HALL OF FAMERS | Mobile Sports Hall of Fame

A - C

HENRY “HANK” AARON

1988

National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee – 1982. 23-Year MLB career with Braves and Brewers (1954-76). Set major league record with 755 career home runs. Member of Baseball’s All-Century Team.

Hank Aaron

In 1969, Sports Illustrated put Hank Aaron on its cover for the first time. The Atlanta Braves were challenging for the pennant and “Hammerin’ Hank” was closing in one of the most revered marks in baseball. No, not Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs, but 3,000 hits.

The author wrote that Aaron, in part because he’d played in small markets (Milwaukee then Atlanta), and because of his quiet demeanor, had failed to achieve the level of stardom accorded to lesser players. However, this wrong was being righted as Aaron chased down hit 3,000.

Mickey Mantle was quoted calling Aaron the “most underrated great hitter of all time.” The story noted that, yes, Aaron would almost surely reach 3,000, but Ruth’s home run mark? “Since he is now 35, it is doubtful that Aaron will stay around long enough to hit the 176 homers he needs to pass Ruth,” the author wrote.

Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron was born in 1934 in the area of Mobile known as, “Down the Bay,” one of eight children of Herbert and Estella Aaron. One of his siblings, younger brother Tommie, joined him in the majors with two stints with the Braves.

When Hank was a boy, the Aarons moved to Toulminville in a home his father built with scrap wood and whatever other supplies he could find. Aaron picked cotton as a child, and credited the labor with giving him the powerful hands that helped make him one of the most feared hitters in history.

“I tell a lot of people I was a vegetarian before they knew what a vegetarian was,” Aaron told a reporter on the occasion of his 80th birthday. “We didn’t eat meat but once every two or three weeks.”

Aaron, batting cross-handed, was a terror on the playgrounds. As a young teen, he played with semi-pro black teams, including the Mobile Black Bears. Local scout Ed Scott saw great promise in young Henry, and in 1951, signed him with the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns.

In 1952, the Boston Braves purchased Aaron’s playing rights from the Clowns. Aaron destroyed minor league pitching for two years and in 1954 the Braves—by then in Milwaukee—called him up. There was no learning curve for Hank Aaron. In his second year, he was chosen for the first of 21 consecutive All-Star games.

Because of the Braves’ lackluster record in the last half of Aaron’s career, it’s easy to forget that “Hammerin’ Hank” enjoyed winning seasons his first 13 years in the league. From a personal and team standpoint, Aaron’s greatest season was probably 1957. He led the National League in home runs (44) and RBIs (132), hit .322, and was named the National League MVP.

Aaron was carried off the field after rocking an 11th inning homer late that season to clinch the Braves first league title since 1914. In the World Series, he batted .393 as the Braves beat the New York Yankees in seven games. The Braves made it back to the series the next year, but lost to the Yankees.

In 1959, the player so associated with hitting for power led the league with a stratospheric .355 batting average.

In 1966, the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. The team’s performance was lackluster, despite Aaron’s consistently Herculean output.

In 1973, the home run chase began in earnest. Aaron, at 39, hit 40 homers that year, but finished the season one shy of Ruth’s mark. The chase, which had become a national obsession, would have to wait until the next season. Sports Illustrated reported that Aaron received almost a million letters in 1973. While some of it was hate mail, bigots angry that a black man would break Ruth’s record, most came from fans rooting for the quiet, dignified Aaron.

On opening day of the 1974 season, he tied the record with a blast against the Reds in Cincinnati. From that point on, every Aaron at-bat was a national event.

Four days later—against the Dodgers, and in Atlanta—Aaron connected on his historic shot. Two fans ran onto the field chasing the loping Aaron from second to third base. At home plate, his teammates hoisted the home run champ. His mother Estella raced onto the field and gave him a hard, long hug as Atlanta, and the nation, exulted. It was one of the most spine-tingling moments in the history of sports.

In 1975, Aaron returned to Milwaukee when the Braves traded him to the Brewers. He would hit his final 21 home runs—734 to 755—in the American League, his final dinger coming in 1976.

No player in baseball history has put up greater overall hitting numbers than Hank Aaron. Consider the following hitting categories, and Aaron’s rank in each:

RBIs: First, with 2,297.

Extra-base hits: First, with 1,477

Total bases: First, with 6,856

Home Runs: Second, with 755

Hits: Fourth, with 3,771.

Runs: Fourth, with 2,174

Within months of his retirement as a player, Aaron was back with the Braves. As the team’s director of player development, a position he held for years, Aaron was instrumental in turning the franchise from a cellar-dweller to a perennial playoff team.

Aaron was overwhelmingly voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, his first year of eligibility. In 1997, the City of Mobile built Hank Aaron Stadium, the home for the minor league Mobile Bay Bears.

In 2007, Barry Bonds broke Aaron’s record. However, Bonds’ use of steroids during his career mars his record and many still consider Aaron the true holder of the career home run mark.

In 2010, the Bay Bears moved Aaron’s childhood home to the stadium facility and opened the Hank Aaron Childhood Home & Museum. Joining Aaron for the grand opening were his old friend, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, and Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Bob Feller, Rickey Henderson, Bruce Sutter, Reggie Jackson and Ozzie Smith.

It seems impossible that’s it’s been more than 40 years since Aaron broke Ruth’s record. In 2014, the Braves honored “Hammerin’ Hank” by wearing a patch on their uniforms commemorating the record-breaking blast by Mobile’s most famous citizen.

TERRY ADAMS

2009

11-Year Major League Baseball career as relief pitcher (1995-2005). Member of Red Sox 2004 World Series Champs.

Terry Adams

Terry Adams played high school baseball in Mobile, Alabama, at Mary G. Montgomery High School. In 1991, he was the Alabama High School Player of the Year with a 12-2 record and a 1.75 ERA. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 4th round in 1991 and played with the Cubs’ farm league in Peoria, Dayton, Orlando and Iowa. He made his major league debut in August 1995 as a relief pitcher in a Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres doubleheader.

Adams was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of the 1999 season. He was primarily a relief pitcher but in 2001, he was moved into the Dodgers’ starting rotation. His record was 12-8 with a 4.33 ERA in 43 games, and he was the pitcher that gave up Barry Bond’s 500th home run in April 2001.

Terry Adams signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2002. He began the season as a starting pitcher before being sent to the bullpen, and in 2003, he posted a 2.65 ERA in 66 appearances as a relief pitcher.

After spending half a season with the Toronto Blue Jays, Adams was traded to the Boston Red Sox but contributed little to the Red Sox’s World Series win that year. In 2005, he signed again to the Philadelphia Phillies but was released after his final Major League game against the Florida Marlins on May 23.

Adams ended his career in 2006 as a relief pitcher for the triple A Indianapolis Indians posting a 4.29 ERA on the season.

TOMMIE AGEE

1992

12-Year Major League Baseball career with five teams (1962-73). 1966 A.L. Rookie of the Year and member of Mets’ 1969 World Series Champs.

Tommie Agee

Hailing from Magnolia, Alabama, Tommie Agee played football and baseball at Mobile County Training school with future teammate Cleon Jones. After one season playing baseball at Grambling State University in which he batted a .533, he signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1961. He played in Iowa’s farm leagues for the better part of two seasons before making his major league debut for the Indians in the fall of 1962. In 1965, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox but spent the first season playing for AAA Indianapolis. In 1966, Chicago called him up as a starting center fielder, and he proved his worth by batting .273 in 160 games with 22 home runs, 88 RBIs, and scored 98 runs. He successfully stole 26 bases that season, and was named the American League Rookie of the Year, earned a Gold Glove and was named to the All-Star team in 1966 and again in 1967.

In 1968, Agee went to play for the New York Mets joining his childhood friend Cleon Jones. After a slow start that season, Agee came back for redemption in 1969, hitting the legendary home run into Shea Stadium’s upper decks and eventually leading the underdog Mets to the World Series that year. The “Miracle Mets” as they were known were not the favorites against the Baltimore Orioles that year, but Tommie Agee took charge of Game Three in what Sports Illustrated calls, “the most spectacular World Series game that any center fielder has ever enjoyed.” The Mets went on to win game three as well as the series, and Agee played for three more seasons with the Mets before being traded to the Houston Astros in 1972 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973. The Cardinals traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he was released in March 1974.

Tommie Agee’s last major league baseball appearance was September 30, 1073 at Busch Stadium playing for the Cardinals, even though his final baseball card depicts him as a Dodger. He finished his career one hit shy of 1,000 hits, with a batting average of .255, 130 home runs, 433 RBIs and 167 stolen bases.

In retirement, Agee was active in youth camps in New York and Mobile and he owned a bar called The Outfielder’s Lounge near Shea Stadium. In 1999 he appeared as himself with other Mets teammates in an episode of the TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond (season 3, episode 19, “Big Shots”). Tommie Agee died of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 58 and is buried in Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile, AL. He was posthumously inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2002.

WILLIE ANDERSON

2011

All-SEC offensive lineman at Auburn University. Four-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time first-team All-Pro (2004, ’05 and ’06) for NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens from 1996-2008.

Willie Anderson

Willie Anderson had one of the most storied high school careers of any Mobile area football player. The biggest man at Vigor High was a three-time Alabama Sports Writers Association All-State selection (1990-1992); a Parade All-American; the Atlanta Touchdown Club’s national Lineman of the Year; and the first offensive lineman ever named the state’s 6A Player of the Year.

Anderson was also a surprisingly nimble basketball player, and averaged 15 rebounds a year his senior season.

At Auburn, Anderson was named to the All-SEC team his sophomore and junior seasons, and was a second-team All-American his junior year. He may well have won the Outland Trophy had he remained, but he elected to forego his senior season and enter the draft.

