Paul "Bear" Bryant Award

{{short description|American football award for coaching}}

{{primary sources|date=April 2017}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}

{{infobox sports award

| name = Paul "Bear" Bryant Award

| current_awards =

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| description = NCAA college football's national coach of the year

| presenter = American Heart Association
National Sports Media Association

| country = United States

| year = 1986

| holder = Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame (2024)

| website = https://bryantawards.org/

}}

The American Heart Association (AHA) Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards are an annual awards banquet that is hosted each year in January, in Houston, Texas, by the AHA.{{cite web|title=The Final Title of the Season: The Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards |work=American Heart Association – Houston Office website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=http://www.ahahouston.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/20162017BearBryantHoustonHeartBall/About/History/tabid/782965/Default.aspx |access-date=2017-02-16}}{{cite web|title=Win a Trip to the Bear Bryant Awards |work=American Heart Association – Houston Office website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=https://ahahouston.ejoinme.org/MyEvenys/20162017BearBryantHoustonHeartBall/Event/TrophyTour/tabid/818860/Default.aspx |access-date=2017-02-16 |quote=Toyota proudly supports the American Heart Association's 2017 Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards. In addition to a Toyota Trophy Tour, ....}}For a list of American Heart Association offices, by state, go to: {{cite web |title=Localization By State / City |work=American Heart Association official website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/localization/chooseState.jap?_DARGS=/HEARTORG/localization/chooseState.jsp |access-date=2017-02-16}} There are two awards. One of them—the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Award—has been given annually since 1986 to NCAA college football's national coach of the year.{{cite web |title=Coach of the Year Award |work=American Heart Association – Houston Office website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=https://ahahouston.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/20162017BearBryantHoustonHeartBall/About/CoachoftheYear/tabid/782957/Default.aspx |access-date=2017-02-16}} The Award was named in honor of longtime Alabama coach Bear Bryant after he died of a heart attack in 1983, just four weeks after he retired as the Alabama Crimson Tide coach. The award is voted on by the National Sports Media Association (formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association){{cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement Award |work=American Heart Association – Houston Office website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=https://ahahouston.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/20162017BearBryantHoustonHeartBall/About/LifetimeAchievement/tabid/782958/Default.aspx |access-date=2017-02-16}} and proceeds from the awards ceremony benefit the Houston chapter of the American Heart Association, which is the organizing sponsor—since 1986, at the request of the Bryant family—and which obtains a "presenting sponsor" (currently Marathon Oil Corporation).[https://www.nationalsportsmedia.org/awards/bear-Bryant-awards Bear Bryant Awards]. National Sports Media Association website. Retrieved 2017-04-06. The College Football Coach of the Year Award began in 1957 and was renamed for Bryant in 1986. Bryant himself won the AFCA Coach of the Year award in 1961, 1971, and 1973. {{cite book |first=Allen|last=Barra|title=The Last Coach: The Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant|url=https://archive.org/details/lastcoach00alle|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/lastcoach00alle/page/517 517]|isbn=9780393059823 }}

According to the official website:{{cite web |title=2017 Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards |date=December 14, 2016 |work=American Heart Association – Houston Office website |publisher=American Heart Association, Inc. |url=http://www.bryantawards.com/ |access-date=2017-02-16}}

The Paul Bear Bryant College Football Coaching Awards is an exclusive event that honors a college football coach whose great accomplishments, both on and off the field, are legendary. The award recognizes the masters of coaching and allows them to take their deserved place in history beside other legends like Bear Bryant.

Unlike many college football head coaching awards, it is presented after each season's bowl games.

In 2000, the AHA began presenting a second award, the Paul "Bear" Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award. A third award, the Paul "Bear" Bryant Newcomer Coach of the Year Award, was added in 2023, honoring the top coach in his first season as a head coach in Division I FBS.{{cite press release |url=https://bryantawards.org/news/david-braun-named-bear-bryant-newcomer-coach/ |title=Northwestern's David Braun named inaugural Paul "Bear" Bryant Newcomer Coach of the Year Award recipient |publisher=Bear Bryant Awards |date=December 21, 2023 |access-date=December 23, 2023}}