Mary and Henry Grigsby have just about given up trying to figure how many people to expect at their tailgate party for the University of Alabama-Hawai'i game Saturday in Tuscaloosa.

"Every time people find out Peter (Kim) is going to be back, more want to come," Mary said. "I'm afraid to guess how many we'll have."

Never mind that it has been nearly a quarter-century since Kim last put side-winding foot to ball for the Crimson Tide as Alabama's placekicker, the Kaiser High graduate is the first name that comes to many fans' minds when Hawai'i is mentioned.

"He can't move (through the Coleman Coliseum parking lot) without somebody wanting his autograph," Mary said. "And he signs all of them and thanks the people, too."

At first — also, second and third — glance Kim would seem an unlikely folk hero of sorts in Tuscaloosa. Korea-born, partially-Hawai'i-raised and 5 feet 6, he hardly fits the stereotype of a representative of one of college football's most storied programs.

But it says a lot about both Kim and the near-religious status of football at UA that the 47-year-old Honolulu fast-food millionaire is remembered fondly as one of "The Bear's boys" from the tenure (1958-82) of legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Alabama was 27-8-1 in Kim's three seasons (1980-82), the last of which was also the final season for Bryant, who retired as the winningest college coach (323-85-17), since surpassed. In Bryant's 300th win, Kim kicked three field goals and four PATs.

"Peter is adored by people in Alabama, even people who have never met him," said Taylor Watson, curator of the Bryant Museum. "He's brought pleasure to these people because he brought pride by helping their team."

Unlike some places where only the stars stand out, Alabama, where Bryant preached teamwork, is different. "When you play football at the University of Alabama, you are put on a pedestal," Watson said. "It doesn't matter if you're a kicker or a punter. Even if you are a walk-on for three years and only go into a game that is 55-0, you are still put on a pedestal."

When you are among the career leaders in field goals, a contributor to the Bryant legacy and from Hawai'i, the pedestal is a little more unique.

BLESSED TWO HOURS

Few states have so fervently embraced the success of their football teams — or have had as much historical reason to — as Alabama.

"As (Mississippi-born author William) Faulkner said, 'in the south the past is never the past,' " Watson said.

Initially, Tide fans rallied around the success of their football program as a way of rebuilding esteem and stepping out of the shadows of Civil War defeat.

"When we went to the Rose Bowl in 1926 and played Washington State it was kind of funny in the sense that it was played up that this team from the south was going out west to play a 'northern' team," Watson said. "The place I'm standing right now is about as 'north' as that."

But it was the civil rights movement of the 1960s that really cemented a much-needed bond. "People who grew up in Alabama during the 1960s say that for six days out of the week they were a national problem and, if you think about it, many of the major civil rights confrontations occurred in Alabama: Selma, Anniston ..." said Rich Megraw, a professor of American Studies at UA.

"The imagery was of fire hoses and police dogs searing the international consciousness," Megraw said. "Splashed across global headlines six days of the week was that Alabama was a national problem. But come those two hours on a Saturday afternoon, when Alabama was invincible on a football field, those were their two hours off and they have never forgotten it. They never will forget it."

Bryant-coached teams won three national championships in the 1960s and didn't have a losing season in the decade.

"They (Alabama fans) might have grown up in poverty and isolation in Alabama but for those two hours on Saturday they could be the envy of the country," Megraw said.

TICKET TO COLLEGE

Kim knew little of civil rights struggles or football when he came to the United States in 1974 from his native South Korea — and his game was soccer.

But one day on a soccer field at Kaiser High, his life's direction changed when Cougars' football coach Ron Lee, who is now at UH, caught sight of him.

"He was kicking balls over the net when I was walking from the weight room to the parking lot," Lee recalls. "I stopped to watch. Then, I told the coach to have him come over and kick some footballs. After that, we got him out for football. He was soon kicking long field goals and you could see he had a future in the game."

Kim said he saw football, "as my way to college. As somebody from an immigrant family trying to make ends meet; as somebody still with a language barrier, I knew I needed something to help get me to college."