The Cincinnati Bengals chose Anderson with the 10th overall pick in the 1996 draft. He played in the NFL for 13 seasons, the first 12 with the Bengals, and his final year with the Baltimore Ravens.

Anderson was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time first-team All-Pro pick. During one 10-year stretch, he missed just two starts, winning him the unofficial title as the Bengals, “Iron Man.”

Anderson, who lives in Atlanta, was for many years co-owner of a restaurant franchise in California. Now he runs Think B.I.G. Entertainment, which promotes young musicians and sports ventures. Think B.I.G. also operates a traveling sports academy.

Anderson, whose smile is almost as big as his frame, says Mobile has produced far more successful athletes than most realize. “Very few people are going to make it into the NBA or the NFL,” he said. “But if you got a free ride to college, as so many have, then you should consider yourself a success as an athlete.”

In 2014, the Mobile Register readers voted Willie Anderson the best football player ever to come from coastal Alabama, with Kenny Stabler coming in second.

BUDDY AYDELETTE

2009

Star offensive lineman at the University of Alabama (1976-79). Played in NFL with Packers and Steelers and was a three-time All-Star in the USFL.

Buddy Aydelette

A native of Mobile, Buddy Aydelette attended Murphy High School and The University of Alabama. He started two seasons at tight end and offensive tackle and helped the Crimson Tide win back-to-back national championships in 1978 and 1979. His senior year, he earned Second Team All-SEC honors.

In 1980, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, but after one year changed his allegiance from the NFL to the USFL. He played for the Birmingham Stallions from 1983–1985 and was selected to the All-Star team all three years.

After the USFL folder, Aydelette played his last season of professional football in 1987 (the year of the players’ strike) for the Pittsburg Steelers finishing the season with eight wins and seven losses.

He lives in Trussville, AL, and works for St. Vincent Health Systems Foundation. He was a member of the Trussville city council from 2005-2012.

KAREN MAYSON BAHNSEN

2015

Now in her fourth decade as head coach of the LSU women’s golf team, she was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1995. As a player, Bahnsen led the LSU women’s golf team and at McGill-Toolen High School, she led the Yellow Jackets to two state titles. Her mother June Buckholtz Mayson is an inductee of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

Karen Bahnsen

Karen Mayson Bahnsen is now in her fourth decade as head coach of the L.S.U. women’s golf team. In her 31 years, the Tigers have become a respected national contender, finishing third in 2011 and 2012. Her teams have recorded 11 top three finishes in the SEC championships, 19 appearances in the NCAA Regionals, and 11 appearances in the NCAA Division I Championships with seven top-10 finishes. Bahnsen has coached 21 All-Americans and 45 All-SEC golfers. Her teams have won 36 tournaments, and 37 individual titles. In 1992, her LSU team won the SEC Conference Tournament. Bahnsen was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1995.

As a player, Bahnsen was LSU’s first recruit to its new women’s golf program. From 1980-83, Bahnsen led the Tigers, participating in the AIAW National Tournament in 1980 and 1981 and the NCAA National Tournament in 1982. At McGill-Toolen High School, she led the Yellow Jackets to two state titles. In 1979, Bahnsen won the state individual championship and the National High School Tournament.

Bahnsen has been inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Her mother June Buckholtz Mayson is an inductee of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

BETH BARRY

2009

Star golfer at the University of South Alabama (1966-70) and four-time Alabama State Women’s Golf Champion. Longtime high school golf coach.

Beth Barry

A native of Mobile, Ala., Elizabeth “Beth” Barry played golf at the University of South Alabama and was a four-year letter winner. Mobile’s local media dubbed her “Our Beth” as she won 57 of 64 career matches. As a freshman she was first at the Sixth Annual Lake Forest Ladies Invitational and the Skyline Country Club Invitational. Among Barry’s career accomplishments, she aced a par three 163-yard hole at Auburn’s Saughatchee Country Club in a practice round. She was also runner-up in the Alabama Women’s Golf Association state tournament during her freshman campaign. As a sophomore, she advanced to the semifinal round of the 24th Annual Women’s National Collegiate golf tournament and was the Amateur Champion of the Fourth Annual Invitational Pensacola Ladies golf tournament, where she was the only amateur to finish in the top 20. As a junior, she was the Champion of the Alabama Women’s Golf Association state tournament and fired her third-career hole-in-one.

Beth won the Alabama State Women’s Golf tournament four years straight (1969–1972), and she was inducted in the South Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.

Beth Barry has hit 24 career holes-in-one, more than any other amateur woman, according to Golf Digest.

She currently lives in Mobile and serves as Tournament Administrator and Tour Director for the Junior Golf Association of Mobile.

CARL BENTON

1998

Football and track Star at UCLA. Helped lead Bruins to 10-1 season and berth in Rose Bowl in 1947.

Carl Benton

Carl Benton grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Murphy High School. He went to Southwestern Louisiana University but transferred to UCLA where he lettered in football and track. He was a member of the 1947 Rose Bowl team and played in the Hula Bowl in 1948.

He served as a marine in WWII and the Korean War, and received a PhD in Education. He taught at San Diego State University for 35 years where he coached football and basketball.

Carl Benton died on June 20, 2013 in Boise, Idaho.

FRANK BOLLING

1990

13-Year Major League Baseball career with Tigers and Braves (1954-66). Two-time All-Star second baseman and Gold Glove Winner in 1958.

Frank Bolling

Frank Bolling grew up in Mobile, Alabama, attending McGill Toolen Catholic High School and Spring Hill College. He was a second baseman for the Detroit Tigers from 1954 to 1960 when he was traded to the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves. He played for the Braves until 1966.

1958 was a productive year for Bolling, as he had career highs in hits (164), doubles (27), runs and RBIs (75). He received the Gold Glove Award that year, and during that same season, Bolling’s brother Milt joined the team as shortstop, and the two became one of only four second base/shortstop brother groups in major league history.

Frank Bolling led the National League in fielding in 1961, 1962 and 1964 and was a member of the National League All Star Team in 1961 and 1962. He played his last major league game on September 15, 1966 and finished with a career fielding total of .982. Frank Bolling retired in Mobile and is involved in charity work, starting a baseball league for physically or mentally challenged youth called Frank Bolling Adaptive League, the first of its kind at the time he started it.

MILTON BOLLING III

1992

Major League Baseball shortstop with Red Sox, Senators and Tigers (1952-58). Served as executive with Red Sox organization from 1961-95

Milton Bolling III

Milt Bolling grew up in Mobile, Alabama, attending McGill Toolen Catholic High School and Spring Hill College. He began his professional career at the age of 17 when he was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent. He joined the Class B Piedmont League Roanoke Red Sox as shortstop. After a slow start in 1948, he upped his game in 1949, earning him a spot on the Piedmont League All Star Team.

In 1950 he moved up to the Class A Scranton Miners (later called the Scranton Red Sox) in the Eastern League. His expert fielding and strong batting game won him a promotion to the AA Birmingham Barons, but when Bolling failed to perform, he was moved back to the Scranton Red Sox. He only played in 71 games, but managed to hit a .253 with 56 hits and 16 doubles. That was enough to promote him once again to the Birmingham Barons.

In September 1952, the Boston Red Sox called up 11 minor league players, and Milt Bolling was one of them. 1953 and 1954 were productive years for Bolling before he had a career-ending injury in which he broke his elbow in spring training against the St. Louis Cardinals. While he was expected to return after recuperating, he played only six games the entire season.

In 1957, he was traded to the Washington Senators, splitting time between second base and shortstop. In 1958, Milton Bolling was traded to the Cleveland Indians but a month later the Indians traded him to the Detroit Tigers where he was reunited with is little brother Frank. He struggled throughout the season and was benched due to illness. He played his last major league game on July 28, 1958.

When his playing days were over, he went to work for the Red Sox, spending more than 30 years as executive assistant to the owner, Tom Yawkey and later as an area scout based in Alabama.

Milt Bolling passed away on January 19, 2013 at the age of 82.

LEWIS BRASSELL

2000

Member of National Softball Hall of Fame. Commissioner of Mobile Metro Softball Association for 20 Years.

Lewis Brassell

Lewis Brassell served as deputy commissioner for 11 years and 20 years as Mobile Metro Softball Association commissioner. He was involved in softball for more than 50 years and was regional vice president from 1980-1981. He hosted and served as director of the first American Softball Association national tournament in Mobile in 1976. He directed 15 regional tournaments and two area tournaments during his career as commissioner. He was elected to the Mobile Hall of Fame in 1975, the National Softball Association Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Alabama Softball Hall of Fame in 1992 as a charter member. The softball complex at Cottage Hill Park in Mobile was named in his honor in 1990. Lewis Brassell passed away on March 28, 2006.

ROBERT BRAZILE, JR.

1994

All-American football star at Jackson State who had stellar 10-year NFL career with Houston Oilers. Seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker and five-time All-Pro.

Robert Brazile, Jr.

Robert Brazile was raised in Mobile and graduated from Vigor High School where he played football and was named the MVP of the Alabama High School All Star Game in 1971. He attended Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, where he also played football and helped in two Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships in 1972 and 1973. He played in the Senior Bowl in 1974.

In 1975, he was drafted in the first round by the Houston Oilers where he played for ten seasons. “Dr. Doom,” as he was known, was the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1975. Brazile was named to the Pro Bowl seven straight seasons, was All-Pro five straight seasons (1976–80) and was selected to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 1970s. He was key to the Oilers’ 1978 and 1979 AFC Championship wins.

Robert Brazile retired from football in 1984 with an official 11 quarterback sacks. Unofficially, his career sack total is 48, but the NFL did not record that statistic prior to 1982. He had 1,281 tackles which is the second highest number in Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans history.

