Gaylon McCollough donating profits from Bear Bryant book to AHA; Local M.D. played for Tide and was coach’s personal physician & confidant

By Fran Thompson
When Bear Bryant died following two heart attacks in 1983, he left Alabama with six national championships, 13 conference championships and the most wins in col
legiate football history.
He left those who played for him, including local physician Gaylon McCollough, something that would be more important to them: life lessons they could use in business and life.
McCollough, who would go on to become Bryant’s close friend and personal physician, revealed Bryant’s secrets to success in his insightful book, “The Long Shadow of Coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”
The book transports readers from the boardroom to the gridiron as it reveals the icon’s perspectives on winning and losing with grace, on the field and in life.
Now, as the American Heart Association gears up for this month’s 35th Bryant Awards, McCollough has announced that he will be donating proceeds from the book he penned on Bryant’s life to support the AHA mission.
“As he approached the end of his coaching career, he shared his concerns about his health, spirituality and the football program with me and often solicited my advice,” McCollough said. “It was a singular honor to be placed in that position.”
“The Long Shadow of Coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant” is one of 22 books McCollough has authored, with proceeds always benefiting charities.
“Not a day passes that I don’t reflect on some lesson I learned from my coach and friend,” McCollough said. “It is fitting that the things he stood for and sacrificed for are being recognized by the American Heart Association.” (To attend the virtual awards show, visit bryantawards.org.)
The starting center on the 1964 national championship team, McCollough earned All-Conference honors as a player and was an All-American student-athlete at Alabama and was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Later, he became one of Bryant’s doctors and was a confidant of the larger-than-life coach.
As such, McCollough, owner of The McCollough Institute for Appearance & Health in Gulf Shores, was able to learn about the man behind the legend.
“I wanted to do something on Coach Bryant that people could use to teach their children or grandchildren or use in their own everyday life,” said McCollough. “I know a few of the little known facts that made him the winner he was. He had a system of winning that could and should be carried into the game of life.”
Renowned as both a plastic surgeon and author, McCollough played for Coach Bryant teams quarterbacked by Joe Namath.
“Everything I’ve done from Day 1 up until today was based on the principles I learned from Coach Bryant,’’ he said. “Leadership management, the importance of organization and work ethic, the ability to self evaluate.”
Bryant taught McCollough about turning something negative into a positive after a game against Georgia Tech in 1962. The Tide, ranked first in the country at the time, lost the game 7-6.
“We were in the dressing room after the game and we were dejected, because the championship had slipped through our fingers,’’ McCollough said. “Coach Bryant came into the dressing room and led us in prayer. What he said was ‘Dear Lord, let these young men forgive me. If I’d stayed at home, we’d have won the game.’ He felt he made several decisions toward the end of the game that cost us. Then he got up and said. ‘I just want to tell you guys how proud of you I am. You never quit, you weren’t beaten. Time just ran out on you.’ First time I’d ever heard that term.
“He said, ‘If you pick up where you left off today, in the fourth quarter, next week when we play Auburn, we’ll be OK. Feel sorry for yourself, and you’ll get beat again.’’’
McCollough also remembers in the book a lesson Bryant taught him about leaving no room for doubt.
It happened on the last play that he was on the field representing Alabama, the 1865 Orange Bowl against Texas. Down 10 points at the half, The Tide roared back and was in a position to win when Namath’s fourth down quarterback sneak was at first signaled the winning touchdown, but eventually reversed by the referee.
“We protested for a minute or two there. Coach Bryant didn’t. He was standing on the sideline. He never moved, he just stood there. As we left the field, which was the longest walk I think I’ve ever taken, right behind me, someone on the team said ‘Coach, we scored.’ When he said that, all of us turned and looked directly at Coach Bryant. He took a short step back, just to get our attention and then said this to the team: ‘If he’d walked in, there would have been no question about it.’’’
McCollough condensed Bryant’s system of winning into 46 short lessons into a presentation, “Coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant: Grandmaster of Mind Over Matter,” that he presented for the first time at a 2011 Gulf Coast Athletic Club meeting at Craft Farms.
