When you hear the name Bill Walton, a lot of different things come to your mind. His time as a player and a broadcaster is the most notable for a number of reasons.
However, there is a connection between Bill Walton and legendary coach Bear Bryant, as Matt Zemek of Trojans Wire pointed out shortly after Walton’s passing:
How are Walton and Bryant connected? It’s actually not as complicated as it seems. Walton’s death coming at the end of the Pac-12’s existence conveys the idea that Walton didn’t want to live in a world without the Pac-12. He died of cancer, but also of a broken heart.
Bear Bryant’s death also carried — like Walton’s — an unmistakable message with its own timing. Bryant died in January of 1983. This was one month after coaching his final game for Alabama in the 1982 Liberty Bowl versus Illinois. Bryant coached for a quarter of a century at Alabama. He coached football for nearly half a century. He was a head coach for nearly 40 years. Football coaching was his life. As soon as he retired, he died.
Bear Bryant loved football coaching the way Bill Walton loved the Pac-12. A world without their first loves was a world Bear and Bill simply couldn’t bear.
The legends will be remembered forever, and the sports community continues to mourn the loss of Bill Walton.