Brazile coached a minor league pro football team in Mobile but had to quit due to health issues. He became a middle school teacher for special needs children and an avid tennis player.

In 2007, he was inducted in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

JOHNNY BROWN

2001

Mobile Metro Golf Champion known as “The King” of Mobile Golf. Star golfer at the University of South Alabama.

Johnny Brown

Johnny Brown is a graduate of the University of South Alabama and is known as the undisputed “king” of the Mobile Metro Championship, the annual golf tournament played at Azalea City Golf Club.

In addition to being a six-time Mobile Metro champion, Mr. Brown has won more than 150 amateur tournaments, including 14 major titles in Mobile alone.

He has given back to our community and our children through spending much of his time giving assistance and expertise to junior golf in Mobile.

JOE BULLARD, JR.

1999

Five-sport star at UMS. Three-time All-South defensive back at Tulane University (1969-71). Still holds numerous school records for punt return yardage, average and TD’s.

Joe Bullard, Jr.

Joe Bullard was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama and attended University Military School (now UMS-Wright Preparatory School) where he played five sports. He excelled in football and went on to play in college for Tulane University 1969-1971. He helped the Green Wave defeat Colorado in the 1970 Liberty Bowl and finish the season ranked sixth in the nation.

He currently lives in Mobile and is president of Bullard Automotive. He is active in Outback America, which is an organization dedicated to building, restoring and strengthening relationships by concentrating on God, family, friends, church and community.

He was inducted in UMS-Wright’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980, and in 1988, he was received the honor in Tulane’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

FRED CARLEY

2006

SEC Track Champion at Auburn. Successful high school track and cross country coach in Alabama, winning 11 state titles at Murphy, and Florida.

Fred Carley

Fred Carley went to Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama and went onto college at Auburn University (Alabama Polytechnic Institute at the time) 1946-48. He was a walk on for the track team and was the first person ever awarded a track scholarship. He served as team captain for two years, and he won a total of four championships in the Southeastern Conference—one in the 880 and three in the mile run. During each of these years, he was the leading team scorer at Auburn and was named an NCAA All-American.

In between two active duty tours, he had sufficient credit to earn 3 degrees from Auburn and was the Auburn cross country coach and assistant track coach for 3 years before being recalled to active duty.

Carley followed a professional career as a mechanical engineer, remaining active in track as a coach at Murphy High School and Niceville High School and related promotional activities in Mobile and Florida. He wrote a novel set in Mobile County, “Bull-Durham, the Mischievous Sprite” which was published in 2004.

RICH CASTER

1995

All-American football and track star at Jackson State. Had 13-Year NFL career with Jets, Redskins, Oilers and Saints (1970-82).

Rich Caster

Rich Caster grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Williamson High School. He played college football and ran track at Jackson State and was an All-American. He began his professional career with the New York Jets, and the three-time Pro Bowl athlete (1972, 1974 and 1975) played tight end and wide receiver for the Jets for eight years before being traded to the Houston Oilers. He won a Super Bowl ring in 1983 when the Washington Redskins defeated the Miami Dolphins to become NFL champions. He also played one season for the New Orleans Saints.

HAROLD CLARK

1995

Head football coach at Vigor High School (1974-94) who recorded 160 wins. Won two state championships (1987 & ’88) and 1988 team was named national champions by ESPN and USA Today.

Harold Clark

Harold Clark graduated from Beat Four High School in Mississippi and was a two-time letterman in football at the University of Southern Mississippi. He was head coach for 32 years at Vigor High School in Prichard, Alabama.

In his first season at Vigor (1974), the Wolves went 0-10, and showed some improvement the next year finishing 3-6. Clark continued to build the program into a winning team, and in 1978, he led Vigor to a regional title, the first of his coaching career.

In 1987, Coach Clark led Vigor to a state championship which he repeated the following year. The 1988 Wolves went undefeated and is considered one of the greatest high school teams in Alabama history as they were named National High School Champions by USA Today and ESPN.

Coach Clark remained at Vigor through the 1994 season. During his career, Harold Clark posted an overall record of 160-74-1, with only four losing seasons in 21 years.

Clark was also athletic director at Vigor for 20 years. He was named coach of the year by the Alabama Sports Writers in 1994 and was inducted into the Alabama Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame in 1995.

WILLIAM “BILLY” COLEMAN

2002

Star QB at Southern Mississippi (1961-62) who helped lead USM to 1962 Small College National Title. Longtime high school head football coach with 148 career victories.

Billy Coleman

Billy Williams played quarterback at Vigor High School in Mobile, Alabama, and in college at the University of Southern Mississippi. As quarterback at USM, he helped lead the team to the 1962 Small College National Title. He is a longtime high school head football coach with 148 career victories and regularly participates in Mobile’s “Over-the-Hill Ballplayers annual gathering in Saraland.

REGGIE COPELAND, SR.

1999

Former Murphy H.S. basketball and football star. Longtime SEC basketball official who officiated NCAA Championship Game. Major proponent of sports in Mobile as member of Mobile City Council.

Reggie Copeland, Sr.

Reggie Copeland grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and played basketball and football for Murphy High School. He spent much of his adult life as a basketball official, first in high school and then as a college referee. His officiating legacy included many NCAA Tournaments, two Final Four appearances and the 1977 national championship game, won by Marquette over North Carolina.

In addition to his career as a basketball official, Copeland is a member of the Mobile City Council and was instrumental in many sports enterprises in Mobile, including the Copeland-Cox Tennis center, the redeveloped Azalea City Golf Course and Magnolia Grove Golf course. He had a hand in bringing the Mobile BayBears to the city, as well as the former hockey franchise, the Mobile Mysticks, who now play in Gwinnett County, Ga.

CASEY CONVERSE

2014

One of the United States’ pre-eminent distance swimmers during the 1970s. He set a pair of NCAA records while swimming for the University of Alabama and swam in the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal. For the last 29 years, Converse has been the head swimming coach at the Air Force Academy.

Casey Converse

Casey Converse grew up in Mobile, Alabama, swimming at the Country Club of Mobile. Halfway through his junior year in high school, he moved to Mission Viejo, California to train. As it turns out, that training paid off when he and five of his teammates qualified for the 1976 Summer Olympics. After the Olympics, he came back home and went to college at the University of Alabama, setting a pair of NCAA records while swimming for the Alabama Crimson Tide swim team. On March 26, 1977, he set an NCAA record and became the first man in swimming history to break the 15-minute barrier in the mile on his way to winning the 1,650-yard freestyle when he clocked 14:57.30 at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.

He also set the NCAA record in the 1,000-yard freestyle during a dual meet at Auburn University. Prior to his record-shattering performances in 1977, Converse swam as a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team as an 18-year old, placing ninth in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.

He is currently the head women’s swimming coach at the Air Force Academy.

DAMEYUNE CRAIG

2014

Quarterbacked Blount High School to two state championships before starring at Auburn where he led the Tigers to the 1997 SEC Championship Game. Craig later played for the Carolina Panthers and in NFL Europe before embarking on a coaching career that has fea- tured stops with the Miami Dolphins, L.S.U., Florida State, South Alabama, and Auburn.

Dameyune Craig

Dameyune Craig quarterbacked Blount High School to two state championships before starring at Auburn where, as quarterback, he led the Tigers to the 1997 SEC Championship Game. Craig later played for the Carolina Panthers with an interim stint in NFL Europe (Scottish Claymores), followed by a shared 2002 season playing for the Indiana Firebirds, the Washington Redskins and Ottawa Renegades. In 2003, Craig embarked on a coaching career that has featured stops with the Miami Dolphins (with Nick Saban), LSU, Florida State (where he recruited Jameis Winston), South Alabama, and Auburn.

Honors include the 1996 Independence Bowl MVP, the 1998 Peach Bowl MVP, and the 1998 Senior Bowl MVP.

PAUL CRANE

1991

All-American football player at the University of Alabama (1962-64). Played for NFL’s New York Jets from 1965-72 and was starting center in historic Super Bowl III victory.

Paul Crane

Paul Crane was born in Mississippi but raised in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Vigor High School. He played football for the University of Alabama, and was a member of back-to-back national championship teams in 1964 and 1965. He was named SEC Lineman of the Year in 1964 and was the team’s captain in 1965. He was drafted by the New York Jets in 1966 and played professional ball for seven years helping to win Super Bowl III in 1969.

He served as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama until 1978 when he left to become an assistant coach at Ole Miss until 1981. His name is attached to the “Paul Crane Offensive Lineman Award,” which is presented annually to select players at the end of spring football.

He currently lives in Mobile.

TERRY CURTIS

2005

High school head football coach at Shaw, Murphy and UMS-Wright for 21 seasons. Has recorded over 200 victories and won four state titles at UMS (2001, ’02, 04 and ’08).

Terry Curtis

Coach Curtis graduated from Murphy High School in 1969 where he received the C.O. Wilcox Award as the Outstanding Athlete of the Year his senior year. He received a full baseball scholarship to Auburn University. Coach Curtis has been coaching for forty-one years, and he has been a head coach at UMS-Wright since 1999. His overall record is 243-77, with a playoff record of 51-16. He has won four State Championships in the last 10 years. Coach Curtis’s 2001 and 2005 State Championship teams both had records of 15-0, and his 2004 team was undefeated in the regular season. Curtis has won five state championships with the Bulldogs – 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2012. His UMS-Wright teams have reached at least the state quarterfinals in 15 of his 16 seasons.

