's origins and impact in a new preface written for this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Kelley reflects on what a militantly antiracist, radical movement in the heart of Dixie might teach contemporary social movements confronting rampant inequality, police violence, mass incarceration, and neoliberalism.

For almost every year of the last decade, any college team coveting a national championship has had to reckon with going against the Crimson Tide. With coach Nick Saban at the helm, Alabama has won six of the last 12 national titles. The 2020 championship team showcased Saban’s evolution as a leader and further solidified what many long suspected was true: Nick Saban is college football’s greatest coach ever. Leaders of any kind, including coaches and beyond, stand to gain great wisdom and inspiration by learning from his success. In The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban, senior sports editor and SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group, John Talty, highlights the keys to Saban’s winning strategy and offers readers a blueprint for paving their own paths to success using the esteemed coach’s leadership lessons. Through original interviews and never-before-heard anecdotes, Talty charts Saban’s journey to college football’s mountaintop and reveals some of the magic behind what keeps him atop it. You’ll get an inside look at what it’s like to work or play for Coach Saban, including the mottos and motivation strategies he uses to inspire his organization. Competing universities commit tens of millions of dollars to hiring coaches who might unlock a little of Saban’s magic for their teams. With this book, you’ll learn the key traits and habits that propel Alabama football without having to foot the hefty bill others have. Whether you want to build a winning culture on the football field or as a leader in a range of professional arenas, this book is a comprehensive guide to refusing complacency amid success and how to find the right people committed to building a legacy with you.

When exercised with faith and steadfastness, history bends to the will of man. Umar Al Farooq was such a man who left a legacy that subsequent generations have emulated. He was a great conqueror, a wise administrator, a just ruler, a monumental builder, and a man of piety who loved God with the same intensity that other conquerors of his caliber have loved gold and wealth. Umar shaped the historical edifice of Islam, and whatever Islam became or did not become in subsequent centuries is primarily due to his work. Indeed, Umar was the architect of Islamic civilization. Human destiny is to realize its own sublime nature within the matrix of human affairs. When free will is abused, humans are reduced to the most wretched of creatures. Umar understood this better than anyone, and few since the Prophet carried this trust with as much wisdom, humility, determination, sensitivity, persistence, and courage. By any yardstick, Umar was one of history's greatest figures.

An exciting summer with Al’s father awaits—but when her mom gets sick, Al has to decide what’s most important Al can’t wait to visit her father’s family for an entire month. They’ve promised her homemade ice cream and a barn dance that even the boy she likes is coming to! Nothing can stop her from having the best summer of her life—that is, if she can quit worrying about leaving her mother, who hasn’t been feeling well for weeks. Al wants to be a good daughter to both parents, but who will take care of her mother while she’s gone? Life is about to get a little complicated, but deep down, Al knows what she has to do.

***"I know with some of the older guard at Alabama this is not particularly popular," said Davis, "but this is the greatest era of Alabama football ever."***"He's been obviously the most consistent coach that we've had in our profession in a lot of years,'' said Grant Teaff, College Football Hall of Fame coach and former executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "Year after year, after year, after year, he's there.''***Steve Spurrier went so far as to call Saban the "greatest recruiter in the history of college football," during SEC media days in 2014. "As long as they can recruit like that, they're always going to be the favorites."

What's so great about Alabama? Find out the top ten sites to see or things to do in the Yellowhammer State! Explore Alabama's warm ocean coast, museums, and rich history. The Alabama by Map feature shows where you'll find all the places covered in the book. A special section provides quick state facts such as the state motto, capital, population, animals, foods, and more. Take a fun-filled tour of all there is to discover in Alabama.

Fifty years ago Abilene High School, under legendary Coach Chuck Moser, became a football dynasty in Texas. Moser moved to Abilene in 1953 at age thirty-four. What followed were seven of the most amazing years in the rich history of Texas high school football. The 1954, 1955, and 1956 teams won state championships. From 1954 to 1957 the Eagles won an incredible forty-nine consecutive games. Abilene captured six district titles in a row in a rugged West Texas league known as the Little Southwest Conference. In Moser's seven years, Abilene won seventy-eight games and lost only seven. In its 1999 wrap-up of the twentieth century in Texas, The Dallas Morning News designated the Eagles of 1954-57 as the "Team of the Century" in high school football. Veteran sports writer Al Pickett explores how Moser worked his magic to galvanize an entire community in support of his program and turn an otherwise ordinary group of high school kids into the best football team in Texas history.