TAKING IT TO NEXT LEVEL

By all measures, Kim was a rarity. Most college walk-ons seek scholarships. Kim walked away from one. He walked a long way — from UH to Alabama, a place he could barely find on the map. "I knew where Mississippi was; that was about it," Kim recalls.

Initially, Kim had walked on at UH, becoming the placekicker as a freshman in 1978. In the process he kicked a then-school record 50-yard field goal against San Jose State and a 49-yarder at Nebraska.

The appearance at Nebraska, where UH lost 56-10 in front of 75,615, "really opened my eyes," Kim said. "I thought, 'Hey, this is something I want to be part of.' "

"It was nothing against UH, (coach) Dick Tomey and UH gave me an opportunity to play at Division I and he and I are still friends," Kim said. "But I had to get out of town."

The lure of the pageantry and opportunity to compete for a national championship inspired him to look around. "I originally wanted to go to Nebraska because we played against them, but when I saw what the weather was like there, it was just a little too cold for me," Kim said.

And Alabama, besides being warmer, won the 1978 national championship in a 14-7 Sugar Bowl goal-line stand against Penn State that caught Kim's imagination.

"I wanted to be at that level. I wanted to take my shot," Kim said. In a statement that still draws snickers, he said he wanted to go to Alabama to "improve my English. I had grown up around the Korean community in Hawai'i and I knew I needed to get away to do that."

His family had mixed feelings about the move but gave him its blessing with a warning: "My mom said not to come back if you are not successful. So, I had to make it there. Essentially, I left with a one-way ticket."

Lee said: "What impressed me most about Peter was that he had a scholarship at UH and he still was willing to walk on at Alabama to prove himself. I said, 'Peter, what are you doing? Alabama?' But he wanted that challenge, which shows you why he is successful in business today, too. He was always aiming for something more. That's why I'm so proud of him."

EMBRACING THE SOUTH

When Kim arrived in Alabama, he was as much thrown for a loop as the people who greeted him.

On a campus where the races — mostly black and white — often went their separate ways, "they didn't know what I was; Hawaiian, (Asian) or what," Kim said. "There were only about five (Asians) in the entire university."

In the early days, Bryant's wife would call the Grigsby's house, where Kim lived, to see how he was doing. For the first couple of weeks — until he said he could no longer be choosy — Kim avoided the Southern staples he has long since come to embrace: fried okra, black-eyed peas, cornbread, catfish, etc.

The language barrier took a little longer to surmount. "He would hear something, a phrase or a word, and say, 'Mary, we have to talk,' " said Mary Grigsby, whose family he lived with for five years. "Then, he would tell me what he heard and I would try and explain it."

In the end, they learned from each other. The Grigsbys tried oxtail soup and kimchee — which they sometimes call Korean sauerkraut — and even went to Korea with him.

"He just melted into our family," Grigsby said. "We felt like we got a lot more from him than he ever did from us."

BUSINESS APPROACH

"I was very fortunate to have had some great coaches — Lee, Tomey and Bryant — and they each helped me to get where I am," Kim said.

From a 12th floor office near Ala Moana, Kim owns or oversees more than 40 restaurants and fast-food outlets as president and founder of Yummy Restaurant Group. One of them has been Bear's Drive-in, named for the late "Bear" Bryant.

It was not to cash in on the Bryant's name — few here know the connection — but, Kim said, out of respect for the man who had inspired him time and again.

"Every day we'd meet (as a team) and Coach Bryant never once talked about football first," Kim said. "He always talked about life after football and what to expect. He probably said 1,000 times or more to expect the unexpected. He talked about how, as long as you believe in yourself and don't quit, you'll be a winner. Those words always lingered in my mind. At the time it didn't really come to me but when I got cut by the NFL and went to work in business, it all came back to me. I had learned never to give up."

Peter Kim kicked three field goals and four PATs in Paul "Bear" Bryant's 300th coaching victory.

Advertiser Library photo

profile: Peter kim

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.