Curtis has also coached at B.C. Rain High School, Murphy High School, and Shaw High School. He was named the 2001, 2002, and 2005 Alabama Sports Writer’s Association 4A Coach of the Year, was the Optimist Club Coach of the Year for 1990, 1991, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005, was the Mobile Register Coach of the Year for 2001, and was named the 2012 ALFCA (Alabama Football Coaches Association) Coach of the Year. He served as President of the Alabama High School Athletic Directors and Coaches Association in 1997-1998. Curtis was the Head Coach in the Alabama-Mississippi All Star Classic in 1999 and the Head Coach of the South team in the North/South All-Star Game in 2005. He has also served as President of the Mobile County Coaches Association, is a past member of the Advisory board of Football Quarterly, and is a member of National Federation of High Schools and NIAAA.

Coach Curtis was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and is an Honorary Inductee into the UMS-Wright Sports Hall of Fame. He was also awarded the Lefty Anderson Service through Coaching Award in 2005 sponsored by L’Arche Mobile. He was voted Best Coach by Mobile Bay Monthly’s annual Best of the Bay for 2006. Coach Curtis received the 2009 Coach of the Year Award from the NFHS Coaches Association.

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BECKY DICKINSON

1994

One of winningest volleyball coaches in Alabama High School history, winning 11 state titles as head coach at McGill-Toolen. Also won three state basketball titles.

Becky Dickinson

Becky Dickinson is one of the winningest high school volleyball coaches in the nation with a career wins totaling 1,273. She led McGill-Toolen’s Dirty Dozen to its first state championship in 1971, claiming 13 state titles in all and finishing in the top three every year. She also has a 235-81 basketball record with three state titles and two boys tennis crowns. She is a graduate of Russellville High and Florence State.

HANFORD DIXON

2013

Star defensive back at Theodore High and Southern Miss. 1st round draft pick in 1981. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive back for Cleveland Browns.

Hanford Dixon

Hanford Dixon was raised in Mobile, Alabama, and played football at Theodore High School and the University of Southern Mississippi. He was a first round draft pick in 1981 and was selected by the Cleveland Browns where he spent his career as a professional football player. He was a two-time All-Pro selection and played in the Pro Bowl in 1986, 1987 and 1988. He was been inducted into USM’s M-Club Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and was named to the school’s Football Team of the Century. He is also a member of the Legend’s Club at the University of Southern Mississippi.

He has published a memoir with Randy Nyerges titled “Day of the Dawg,” and he is a football analyst for WOIO-TV in Cleveland, Ohio. He also coached the Cleveland/Toledo Crush in the Legends Football League (formerly the Lingerie League), an all-female indoor football team.

BILL DOOLEY

1993

All-SEC offensive lineman at Mississippi State. Served as head football coach at North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest (1967-92) and won three ACC titles and 161 games.

Bill Dooley

Bill Dooley was grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended McGill Toolen High School. He played football for Mississippi State University where he was an All-SEC lineman. He coached first as an assistant at Georgia under his brother Vince Dooley, then at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he led the Tarheels to three Atlantic Coast Conference titles. He was athletic director and head coach at Virginia Tech 1978-1986 and head coach at Wake Forest University from 1987-1992. With a career coaching record of 162-126-5, he was ACC Coach of the Year in 1971, 1987 and 1992.

VINCE DOOLEY

1989

Member of National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame. Head football coach at University of Georgia for 25 seasons (1964-88) winning 201 games, six SEC Titles and the 1980 National Championship.

Vince Dooley

In 1963, the University of Georgia lured Auburn basketball coach Joel Eaves to Athens, but with a new title: Athletic Director. Bulldog fans thought their new AD was off his rocker when he chose, for the biggest hire of all, a 31-year-old with zero head coaching experience.

No one was more surprised than Vince Dooley. In his book, “Dooley’s Dawgs,” he told how Eaves stunned him with a call and an amazing job offer. He asked Eaves to give him five minutes, to talk to his wife. When he called back, he said, “If you are crazy enough to stick your neck out, I’m crazy enough to come.”

It must stand as the finest decision in the history of University of Georgia athletics.

In 1964, Vince Dooley’s first season as Georgia’s head football coach, the “Dawgs” went 7-3-1 record, enjoyed their first winning season in years, and capped it with a victory in the Sun Bowl.

Dooley never looked back, and Georgia—its football program, its entire athletic program—has never been the same.

Vincent Joseph Dooley was born in Mobile in 1932, the second of three children. Though known to fans as Vince, to his family and friends he has always been Vincent. His wife, for example, never calls him Vince. The Dooley’s were not destitute, but money was always a concern. In his book, Dooley recalled his mother’s fear that the family would be evicted for getting behind on the rent and utility bills. But Vincent Dooley’s childhood was a happy one, and active.

“The streets were where the action was but the action was sports, not crack or the criminal activity so pervasive now,” Dooley wrote. “There was a game of some kind going on all the time, and I loved to play the games. I loved to compete and enjoyed being involved in any kind of sports, even those that were invented.”

The Dooley boys, as Catholics, attended McGill Institute (now McGill-Toolen). In his favorite sport, basketball, Dooley set state tournament scoring records in 1949 and 1950. He played quarterback on the football team and was named Mobile’s prep “Athlete of the Year.”

Dooley arrived at Auburn at about the same time as its new football coach, Ralph “Shug” Jordan. In 1953, with Dooley as team captain and quarterback, the Tigers recorded their best season in 17 years, a 7-2-1 mark that included a berth in the Gator Bowl.

Upon graduation, Dooley enlisted in the Marines. After a two-year hitch, he returned to Auburn to join Jordan’s staff. Back in those days, the head basketball coach was low on the totem pole, and did double duty as an assistant football coach. Eaves, the basketball coach, was assigned to scout opposing teams and recruits.

Dooley often accompanied him—a role that proved fortuitous when Eaves got the Georgia job.

Here’s the Dooley record by the numbers:

Coached 25 seasons, most in Georgia history.
Won 201 games, and became only the ninth coach in NCAA history to win more than 200 games.
Won six SEC titles, was named SEC coach of the year seven times, national coach of the year once, and led the Dawgs to 20 bowl games.

From a fans’ standpoint, it didn’t hurt that Dooley made a habit of whipping Georgia’s two biggest rivals—Georgia Tech and Florida. His teams won 19 of 25 games against the Yellow Jackets and compiled a 17-7-1 record against the hated Gators.

The most memorable of those wins was the 1980 miracle comeback against Florida. Georgia trailed 21-20 with less than a minute to go, on its seven yard-line, facing a third and eight. Dooley’s hopes for an undefeated season and the national title were about to expire.

Then quarterback Buck Belue, scrambling into and out of the end zone, spotted Lyndsay Scott at the 25. Scott made the grab, headed for the left sideline, and sped untouched for one of the wildest wins in Georgia history.

Dooley, known for his somewhat comic gyrations on the sideline, started racing down the sideline. “I outran him for about five yards, then he bolted into the clear,” Dooley was to recall.

“How About Them Dawgs!” was the cheer heard around the world.

Georgia beat Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 12-0 and claim the undisputed national title, with Dooley being named National Coach of the Year. Herschel Walker, probably the greatest player in Georgia history, was the Sugar Bowl MP and, two years later, won the Heisman Trophy.

Dooley, who’d been given the dual role of coach and athletic director in 1979, retired from coaching in 1988 but continued on as athletic director. Under Dooley, Georgia athletics—including the likes of tennis and gymnastics—achieved new levels of success, and saw unprecedented growth in the quality and size of its facilities.

Vince’s son Derek has been head coach at Louisiana Tech and Tennessee. He’s now the wide receivers coach for the Dallas Cowboys.

Dooley has been inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame, and the Georgia and Alabama sports halls of fame. In 2001 he was given the Amos Alonzo Stagg Lifetime Achievement Award by the American College Football Association. In 2000, Georgia Trend magazine named him one of the Top 100 Georgians of the Century.

CHARLIE “HOME RUN” DUFFEE

2014

The first ever Mobile-born and Alabama-born major league baseball player. As a rookie in 1889 with the St. Louis Browns of the then major league American Association, Duffee finished third in the A.A. in home runs. He also played for the Columbus Solons, the Washington Senators, and the Cincinnati Reds before his promising career and life were cut short by tuberculosis. He died in 1894 at the age of 28.

Charlie Duffee

Charlie “Home Run” Duffee was the first Alabama-born player to go to the major leagues. Nicknamed “Home Run Duffee” (and usually referred to by that name), his 16 home runs as a rookie were third in the American Association in 1889.

Duffee’s best year was 1891 when both his home runs and his doubles were in the top five in the league. The next year he moved to the National League, where he played one full season in 1892 and four more games in 1893 before bowing out. Charlie Comiskey, who had been his manager in 1889 when Duffee broke in, was also his manager in his last season, 1893.

He died the next year, in 1894, of consumption. It was reported that he left the majors due to ill health.

The year he broke in (1889) was a turbulent one, coming right before the founding of the Players League. Duffee is mentioned in the book Baseball in 1889: Players vs. Owners.

The Baseball Rookies Encyclopedia notes that Duffee’s performance in 1889, hitting over 15 home runs with a batting average below .250, was rare before 1940, but after that date it became common.

EDMUND DYAS IV

1993

Member of National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame. All-American running back at Auburn University (1958-60) who finished fourth in voting for the 1960 Heisman Trophy.

Ed Dyas

Ed Dyas would be a in the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame with room to spare if he’d never kicked a field goal. He started at fullback and linebacker on some of Shug Jordan best Auburn Tiger teams, and was first team All-American at fullback in his senior year, 1960.

But in terms of the history of his sport, Dyas is remembered as one of the true pioneers of the field-goal. In the early days of football, field goals counted for five points, and touchdowns, just four. By 1912, the field goal was the three points it is today, and the touchdown, six points.

