Paul "Bear" Bryant Award


The American Heart Association Paul "'Bear" Bryant Awards' are an annual awards banquet that is hosted each year in January, in Houston, Texas, by the AHA. 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. 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 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". 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.
According to the official website:

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.
WWW bryantawards.com

Winners

YearWinnerSchool
1986Penn State
1987Syracuse
1988Notre Dame
1989Colorado
1990Georgia Tech
1991Washington
1992Alabama
1993Auburn
1994Oregon
1995Northwestern
1996Arizona State
1997Michigan
1998Kansas State
1999Virginia Tech
2000Oklahoma
2001Miami (FL)
2002Ohio State
2003LSU
2004Auburn
2005Texas
2006Boise State
2007Kansas
2008Utah
2009 Boise State
2010Auburn
2011Oklahoma State
2012Penn State
2013Auburn
2014TCU
2015Clemson
2016 Clemson
2017UCF
2018 Clemson
2019LSU
2020 Alabama
2021Cincinnati
2022TCU
2023Florida State
2024Notre Dame
2025Indiana

Lifetime Achievement Award winners

2000 – Darrell Royal

2001 – Charles McClendon

2002 – Bill Yeoman

2003 – Frank Broyles

2004 – Gene Stallings

2005 – Lou Holtz

2006 – Jack Pardee

2007 – Bo Schembechler

2008 – Tom Osborne

2009 – Barry Switzer

2010 – Vince Dooley

2011 – Bobby Bowden

2012 – Hayden Fry

2013 – LaVell Edwards

2014 – R. C. Slocum

2015 – Jimmy Johnson

2016 – Mack Brown

2017 – Barry Alvarez

2018 – Steve Spurrier

2019 – Frank Beamer

2020 – Bill Snyder

2021 – Howard Schnellenberger

2022 - John Robinson

2023 - Lloyd Carr

2024 - Grant Teaff

Newcomer Coach of the Year Award winners

YearWinnerSchool
2023Northwestern
2024Syracuse