Paul William Bryant Jr. (born c. 1945) is an American banker and investor from

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

Early life and family background

Paul William Bryant Jr. was born circa 1945.Charles J. Dean
Paul Bryant Jr: His famous father casts a long shadow, one seemingly comfortable to the son
''The Birmingham News'', December 8, 2014 His father,

Bear Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...

, was an American football player and coach.Michael S. Serrill, John Helyar, Anthony Effinger
Alabama Football Dominance Powered by Greyhound Fortune
''Bloomberg Business'', November 25, 2013 Bryant graduated from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

with a degree in Commerce in 1966.The University of Alabama System: Board of Trustees: Paul W. Bryant Jr.
/ref>

Career

Bryant founded the People's Bank in the late 1960s, and later sold it. He also served as general manager of minor league baseball's

Birmingham Barons The Birmingham Barons are a Minor League Baseball team based in Birmingham, Alabama. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and plays at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham. The Baron ...

. By 1977, he established GreeneTrack, dog racing track located in

Greene County, Alabama Greene County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,730, the least populous county in Alabama. Its county seat is Eutaw. It was named in honor of Revolutiona ...

, with A. Wayne May, a veterinarian, and Sam Phelps, a lawyer. He went on to establish more tracks in Texas (for example in

La Marque, Texas La Marque ( ) is a city in Galveston County, Texas, United States, south of Houston. The city population in 2020 was 18,030. La Marque experienced considerable growth in the 1950s, during which the city provided a general administrative and trad ...

), Idaho, and Iowa. By 1995, they were incorporated as GreenTrack, Inc. As of 2009, he owned 72% of GreenTrack. Bryant is also the President of Greene County Greyhound Park. He also serves as the President of Green Group, Inc. Bryant invests in "dog and horse racing, the insurance industry, cement making, catfish farming and banking." He is worth "hundreds of millions of dollars." In 1995, Bryant acquired Reynolds Ready Mix, a cement company later renamed Ready Mix USA. By 2011, he sold it to

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

, a Mexican construction corporation, for US$350 million. In 1999, he acquired a stake in Harvest Select Catfish Inc., a company which raises catfish in Alabama and Mississippi. He was also the co-founder of Alabama Reassurance Co., later known as Alabama Life Reinsurance Co., a

reinsurance Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own insu ...

company. In 2005, Bryant founded the

Bryant Bank Bryant Bank is a community bank in the U.S. state of Alabama. History Bryant Bank was founded by Paul W. Bryant, Jr. in 2005.Michael S. Serrill, John Helyar, Anthony EffingerAlabama Football Dominance Powered by Greyhound Fortune ''Bloomberg Busi ...

. He serves as its chairman.Melissa Brown
Who makes up the University of Alabama Board of Trustees?
''The Birmingham News'', November 16, 2014 He co-authored two books about American football in 2013.

Controversy

He has donated millions of dollars to the Alabama Crimson Tide football program. A CBS story from December 2014 reported that Bryant Jr. was partially responsible for shuttering the UAB Football program, reportedly over a long-standing grudge with

Gene Bartow Bobby Gene Bartow (August 18, 1930 January 3, 2012) was an American men's college basketball coach. The Browning, Missouri, native coached 36 years at six universities after coaching two high schools in Missouri for six years. In 1972 Bartow coa ...

over a 1991 letter to the NCAA - and "out of fear it might one day challenge" the football program his father had built. For many years, Bryant has been accused of running the Alabama board of trustees like a family business, "holding secret meetings, shrugging off public records requests, ignoring or sidestepping the law." In 2001. a committee of trustees met in secret, just one day after a court barred Auburn's board of trustees from doing the same thing. As of 2015, seven trustees were executives or directors at Bryant Bank. These ties received national press attention when the board of trustees made the shocking decision to kill UAB football. Bryant Jr. also has clear ties to a federal

insurance fraud Insurance fraud is any intentional act committed to deceive or mislead an insurance company during the application or claims process, or the wrongful denial of a legitimate claim by an insurance company. It occurs when a claimant knowingly attem ...

case that drew a 15-year prison sentence for Allen W. Stewart. Stewart was found guilty on all 135 counts of fraud. One of Bryant's companies, Alabama Reassurance or "Alabama Re", was implicated in at least nine counts of the Stewart indictment, relating to a "wire fraud scheme to deceive state insurance regulators involving reinsurance." According to the state Department of Insurance, Alabama Re had $240 million in admitted assets, a five person board headed by Bryant, and just two full-time employees.

Personal life

He is married, and has three daughters. He was described by ''

The Birmingham News ''The Birmingham News'' was the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States in the latter half of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st. The paper was owned by Advance Publications and was a daily newspaper from its ...

'' as "among the most private of men, largely a mystery to many." Bryant served as the chairman of the

Civil War Trust The American Battlefield Trust is a charitable organization (501(c)(3)) whose primary focus is in the preservation of battlefields of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War, through the acquisition of battlefield lan ...

.Civil War Trust: Board of Trustees
/ref> He also served on the boards of trustees of the

Alabama Heritage Foundation Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

and the

Museum of the Confederacy The American Civil War Museum is a multi-site museum in the Greater Richmond Region of central Virginia, dedicated to the history of the American Civil War. The museum operates three sites: The White House of the Confederacy, the American Civil ...

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. He served on the board of trustees of the

until September 2015 and previously served as its chairman. In March 2015, ''

'' revealed that many UA trustees worked or had relatives who worked for the Bryant Bank.John Archibald
Paul Bryant Jr.'s bank is the tie that binds UA trustees
''The Birmingham News'', March 27, 2015

Bibliography

*''When Winning Was Everything: Alabama Football Players in World War II'' (with Delbert Reed, Paul W. Bryant Museum, 2013). *''University of Alabama: The Complete History of Crimson Tide Football'' (with Joe Namath, Nick Saban, Bill Battle, Gene Stallings, Ozzie Newsome, John Hannah, Murray Legg, Van Tiffin, Kermit Kendrick, John Mangum, Phillip Doyle, Bill Oliver, Shaun Alexander, Harry Gilmer, Cecil Ingram, Don Salls, Skybox Press, 2013).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Paul Jr. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from Alabama American bankers American company founders Sportswriters from Alabama Philanthropists from Alabama Alabama Crimson Tide football