Over the next 50 years, the field goal played a marginal role in the game. That began to change in 1959, when the NCAA widened the goal posts.

Enter Auburn, and Ed Dyas. In 1960, his senior year, Dyas booted 13 of 17 field goal attempts, smashing the NCAA record. At Auburn he set four NCAA field goal records, including the career field goal mark of 17. Needless to say, he kicked straight on, as opposed to, “soccer style.”

Back then, Sports Illustrated had a feature called, “Saturday’s Tough Ones,” in which the magazine issued brief summaries of that Saturday’s college games and picked a favorite. “Auburn over Georgia,” the magazine predicted, before that year’s renewal of Auburn’s second biggest rivalry. “The Tigers are menacing again, and there is always Ed Dyas to kick field goals. Georgia’s Francis Tarkenton will have to throw against one of the nation’s best pass defenses.”

SI was right on. Auburn didn’t score a single touchdown, but defeated Georgia 9-6—all of the Tigers points coming off Dyas’s foot.

That year, famed Atlanta Constitution sportswriter Furman Bisher chronicled what he accurately saw as the dawn of the three-pointer as a game-changer in the sport.

“The field goal, previously a wallflower, has been drafted and put to heavy labor, to the point that around one third of the decisions in the sturdy southern belt have been rendered by the instrument,” wrote Bisher. “None, however, have made it quite so important a feature of attack as Auburn University.”

Auburn went 8-2 that year, with four of those wins coming on Dyas’ field goals.

That year Dyas finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He won the Cliff Hare Award, which is presented to the outstanding Auburn senior student-athlete, and the Bill Streit Award, which goes to the football player with the highest grade point average over four years.

Perhaps most impressively, the Auburn pre-med was selected captain of the 1960 Scholastic All-America team.

After graduating from Auburn, Dyas was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, and offered a $5,000 signing bonus and $10,000 a year. But he had another love, the good sense to pursue it.

“In high school I got taken with the idea (to become a doctor) when I was introduced to biology we had good teachers at McGill,” Dyas said, of the Mobile high school now called McGill-Toolen. “And I made the decision to go to (med) school rather than play any more football, and I’m glad I did.”

Dyas chose Tulane Medical School over pro football. He finished in the top 10 percent class, returned home to Mobile, and helped build one of the largest orthopedic practices in the state.

He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, and 10 years later, into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dr. Ed Dyas died in 2011, at age 71, from stomach cancer.

CLIFF ELLIS

2003

NCAA basketball coach at four schools – South Alabama, Clemson, Auburn and Coastal Carolina (1975-2010). Has recorded over 500 career victories and is all-time winningest coach at USA and Clemson

Cliff Ellis

Cliff Ellis grew up in Marianna, Florida, and began his career in music as lead singer for The Villagers. They were the hottest band in northwest Florida in the 1960s, and they recorded the hit “Laugh It Off” at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He played with the likes of Roy Orbison and Etta James, and his band had a contract with Atco Records. But in 1968, he gave it all up to coach basketball.

Ellis began his coaching career in 1968 as an assistant at Ruckle Junior High in Niceville, Florida. After a season, he became an assistant basketball coach at Niceville High School and later head coach at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida.

In 1972, Cliff Ellis began his college coaching career at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee where he was head basketball coach and athletic director. In 1975, Ellis accepted the head coaching position for the University of South Alabama Jaguars and remains the school’s winningest coach with a record of 171-84 in nine seasons. He also led the Jaguars to three SunBelt titles, two NCAA tournament appearances and two NITs. Ten years after Ellis became head coach, South Alabama’s basketball team was ranked in the nation’s top ten teams.

Ellis was named head basketball coach at Clemson University in 1984 where he also stands as the winningest coach in the school’s history. Under his guidance, the Tigers won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1989-90 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament that year. Ellis was named ACC Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1990.

In 1994, Ellis became head coach at Auburn University, where, in 1999, he led the Tigers to an SEC championship and the most wins (29-4) ever recorded by a Division I team in the state of Alabama. Under Coach Ellis, Auburn made it to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen twice, and in 2002, Ellis achieved his 500th career Division I win against Georgia State, becoming one of only 34 coaches to reach that milestone.

In 2007, Cliff Ellis was named head basketball coach for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, and two years later led the team to two back to back Big South Conference championships. In the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons, the Chants again took the Big South Conference title and made it to the second round in the NCAA Tournament both seasons.

Ellis was named Coach of the Year in 1999, and in addition to the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, he is a member of the Cumberland Athletics Hall of Fame and the Clemson Athletics Hall of Fame. He has published three books: Zone Press Variations for Winning Basketball, The Complete Book of Fast Break Basketball and Cliff Ellis: The Winning Edge.

LAURETTA FREEMAN-HORN

2014

Starred at Williamson High School before embarking on a remarkable career at Auburn University. Freeman led Auburn to the 1990 Final Four and was the SEC Player of the Year and First Team All America in 1993. She won a gold medal for the U.S. at the 1994 Good- will Games. Freeman played professional basketball overseas and in the ABL. After retiring, she has been an assistant coach at Auburn and a head high school coach in Mobile (St. Paul’s).

Lauretta Freeman-Horn

Lauretta Freeman-Horn starred at Williamson High School before embarking on a remarkable career at Auburn University. Freeman led Auburn to the 1990 Final Four and was the SEC Player of the Year and First Team All America in 1993. Her single season rebound record of 401 still stands at Auburn. She won a gold medal for the U.S. at the 1994 Goodwill Games in Russia. Freeman played professional basketball in Spain, and came back to the States to play in the ABL—two seasons with the Atlanta Glory and was with the National Noise when the ABL suddenly dissolved in 1998. After retiring, she has been an assistant coach to Joe Ciampi at Auburn for four seasons and a head high school coach in Mobile (St. Paul’s).

MIKE FULLER

1996

Defensive back at Auburn University (1971-74). Also excelled as DB and kick returner in NFL for Bengals and Chargers (1975-82).

Mike Fuller

Fuller was born in Jackson, Miss., but moved to Mobile and attended Shaw. He stayed in state to play for Coach “Shug” Jordan at Auburn, where he was an All-American defensive back and kick returner. He was named to the All SEC first teams in 1973 and 1974. Many of his punt return records still stand, and his countenance now appears on a mural in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

In the 1973 Auburn-Georgia game Mike returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, the third longest kickoff return in Auburn history at that time, and led the nation in punt returns going into that year’s Iron Bowl. He finished the regular season second in the nation, missing the top slot with a per-carry average just 1/10th of a yard less than Penn State’s Gary Hayman. (Hayman had 23 returns for 422 yards, Fuller had 20 for 381). Mike owns the Tiger’s share of the Auburn record book where punting is concerned, including most punts returned for touchdowns in a game (tied with David Langner at 2), a season and a career. Against Chattanooga in ’74, he returned only three punts for 173 yards. He was named to Football News All-American Team his senior season. In 1975, he was drafted in the third round by the San Diego Chargers. After four seasons with San Diego, he went to play for the Cincinnati Bengals where in his final season he played in SuperBowl XVI against the San Francisco 49ers.

PAT GALLE

2009

Highly successful high school head football, track and cross country coach. Has coached at UMS-Wright for 37 years, leading boys and girls teams that have won 32 state titles.

Pat Galle

Pat Galle has been coaching for more than forty years. While in his career at University Military School, and now UMS-Wright, Coach Galle has served as head football, head outdoor and indoor track, and head cross-country coach since 1972. He has accumulated fifty-four Alabama State High School championships with twelve of those coming in cross-country (seven boys and five girls titles). His most recent honor came in the Fall of 2011 with the renovation and renaming of the Galle-Leatherbury Track.

Coach Galle has three years combined experience at Theodore and Blount High Schools in Mobile from 1969-1972. He has been named to the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame, Mobile Sports Hall of Fame (an honor he shares with his father, the late Stan Galle), and the UMS-Wright Sports Hall of Fame. He has twice been named the National Federation of High Schools Coach of the Year as well as the National High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year. The Mobile Press-Register has also honored him with Track Coach of the Year accolades.

He serves as the head of the physical education department where he oversees teaching and learning for children and athletes in grades K4-12.

STAN GALLE

1995

Former Major League Baseball player with Senators. Served as head baseball coach at Spring Hill College for 27 seasons and school’s field is named in his honor.

Stan Galle

Stan Galle was born in Wisconsin and played major league baseball for the Washington Senators for a season. He then became head baseball coach at Spring Hill College, a position he held for 27 years, and the school’s baseball field is named in his honor.

Stan Galle died on January 28, 2006.

MIKE GOTTFRIED

2008

NCAA football head coach at four schools – Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas and Pittsburgh (1978-89) and longtime ESPN College Football analyst and commentator. Founded national community outreach program, Team Focus.

Mike Gottfried

Mike Gottfried played college football at Morehead State University from 1962-1965. He coached St. Paul High School in Ohio before becoming a college football coach. He served as head coach at Murray State University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Kansas and the University of Pittsburgh, compiling a career record of 76-55-4. He is currently a college football color analyst and color commentator for ESPN.

Gottfried wrote an autobiography, Coach’s Challenge: Faith, Football, and Filling the Father Gap, and with wife Mickey, founded Team Focus, a cost-free community outreach program aimed at young men without fathers, giving them opportunities to be motivated, encouraged, and challenged. The Gottfrieds were recognized for their efforts in 2010 with the Director’s Community Leadership Award given to them by FBI Director Robert Mueller.

ANGELO HARRIS

2013

Alabama High School Champion in the mile. All SEC and SEC record setter in Track and Cross Country at Alabama. 40 year Cross Country and Track Coach at McGill-Toolen High School. Coached 73 All-State Runners.

