Jeremiah Castille was in the cafeteria when the world stopped.
Across campus, Mike McQueen was working out at the football complex when athletics trainer Jim Goostree delivered the news. There were no tears in the weight room, he recalls 40 years later, simply because nobody could believe Bear Bryant could die.
People are also reading… Now, 40 years later, Castille and McQueen spoke with AL.com about their vivid memories of that sunny yet solemn day. The shared experience came with different perspectives but with the same conclusion. “People standing on the side of the road crying tears,” Castille says. “We were on the bus riding and I thought they didn’t even know him like we knew him. Can you imagine you live your life in such a powerful way that it impacts people that don’t personally know you?”
For Castille, his deep sadness was inescapable. The son of a World War II veteran, Castille worked for his father back home and Bryant became almost an extension of his family in Tuscaloosa. The sorrow is still heard in his voice four decades later when he talks about the incredible impact this icon had on his life.
Just 30 days later, he was placing his right hand on the rail of Bryant’s coffin on his final walk. That’s a lot to stomach for a 22-year-old.The funeral service itself was brief and the church sanctuary was small. Three different downtown churches hosted mourners with the audio piped into nearby First Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church. Those invited to the brief service inside First United Methodist Church included the 1982 football team, coaches, and Governor George Wallace.
“We pull up to this traffic light,” Castille remembers, “and there’s a young woman who is crying. To me, that tells you the greatness of his impact on the people of Alabama. And that, in my mind, good Lord, I want to live my life and impact people to that extent. I want to be of service to my fellow man that people will miss — they didn’t have to know me — but they’d miss my presence because of how I lived.
Mary Harmon Bryant died the following year and is buried beside her husband deep in the vast Elmwood cemetery.Forty years later, Castille still thinks about that nameless woman he saw crying her eyes out on the streets of Tuscaloosa. He also hears the unmistakable voice of his mentor telling the locker room the world is full of givers and takers and to always be a giver.
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