Included in McCollough’s double digit book bibliography is a memoir, “Victory in the Game of Life,” a book he wrote to provide encouragement and inspiration to people who have a dream and aren’t sure exactly how to make it happen.
As a personal example, he notes that he was preparing to be the starting quarterback for his high school team in Enterprise when a new coach came aboard and installed an offensive scheme, the Notre Dame Box, that didn’t require a QB. He instead was told to line up as an offensive lineman and linebacker. “I had to start all over again. Nothing that I had learned applied to the new position that I had to play,’’ he said.
But adapt he did, earning a scholarship to Alabama, where he worked his way into a starting linebacker position before he broke a bone in his neck during pre-season drills. When he came back, he saw that his best route to earning a starting position again was on offense. By the eighth game, he was starting for The Tide at center.
Other Noted Accomplishments
• The Gulf Shores location is the third clinic that McCollough has built in Alabama in almost 50 years of practice. He was the first president of the American Board of Facial Plastic Surgery & Reconstructive Surgery.
• He has no plans of retiring: “I love what I do, and honestly, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do when I wake up in the morning, than come here to my clinic and do what I do,’’ he said. “I feel gratification every day, because I feel like what I do is impacting people’s lives in a positive manner.’’
• Although a pre-med student at Alabama, McCollough, inspired by a high school English teacher, was a voracious writer from a young age. Even in college, he was writing songs, poetry and medical papers. He’s written three medical textbooks and numerous articles in medical journals.
• His first lay publication book was Shoulders of Giants. It is about his parents and the coaches and teachers who impacted his life.
• A former chairman of the Baldwin County Republican Party and vice-chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, McCollough has written several books eschewing his political theories.
• Two years into medical school at UAB, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons asked him to play for his farm team. While fulfilling his med school responsibilities, he was selected to the All-Pro Team of the National Professional Football League of America.
• In addition to being an internationally acclaimed artist, McCollough’s wife the former Susan Nomberg , was Miss Alabama in 1962. The couple’s two children (Stedmann and Chanee) have presented them with six grandchildren.
• He is a founding director of the Bryant-Jordan Scholar-Athlete Foundation and served as president of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Birmingham Touchdown Club, Gulf Coast Athletic Club, is an emeritus trustee of Judson College for Women, and a director emeritus of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. Awards he has received for accomplishments in medicine are well into double digits.
Named Enterprise’s “All-Time Football Player,” he once gave the keynote address at the annual Harper Lee Literary Conference in the Alabama city where “To Kill a Mockingbird” took place, Monroeville.
• The McColloughs gifted the College of Arts and Sciences at Alabama with its largest academic endowment in more than two decades for the purpose of creating two initiatives: The Dr. E. Gaylon McCollough Institute for Pre-Medical Scholars and the Susan N. McCollough Art Biennale. The Institute seeks to attract the best and brightest students in the country.
• He created the position of medical director for Alabama nursing homes and was the first to serve in that capacity. For that, he was inducted into the Alabama Senior Citizens Hall of Fame (before he was fifty years old).
• He was named the March of Dimes Alabama Citizen of the Year and is listed in the National Registry of Who’s Who in Medicine and numerous top doctor lists. He also served as commissioner on the State of Alabama’s first Medical Licensure Commission.
• He was a twice an invited guest of the National Defense University at Ft. McNair in Washington after having been honorably discharged from the Alabama National Guard with the rank of Major.
• He is more proud of his awards for contributions to society than his many sports awards, including induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. “I think that that’s what we’re all here for. To try and make the world a better place, not only for ourselves, but for our fellow man,” he said. “I just feel an obligation to pay back, and pay forward, some of the lessons that we learn and some of the good fortune we’ve had.”
Pictured: Dr. Gaylon McCollough, a former Alabama football star and now a noted locally based plastic surgeon, received the Paul W. Bryant Alumni Athlete Award in 2017; McCollough during his All-American playing days in T-Town.