Angelo Harris

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Angelo Harris attended McGill Institute and was a member of the 1963 State Champion Cross Country Team. He lettered three years in cross country and track. In 1966, he won the Individual State Champion in the mile run. Harris attended the University of Alabama on a full athletic scholarship for Cross Country and Track. In 1968, he was the SEC Varsity Indoor Two Mile Champion and set the SEC Two Mile Record (9.00.3). He also was the SEC Varsity Outdoor One Mile Champion the same year. He was elected to the All SEC Cross Country Team three times and held many University of Alabama school records.

After receiving his BS degree, he returned to Mobile and was hired as the Freshman Boys Cross Country/Track Coach at McGill Toolen High School. In 1974, he was elevated to Varsity Boys Cross Country/Track Coach and in 1987 became the Varsity Girls Cross Country/Track Coach. His teams, both boys and girls, have won many State Championships in cross country and in track, and many Section and County Championships. Coach Harris was also named Assistant Athletic Director in 1991 before being elevated to Athletic Director in 1998. Coach Harris coached 226 All-County Runners and 73 All-State Runners. His teams won 13 state championships and were the state runners-up 16 times.

He was inducted into the McGill-Toolen High School Hall of Fame in 1980 and Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2012.

Angelo Harris died from complications with cancer September 15, 2013.

BEN HARRIS

2013

Quarterback at Toulminville High School and Alabama State. Won four state championships at Blount High School during the 1990’s. NFL High School Coach of the year in 1998. Member of the AHSAA Hall of Fame.

Ben Harris

A graduate of Toulminville (now LeFlore) High School, Ben Harris played quarterback at Alabama State from 1975-1978. He still ranks in the Top 10 all-time in passing yards for the Hornets. “Ben Big” followed his collegiate career by playing semi-pro football for the West Virginia Rockets and Pensacola Wings, before beginning his coaching career.

Harris was head coach at Clayton High School and an assistant coach at Baldwin County High School before taking over at Blount High School in 1988. At the time, the Leopards had lost more games the previous 10 seasons than any other Class 5A school in the state.

Over the next 10 years, the Leopards became 5A’s winningest team with state titles in 1990, 1992, 1996, and 1997 and runner-up finishes in 1991 and 1995. Numerous Harris-coached players went on to careers in college football and the NFL. Harris’ overall record at Blount was 78-14.

Harris later returned to Alabama State as an assistant coach before becoming head coach at Daleville High School.

Harris served as head coach in the 1991 Alabama-Mississippi All Star Classic and was an assistant in 1997. In 1998, he was named the NFL High School Coach of the Year. In 2012, Harris was inducted in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

PAUL CHRISTOPER HARRIS, SR.

2002

All-SEC football star at the University of Alabama – 1973-76. Helped lead Alabama to 1974 and 1975 SEC Championships and played for NFL’s Buccaneers and Vikings.

Paul Christopher Harris, Sr.

Paul Harris was born in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Toulminville (now LeFlore) High School where he played football. He went on to play football at the University of Alabama as well where he was ALL-SEC and helped the Crimson Tide win SEC championships in 1974 and 1975. In 1977 was drafted in the sixth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played pro football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Minnesota Vikings.

EDDIE HOLMES

2003

Three-sport star at UMS-Wright and baseball player at Spring Hill College. Coached basketball and golf for 30 years at UMS-Wright, winning 12 state championships in boys golf.

Eddie Holmes

Coach Holmes was proof that a good coach is always a good coach regardless of the sport or circumstances. In his 32 years at UMS-Wright, also his alma mater, he produced 14 state golf championships and outstanding records in both boys and girls basketball. He was selected as Coach of the Year eight times, and he was inducted into the UMS-Wright Athletic Hall of Fame, the Spring Hill College Hall of Fame, and the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

TERRY HOPPER

2008

NAIA Hall of Fame Inductee. Men’s golf coach at University of Mobile (1984-2009) winning national title in 1997.

Terry Hopper

Terry Hopper joined the University of Mobile in 1970 teaching in the Physical Education Department. He headed intramural sports and, in 1984, was named head coach of the athletic program’s first sport, men’s golf. He led the men’s golf team to an NAIA national championship in 1997 and the women’s in 1998.

Hopper was named Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year 18 times. He retired from teaching full-time in 2006 but continued coaching golf at UMobile until 2012.

CURTIS HORTON, SR.

2006

All-Star running back at Tuskegee Institute. Longtime Mobile area high school football coach at Mobile County Training, McGill and Williamson.

Curtis Horton, Sr.

Curtis Horton grew up in Mobile, Alabama and attended Central High School where he was co-captain of the football team and captain of the basketball team. He played football at Tuskegee Institute where he was an All-Star running back. He graduated from Tuskegee in 1959 and took a job coaching football at the Mobile County Training School where he also voluntarily coached baseball. Two of his players, Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee, went on to play major league baseball for the New York Mets—the “Miracle Mets”—who helped win the 1969 World Series.

Horton also coached at McGill Toolen and Williamson and was inducted into the Tuskegee Hall of Fame in 1993.

FRANK HOWARD

1990

National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame Inductee. Head football coach at Clemson University for 30 seasons (1940-69) recording 7 conference titles and 165 victories.

Frank Howard

Born in Barlow Bend, Alabama, Frank Howard went to Murphy High School where he played football, basketball and baseball. In the fall of 1927, he went to the University of Alabama on an academic scholarship, but he also played football his sophomore, junior and senior years, helping the Crimson Tide defeat Washington State to win the 1931 Rose Bowl.

His first coaching job at Clemson under Jess Neely was line tutor, but he did so much more. He was ticket manager, recruited players, had charge of football equipment, cut grass, lined tennis courts and operated the canteen. He coached track from 1931-1939 and served as baseball coach in 1943 with a record of 12-3. He became head football coach at Clemson in 1939, a position he would hold for 30 years, amassing the 15th most wins of any college football coach. He led Clemson to ten bowl games, an undefeated season in 1949, and several Top-20 rankings during his tenure as head coach. He also served as athletic director and assistant to the Vice President at the university which is the post he held when he retired in 1974.

Howard has been honored by the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame and the Clemson Hall of Fame (charter member in both), as well as the Helms Athletic Hall of Fame and the State of Alabama Hall of Fame. On December 5, 1989 he joined an elite group in the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame. Clemson University has also honored Howard once more with the presentation of the Clemson Medallion, and he was a charter member of Clemson’s Ring of Honor at Memorial Stadium in 1994. And the playing surface at Memorial Field is named “Frank Howard Field.”

Frank Howard, Clemson’s best known ambassador for 65 years, died on January 26, 1996.

SCOTT HUNTER

1996

Record-setting QB at University of Alabama (1968-70). Enjoyed nine-year NFL Career with Packers, Falcons, Bills and Lions (1971-79).

Scott Hunter

Scott Hunter grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Vigor High School. He went to college at the University of Alabama where he played quarterback for the Crimson Tide under Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and held several passing records.

He was drafted in 1971 in the sixth round by the Green Bay Packers where he played for three seasons before signing a deal with the Buffalo Bills. He also played for the Atlanta Falcons before his last season with the Detroit Lions.

He moved back to Alabama where he was a sportscaster for more than 20 years, and he is currently an investment broker in Mobile.

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BOBBY JACKSON

1997

Starred at quarterback and defensive back at University of Alabama (1956-58). Played for NFL’s Packers, Eagles and Bears and was member of Eagles’ 1960 NFL Champs.

Bobby Jackson

Bobby Jackson was a multi-sport athlete at Murphy High School, and was recruited to play football at the University of of Alabama under coach J.B. “Ears” Whitworth. His senior year, Jackson had the privilege to play on Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first season coaching the Crimson Tide. That season, Jackson was invited to play in three all-star games: the Blue-Gray Classic in Montgomery, Mobile’s Senior Bowl and the College All-Star Game in which a team of college all-stars played against the Baltimore Colts.

In 1959, Jackson was selected in the seventh round of the draft by the Green Bay Packers, but before he could suit up, he was released and picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles as a defensive back. Ironically, the Eagles beat the Packers that season to win the NFL World Championship.

In 1961, Jackson played for the Chicago Bears for a season. After retiring from professional football, he went to work for Shell Oil Company for ten years, and then WKSJ Radio for 23 years.

Bobby Jackson died on October 12, 2009 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile.

WILLIAM “BILL” JESSIE

2004

High school football coach at Central, Toulmanville and LeFlore high schools for 27 seasons, recording 145 victories. High School football official and AHSAA administrator for 35 years.

Bill Jessie

Bill Jessie, a Mobile native, graduated from Central High School and Alabama State. He lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track in high school and accepted a scholarship to Alabama State University where he played football and basketball. After college, he coached football at Central High and Toulminville High School (now LeFlore) for a total of 27 years.

As head coach, his teams won more than 100 games, including a 22-game undefeated streak in the late 1960s.

Bill was named John Finley’s Football Coach of the Year in 1967, 1969 and 1971, the Southern Interscholastic Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 1967 and 1968, and the Alabama Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 1968.

He was also a high school basketball official from 1962-1968, calling many local, regional and state tournament games. He was named Mobile County Official Association’s “Official of the Year” six times. He also served on the legislative council of the Alabama High School Athletic Association for 19 years, the Central Board of Control for 11 years, and as President for two years.

He was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and was posthumously honored by L’Arche Mobile with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Bill Jessie died in 2008.

CLEON JONES

1991

14-Year Major League Baseball career with Mets and White Sox (1963-76). Starting left fielder for Mets’ 1969 World Champions.

