Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to Wilson Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Fordyce, Arkansas His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old

He attended Fordyce High School, where he began playing on the school's football team as an eighth grader. During his senior season, the team, with Bryant playing offensive line and defensive end, won the 1930 Arkansas state football championship.

Bryant accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama in 1931. Since he elected to leave high school before completing his diploma, Bryant had to enroll in a Tuscaloosa high school to finish his education during the fall semester while he practiced with the college team. Bryant played end for the Crimson Tide and was a participant on the school's 1934 National Championship team. Bryant was the self-described "other end" during his playing years with the team, playing opposite the big star, Don Hutson, who later became an NFL Hall-of-Famer. Bryant himself was second team All-SEC in 1934, and was third team all-conference in both 1933 and 1935. Bryant played with a partially broken leg in a 1935 game against Tennessee Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon

Bryant was selected in the fourth round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1936 NFL Draft, but never played professionally.

Many of Bryant's former players and assistant coaches went on to become head coaches at the collegiate level and/or in the National Football League. Danny Ford(Clemson, 1981), Howard Schnellenberger (Miami (Fla.), 1983, and Gene Stallings (Alabama, 1992) all won national championships as head coaches for NCAA programs while Joey Jones, Mike Riley, and David Cutcliffe are active head coaches in the NCAA. Charles McClendon, Jerry Claiborne, Sylvester Croom Jim Owens, Jackie Sherrill, Bill Battle and Pat Dye were also notable NCAA head coaches. Croom was the SEC's first African-American head coach at Mississippi Statefrom 2004 through 2008.