On this episode of Our American Stories, our next story comes to us from the guy Sports Illustrated said was the greatest offensive lineman of all time. Here's John Hannah sharing two moments in his life that pushed him towards excellence: One with his dad, the other with Bear Bryant.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our Next Story comes to us from the guy Sports
Illustrated said was the greatest offensive lineman of all time.
(00:34):
John Hannah was a two time All American at the
University of Alabama. Was selected fourth overall by the New
England Patriots in the nineteen seventy three NFL Draft. Hannah
received nine Pro Bowl selections and was inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety one. Hannah
shared this story first with eighteen nineteen News, a multimedia
(00:58):
company with the state of Alabama. Here's John Hannah sharing
two moments in his life that pushed him towards excellence.
One story is from his youth, another from his time
spent under legendary coach Bear Bryant in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
In the fourth grade, I was nine years old and
Canton and there was two playgrounds and they were on terrace.
There's one upper terrace and playground down below and I
was up up down on the lower terrace playing kickball
with a bunch of guys, and all of a sudden,
about seven or eight guys on the top of the
(01:37):
top terrace started serenading me with a song.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Call and it went like this.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It says, fatty fatty two by four can't get through
the kitchen door, and so it hurt. So I go home,
told my mom about it. Mom called my dad. Now
you know, most parents would either call the principal to
call the parents. Dad didn't do any of that. He
(02:03):
was different. The boy that was coaching the sixth, seventh
and eighth grade football team had played for dead. So
Dad called him up asked him if I could play
for him.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He said sure.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So that night Dad comes in, he says, John, I
talked to the junior high coach and.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It ain't going to be easy. It's going to be hard.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
But if you can go out for that sixth, seventh
and eighth grade team, I believe you can do it.
And if you go out there and make that team,
they'll no longer call you fatty fatty two before anymore.
So I went out as a nine year old and played.
Not only that, want to start in position. First game,
broke my nose. Dad wanted to pull me from the game.
(02:48):
I told him no, and he said, well why not,
I said, fatty fatty two before. So the whole first
part of my life when it was football, it was
because I wanted to be somebody besides fatty pretty two
by four. So that was kind of what got me
going into football. Well, Coach Bryant, you know, was a
legend way before I got there. But immediately before I
(03:12):
got there, Alabama was going through some struggling times, you know,
and struggling for them at six and four, so you know,
it was it was It wasn't a great time to
go to Alabama. So the biggest lesson that Coach Bryant
taught me was was that you can go further than
you ever thought you could. I remember my sophomore year,
(03:37):
a week before we played Southern Cal. It was, I
mean scorching hot, humid, and Coach Bryant came through the
tunnel to get to the practice field and he was
whistling amazing grace.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I knew it was going to be a roughing.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So after about a forty five minute individual drills, we
got to doing our scrimmage, our controlled scrimmage, and we
went and we went, and we kept going, and all
of a sudden, guys in the huddle would just fall out,
and it was you know, I think at the end
(04:15):
of the day there are about ten guys.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
That sent to the hospital with heat stroke and dehydration.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Several other hit gone with either knees or broken bones
or something. I mean, it was just one of those
rock them, sock them days. And anyway, I get back
to crawl up the stairs to my bedroom and I
hear all the suitcases clicking, and hear the trunk of
(04:42):
cars closing and people driving off, and a lot of
people left. And I said, I'm gonna quit too, but
bad blame it. I've earned supper. So anyway, I fell asleep,
I didn't go to eat supper. Woke up the next
morning and I said, well, heck, I'm here, might as
(05:04):
well stay. And anyway, we went to the three out
at three o'clock meeting.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And Coach Brian comes in. He winds that watch.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
He said, well, boys, I'm a little early, but we'll
go ahead and get started. Anyway, every day five minutes
before that's when the meetings started, not he goes in.
He says, boys, y'all learn the big listeners today. He said,
you'll push yourself and push yourself, and you'll think you're
(05:34):
going to die. But the human body is an amazing machine.
It'll always pass out before it dies. And I clicked,
and you know, my dad had also told me, you know,
and he preached the same gospel as coach Brian did.
He said, there's an invisible bear ifter somewhere, and he says,
(05:54):
you'll push yourself up to that bear and you'll back off.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And you push it and you'll back off.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But he says, someday, either fear or anger or some
emotion is going to drive you through that barrier. And
if you ever break that barrier, you're going to find
out that there's a whole world out there that you've
never experienced. And that's what that's what coach Bryant got for.
When I went into pro ball, wasn't I wasn't a
great get most gifted athlete, but I knew I could
(06:23):
probably outwork everybody that played in front up, even in
the you know, if I got my butt whooped in
the first quarter, I'd last out to where I'd come
out ahead at the end anyway, that was that was
kind of the attitude I had because of what I'd
learned from Coach Bryant.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And a special thanks to the folks at eighteen nineteen
News for the audio, and thanks to Greg Hangler for
editing and producing that piece of storytelling, and a special
thanks to John Hanna for sharing those two stories, that
enduring memory of how his father treated that discrimination, basically,
that weight discrimination, that taunting, and he just said, like
(07:00):
buckle up, strap up, and just work through.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It, push yourself through it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
There's victims, and there's victors, and sometimes legitimate victims, but
often it's our own expectations and our own diminished expectations
from ourselves and our adult supervising us that create the
limits that stop us. John Hannah's story storytelling about fatherhood,
about coaching, about so much more. Here on our American Stories.