Cleon Jones

On Oct. 16, 1969, Baltimore Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson launched a fly ball to deep left field in Shea Stadium. Pandemonium ensued in the Big Apple when Cleon Jones, left-fielder for the New York Mets—or the Miracle Mets as history knows them—made the grab, giving the once hapless Mets the World Series.

Cleon Joseph Jones was born on August 4, 1942, in the Plateau area of Mobile County. He starred in multiple sports at the all-black Mobile County Training School, along with his future Mets teammate, Tommie Agee. In 1966, Cleon finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year vote that year while Tommie took the top prize.

Jones almost enjoyed a second World Series title with the Mets. The 1973 team, of which he was a member, lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games in that year’s series. Jones played for 13 seasons, with a career average of .281. He stroked 1,196 hits over his career and drove in 524 runs.

In 1999 he appeared as himself with Tommie Agee and other Mets teammates in an episode of the TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond (season 3, episode 19, “Big Shots”). He was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1991, and is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He currently lives in Mobile, Alabama.

JOEY JONES

2011

University of Alabama All-SEC receiver. Member of Alabama’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s. Played three seasons in USFL and one year in NFL. Currently the head football coach at the University of South Alabama.

Joey Jones

Joey Jones grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and is a graduate of Murphy High School. He played wide receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide under Coach Bear Bryant. He tallied 71 receptions, 1,386 yards for 15 touchdowns and was named ALL-SEC his senior year. He also played in the Senior Bowl.

He played professional football for the Birmingham Stallions (USFL) and the Atlanta Falcons (NFL). Following his pro football career, he coached three high school teams in Birmingham—Briarwood Christian, Dora and Mountain Brook—before taking his first college job with Birmingham Southern. One year later, he was tapped to be head coach of the brand new football program at the University of South Alabama.

In five short years, Jones took the Jaguar from zero to the Sun Belt Conference and their first bowl game appearance in 2014 at the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.

STEVE KITTRELL

2004

Head baseball coach at University of South Alabama (1984-2010). All-time winningest coach in school history with over 1,000 wins.

Steve Kittrell

Steve Kittrell grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Davidson High School where he was a stand-out center fielder. In 1968, he signed to play baseball for the University of South Alabama Jaguars and Coach Eddie Stanky where he compiled a batting average of .368, a record that still stands as the highest among four-year lettermen at USA.

After earning a degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from South Alabama in 1971, Kittrell went on to sign a minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox organization. He spent one season in the Florida State League before returning to his alma mater where he served a one-year stint as graduate assistant coach.

Following his completion of a master’s degree in Physical Education in 1973, Kittrell began his head coaching career at Niceville High School in Niceville, Florida. In two seasons, he won 70 percent of his contests while compiling a 35-15 record. He returned to Mobile for the 1976 prep season as a coach of the UMS Bulldogs. In five seasons, Kittrell built a legitimate state power by posting a 95-34 record, including the school’s first-ever state championship in any sport in 1978.

From there, Kittrell continued his move up the coaching ladder by becoming the head coach at Enterprise State (Alabama) Junior College. He posted back-to-back winning seasons of 25-17 and 27-13 in 1979-80.

In 1981, he returned to UMS where he coached another two seasons before taking over the Spring Hill College program in 1983. He led the Badgers to the NAIA District 30 championship and a berth in the national tournament. He garnered three coaching honors during his one-year stint at Spring Hill, including District 30 Coach of the Year, Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Co-Coach of the Year, and NAIA Area Two Tournament Coach of the Year.

Kittrell took over head coaching duties at South Alabama in 1984. He led the Jags to their second-best record (50-19) in school history and a runner-up finish at the South I Regional in Tallahassee, Florida. 27 years later, he would lead the Jaguars to 18 NCAA tournament appearances and 1,022 victories, surpassing Eddie Stanky as the winningest coach in Jaguar history and one of the top 30 winningest coaches of all time in college baseball.

ANTONIO LANG

2011

Star at Duke University and helped lead Blue Devils to National Championships in 1991 and 1992. Played six years in NBA. Led LeFlore H.S. to state title.

Antonio Lang

Antonio Lang was born in South Carolina, but he was raised in Mobile, Alabama. He went to LeFlore Magnet school where he helped win the 1990 basketball State Championship and was Valedictorian his senior year. He played college basketball at Duke, going to three NCAA tournaments and winning back-to-back tournaments in 1991 and 1992.

He was drafted in 1994 by the Phoenix Suns, and his pro career spanned twelve years. After one season with the Suns, he did stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Grand Rapids Hoops (CBA), the Miami Heat, the Fort Wayne Fury (CBA), the Toronto Raptors, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Indiana Legends (ABA) and the Connecticut Pride (CBA). He played overseas for the Red Bull Thunder in the Philippines, the Mitsubishi Melco Dolphins in Japan, and Universo Brasilia in Brazil.

A foot injury prompted Lang to retire from professional basketball in 2006. He coached the Dolphins in Japan until 2014 when he took a job as an assistant coach for the Utah Jazz.

RAY “BUDDY” LAUTEN

2001

Football and basketball Star at UMS. Record-setting basketball performer at Spring Hill College (1948-50) and Spring Hill College Hall of Fame inductee.

Buddy Lauten

Buddy Lauten is a native of Mobile where he grew up and participated in a number of city sports. He was an outstanding football athlete at University Military School (UMS), where he lettered for five years and was honored as an all-city halfback. In basketball in 1945 and 1946, he was the city’s top scorer. While at Spring Hill College, he set an iron man record that still stands today—109 consecutive games there.

JON LIEBER

2013

All-American at South Alabama. 2nd round draft pick 1992 Kansas City Royals. 14 seasons in MLB. Winning 131 career games. Finished 4th for the Cy Young Award in 2001.

Jon Lieber

A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lieber came to Mobile to play for the University of South Alabama. Drafted in the 2nd round of the MLB Draft by the Cubs, Lieber returned for his senior season at USA and in 1992 was one of the top pitchers in college baseball.

Lieber was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1992 MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals. Traded to the Pirates organization, Lieber debuted with the Pirates in 1994. He would play 14 seasons in the majors with the Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, and Phillies winning 131 games.

Lieber won 20 games for the 2001 Cubs, played in the All-Star Game that year and finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting. Lieber led the National League in games started and innings pitched in 2000. In 2004, he allowed the fewest walks per nine innings of any pitcher in the American League. He accomplished the same feat in the National League in 2006.

Lieber lives in Mobile.

HERMAN MAISEL

2000

Successful high school head coach who won state championship as basketball coach at Murphy H.S. in 1955. Also won state title as head golf coach at Murphy.

Herman Maisel

Herman Maisel grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Murphy High School where he excelled in football, basketball and baseball. Upon graduating high school, he went to work in the shipyards in Mobile, biding time until he was old enough to enlist in the Marines. He served in the Pacific theater during World War II, and after being hit by a Japanese hand granade he was give an honorable discharge and awarded a Purple Heart.

After the war, he enrolled in the University of Alabama where he excelled in intramural sports. During graduate school at Alabama, he coached the freshman football and basketball teams. With a graduate degree in hand, he moved back to Mobile to teach and coach at his alma mater, Murphy High School. He coached football, basketball and golf, helping Murphy win State Championship titles in basketball in 1955 and golf in 1956.

Herman Maisel died on October 2, 2007 at the age of 81.

BILL MARTIN

1997

UMS “Flea Circus” football star. Multi-sport amateur athletic star in Mobile.

Bill Martin

Bill Martin was a 1940 graduate of University Military School where he played football for the “Flea Circus Team” under first year coach Marvin Smith. The Bulldogs went 2-6-1 that year, but by the time Martin graduated, the team had recorded two back-to-back winning seasons with seven wins and two losses.

Martin was inducted into the 1980 Class of UMS-Wright Athletic Hall of Fame.

PEGGY MARTIN

2006

Winningest volleyball coach in NCAA Division II history, recording 33 straight winning seasons and 1,064 wins at Central Missouri State.

Peggy Martin

Peggy Martin grew up in Mobile, Alabama, at a time when women did not play competitive sports, although she played volleyball and basketball and ran track with St. Catherine’s High School’s CYO teams where she excelled in each. She went to college at Indiana University where she did compete—in basketball, reaching the national tournament berth twice, softball and field hockey. She earned her bachelor’s degree from IU in 1972, her master’s from University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 1974, and completed her doctorate in physical education at IU in 1980.

She began her collegiate coaching career at Florida Southern College as volleyball and basketball coach. She then went to the University of Missouri where she would stay for 33 seasons and a winning record of 1,064-281-8. In 2009, she became head volleyball coach for Springhill College in Mobile where she added enough wins to break the 1,200 win mark, making Martin one of only two collegiate volleyball coaches to reach 1,200 wins at any level of competition.

Over 33 seasons at UCM, Martin never suffered a losing season, won 25 matches in 31 consecutive seasons and won or shared 19 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association titles. Her teams made a record 25 consecutive NCAA Div. II Tournament appearances, reached the “Elite Eight” six times and finished as the National Runner-up in 1987. She has won 22 Coach of the Year Awards including the 1987 NCAA Division II National Coach of Year Award.

Since being at Springhill, she has taken the Badgers to four consecutive SSAC West Division crowns from 2010 to 2013. In 2011, she directed Spring Hill to the NAIA National Championship Tournament for only the second time in program history and reached pool play at the Final Site for the first time ever. Under Martin’s direction, the Badgers returned to the NAIA National Tournament in 2012 and 2013.

Martin wrote a book, “101 Volleyball Drills” and produced four instructional videos titled Training the Setter, Competitive Volleyball Drills, The Side Attack, and Training the Libero.