(07:31):
Here at our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love our stories in America like we do, please
go to our American Stories dot com and click the
(07:51):
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot com.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our Next Story comes to us from the guy Sports
Illustrated said was the greatest offensive lineman of all time.
(00:34):
John Hannah was a two time All American at the
University of Alabama. Was selected fourth overall by the New
England Patriots in the nineteen seventy three NFL Draft. Hannah
received nine Pro Bowl selections and was inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety one. Hannah
shared this story first with eighteen nineteen News, a multimedia
(00:58):
company with the state of Alabama. Here's John Hannah sharing
two moments in his life that pushed him towards excellence.
One story is from his youth, another from his time
spent under legendary coach Bear Bryant in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
In the fourth grade, I was nine years old and
Canton and there was two playgrounds and they were on terrace.
There's one upper terrace and playground down below and I
was up up down on the lower terrace playing kickball
with a bunch of guys, and all of a sudden,
about seven or eight guys on the top of the
(01:37):
top terrace started serenading me with a song.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Call and it went like this.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It says, fatty fatty two by four can't get through
the kitchen door, and so it hurt. So I go home,
told my mom about it. Mom called my dad. Now
you know, most parents would either call the principal to
call the parents. Dad didn't do any of that. He
(02:03):
was different. The boy that was coaching the sixth, seventh
and eighth grade football team had played for dead. So
Dad called him up asked him if I could play
for him.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He said sure.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So that night Dad comes in, he says, John, I
talked to the junior high coach and.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It ain't going to be easy. It's going to be hard.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
But if you can go out for that sixth, seventh
and eighth grade team, I believe you can do it.
And if you go out there and make that team,
they'll no longer call you fatty fatty two before anymore.
So I went out as a nine year old and played.
Not only that, want to start in position. First game,
broke my nose. Dad wanted to pull me from the game.
(02:48):
I told him no, and he said, well why not,
I said, fatty fatty two before. So the whole first
part of my life when it was football, it was
because I wanted to be somebody besides fatty pretty two
by four. So that was kind of what got me
going into football. Well, Coach Bryant, you know, was a
legend way before I got there. But immediately before I
(03:12):
got there, Alabama was going through some struggling times, you know,
and struggling for them at six and four, so you know,
it was it was It wasn't a great time to
go to Alabama. So the biggest lesson that Coach Bryant
taught me was was that you can go further than
you ever thought you could. I remember my sophomore year,
(03:37):
a week before we played Southern Cal. It was, I
mean scorching hot, humid, and Coach Bryant came through the
tunnel to get to the practice field and he was
whistling amazing grace.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I knew it was going to be a roughing.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So after about a forty five minute individual drills, we
got to doing our scrimmage, our controlled scrimmage, and we
went and we went, and we kept going, and all
of a sudden, guys in the huddle would just fall out,
and it was you know, I think at the end
(04:15):
of the day there are about ten guys.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
That sent to the hospital with heat stroke and dehydration.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Several other hit gone with either knees or broken bones
or something. I mean, it was just one of those
rock them, sock them days. And anyway, I get back
to crawl up the stairs to my bedroom and I
hear all the suitcases clicking, and hear the trunk of
(04:42):
cars closing and people driving off, and a lot of
people left. And I said, I'm gonna quit too, but
bad blame it. I've earned supper. So anyway, I fell asleep,
I didn't go to eat supper. Woke up the next
morning and I said, well, heck, I'm here, might as
(05:04):
well stay. And anyway, we went to the three out
at three o'clock meeting.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And Coach Brian comes in. He winds that watch.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
He said, well, boys, I'm a little early, but we'll
go ahead and get started. Anyway, every day five minutes
before that's when the meetings started, not he goes in.
He says, boys, y'all learn the big listeners today. He said,
you'll push yourself and push yourself, and you'll think you're
(05:34):
going to die. But the human body is an amazing machine.
It'll always pass out before it dies. And I clicked,
and you know, my dad had also told me, you know,
and he preached the same gospel as coach Brian did.
He said, there's an invisible bear ifter somewhere, and he says,
(05:54):
you'll push yourself up to that bear and you'll back off.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And you push it and you'll back off.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But he says, someday, either fear or anger or some
emotion is going to drive you through that barrier. And
if you ever break that barrier, you're going to find
out that there's a whole world out there that you've
never experienced. And that's what that's what coach Bryant got for.
When I went into pro ball, wasn't I wasn't a
great get most gifted athlete, but I knew I could
(06:23):
probably outwork everybody that played in front up, even in
the you know, if I got my butt whooped in
the first quarter, I'd last out to where I'd come
out ahead at the end anyway, that was that was
kind of the attitude I had because of what I'd
learned from Coach Bryant.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And a special thanks to the folks at eighteen nineteen
News for the audio, and thanks to Greg Hangler for
editing and producing that piece of storytelling, and a special
thanks to John Hanna for sharing those two stories, that
enduring memory of how his father treated that discrimination, basically,
that weight discrimination, that taunting, and he just said, like
(07:00):
buckle up, strap up, and just work through.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It, push yourself through it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
There's victims, and there's victors, and sometimes legitimate victims, but
often it's our own expectations and our own diminished expectations
from ourselves and our adult supervising us that create the
limits that stop us. John Hannah's story storytelling about fatherhood,
about coaching, about so much more. Here on our American Stories.
(07:31):
Here at our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love our stories in America like we do, please
go to our American Stories dot com and click the
(07:51):
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot com.
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