She and her father, Bill Martin, comprise the only father/daughter duo in the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

JIM “JIMBO” MASON

1998

Nine-Year Major League Baseball career as shortstop with five teams (1971-79). Member of 1976 New York Yankees World Series team.

Jimbo Mason

Jimbo Mason was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, and played baseball for nine seasons in the major leagues. He played for the Washington Senators, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos. Mason played in the 1966 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. In his only plate appearance of the series, Mayson hit a home run which would prove to be the Yankees’ only home run of their four-game series loss.

JUNE BUCKHAULTS MAYSON

1999

Alabama Women’s Golf Champion. Former women’s head golf coach at the University of South Alabama.

WILLIE McCOVEY

1989

National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee (1986). 22-Year Major League Baseball career with Giants, Padres and A’s (1959-80). Six-time All-Star who hit 521 career home runs.

Willie McCovey

The year was 1969—at the very height of Willie McCovey’s career—and he was taking batting practice at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.

Pitchers from the visiting team watched, in equal parts awe and fear. Among them: Jim Bouton, not much of a pitcher, but author of one of the greatest of all sports books, “Ball Four.” Here’s how Bouton described the scene in his book:

“A group of terrorized pitchers stood around the batting cage watching Willie McCovey belt some tremendous line drives over the right-field fence. Every time a ball bounced into the seats we’d make little whimpering animal sounds. ‘Hey, Willie,’ I said. ‘Can you do that whenever you want to?’ He didn’t crack a smile. ‘Just about,’ he said, and he hit another one. More animal sounds.”

No less than Bob Gibson, as fearless a pitcher as there was, called McCovey “the scariest hitter in baseball.”

McCovey was nicknamed Stretch because of his arms, long even for his massive 6-4 frame. He batted left-handed, threw with his left, and only played one position—first base.

“On ground balls hit down to the second baseman, there’s no need to throw, the second baseman just hands the ball to Willie.” wrote the great Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray.

Willie Lee McCovey was born on January 10, 1938 in Mobile, the seventh of 10 children by his railroad laborer father Frank and mother Esther.

“Kids in Mobile either hung around street corners and went into gangs, or they hung around street corners and went into sports. I was lucky. The kids who were my friends went into sports,” McCovey once told an interviewer.

He had the ill-fortune early in his career of playing behind Orlando Cepeda, the Giants’ All-Star first baseman.

In 1963, five years after his first major league game, McCovey was inserted into the starting line-up, for good. That year McCovey tied fellow Mobile native Hank Aaron for the league lead in homers, with 44, and drove in 102 runs.

One of McCovey’s hallmark moments came in 1969. In that year’s All-Star Game he walloped two gargantuan home runs and was named the game’s MVP. There’s a wonderful picture of McCovey, his face the picture of joy, being welcomed at the plate by Hank Aaron after one of the round-trippers. That season was also McCovey’s best. He led the league with 45 home runs and 126 RBI, hit .320, and was intentionally walked 45 times, at the time a major league record.

Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson frequently ordered his pitchers to walk McCovey. “If you pitch to him he’ll ruin baseball. He’d hit 80 home runs. There’s no comparison between McCovey and anybody else in the league.”

McCovey spent much of his career playing alongside his close friend Willie Mays, who was also from Alabama. “I don’t know what it was about him, but anywhere he went he felt he had to take somebody with him. And that somebody was usually me,” McCovey told an interviewer.

Stretch McCovey’s career was slowed, quite literally, by a seemingly endless series of leg and foot injuries. Though a part-timer late in his career, he played all or part of 22 seasons, finishing with 521 home runs. Had McCovey enjoyed better health, he might have joined Aaron’s chase of Babe Ruth’s record.

McCovey is still beloved in his adopted second home of San Francisco. In 2003, a statue of big number 44 was erected outside Candlestick Park and overlooking McCovey Cove—the unofficial name of a section of San Francisco Bay where some of McCovey’s homers were said to land with a splash.

McCovey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986, his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he was ranked as the 56th greatest player of all time by The Sporting News.

RANDY McGILLBERRY

2010

Record-setting pitcher at Satsuma H.S. and Louisiana Tech who played for Kansas City Royals’ 1977 and 1978 American League Division Champs.

CLIFTON McNEIL, JR.

1993

Two-sport star at Grambling University (1962-64). Ten-year NFL career as receiver with five teams (1964-73) and was member of Browns’ 1964 NFL Champs.

JOHN MITCHELL

2007

First African-American varsity football player at University of Alabama (1971-72). 36-Year coaching career at collegiate and NFL levels including longtime tenure as DL coach with Steelers.

BILL MENTON

1994

Star baseball player and coach at Spring Hill College. Mobile radio and television sportscaster for over 30 years.

MARYDYE McDOLE

2015

McDole is generally regarded as the greatest receiver in the history of Mississippi State football. He left MSU as the school’s all-time leading receiver in yards (2,214) and catches (116). McDole was a 2nd round draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1981 NFL Draft. He also played for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL and the Memphis Showboats in the USFL.

Mardye McDole

Mardye McDole is generally regarded as the greatest receiver in the history of Mississippi State football. McDole was named All-SEC three times. He led the conference in receptions and yards per reception in 1978, his sophomore season. McDole was named an All-American by The Sporting News following his senior season. He left MSU as the school’s all-time leading receiver in yards (2,214) and catches (116). He currently stands 2nd in career receiving yards and 5th in career TD receptions. He is 6th in all purpose yards. He is still first in yards per play (14.5) among players with a minimum of 200 plays. McDole is the only receiver in Mississippi State history to record a thousand yard season. He was inducted in the Mississippi State Hall of Fame in 2001.

McDole was selected in the 2nd round, 39th overall, by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1981 NFL Draft. McDole spent three seasons with the Vikings as receiver and kick returner. He also played for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL and the Memphis Showboats in the USFL. McDole entered high school coaching after his career ended. He was head coach at Shaw High School from 1996 through 2001 and has been an assistant at Shaw, Baker, Blount, and Murphy.

J. FINLEY McRAE

2004

Community business and sports leader. Organized group that financed the construction of Ladd Stadium in 1948 and bringing the Senior Bowl to Mobile in 1950.

W.J. “PETE” MILNE

1996

14-Year professional baseball career (1943-56) including three seasons with New York Giants (1948-50). Earned reputation as outstanding pinch-hitter in majors.

JULES “STORMY” MUGNIER

2002

Outstanding all-round athlete who was a star basketball and baseball player at Spring Hill College. Drafted by Boston Celtics in 1952 NBA Draft. Nationally-ranked amateur tennis player.

PETE MYERS

2002

Starred at Williamson High, Faulkner State, and Arkansas Little Rock. Drafted for the Chicago Bulls in 1986. Played 11 seasons in the NBA. Golden State Warriors Assistant Coach.

Pete Myers

A graduate of Williamson High School, Myers went on to become one of the all-time great players at Faulkner State Community College before moving on to Arkansas Little Rock.

Myers was a 6th round pick of the Chicago Bulls in the 1986 NBA draft. He played nine seasons in the NBA for seven different teams. In 1993, Myers replaced the retiring Michael Jordan in the Bulls starting lineup. He started 81 games that season as the Bulls won 55-games, just two fewer than the season before with Jordan.

Myers also played in the CBA and in Italy. Upon retiring, Myers became an assistant for the Bulls for nine seasons, serving as interim head coach for two games in 2003 and one game in 2007. He is now an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors.

CASIMIR P. NEWTON

1996

Supervisor of Health, Physical Education and Recreation for Mobile Public Schools (1947-78). Helped start Special Olympics program in Mobile in 1961.

LIONEL “RED” NOONAN

2001

Stellar fullback and linebacker at the University Alabama (1945, ’47-49). President of the “A” Club. Football and track Star at Murphy High School.

O - S

AMOS OTIS

1992

17-Year Major League Baseball career with Royals, Mets and Pirates (1967-84). Five-time American League All-Star and Three-time Gold Glove winner.

Amos Otis

In September 1971, after a hard-fought, one-run win over the Milwaukee Brewers, a policeman entered the Kansas City Royals locker-room, walked over to Amos Otis’ cubicle, and told the Royals’ centerfielder he was under arrest. “That was pure larceny out there tonight,” the policeman told Otis.

Otis, whose sense of humor almost matched his abilities as a ballplayer, chuckled.

Years later, and just prior to his induction into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, Otis told a Mobile reporter that the Brewers’ game stood out more than any other memories in his 17-year, 2,000-plus hits career.

“I stole five bases in one game, in ’71 against the Brewers. It was the first time in something like 50 years that had been done,” Otis recalled. “I will always remember that game. I was a pretty good reader of pitchers and their moves, including the two pitchers I faced that day.”

Amos Joseph Otis was born in 1947, his home just eight blocks from the Aaron family. Hank Aaron, at the time slugging his way into history, was home visiting his family when Otis’s dad saw him. He tried to introduce young Amos to his hero. “I was too scared to say anything,” Otis recalled later.

Williamson High has produced many great athletes, but Otis holds the distinction of being the only Lion selected in the baseball draft. He was picked by the Boston Red Sox, but later traded to the New York Mets.

Otis made his major league debut in 1967, but bounced back and forth from the majors and minors. In 1969—the year of the Miracle Mets and their historic World Series win—Otis struggled at the plate. Though he didn’t make the series roster, his teammates—including Mobilians Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee—voted him a share of series pay.

There’s a great picture of from that year of four Mobile big leaguers—Otis, Jones and Agee, all smiles and joined by Tommie Aaron, then with the Atlanta Braves.

At season’s end, the Mets traded Otis to the Royals. In Kansas City, he started from day one, and his career took off. Years later, Sports Illustrated ranked the Otis trade as the worst in Mets history, even worse than when the team traded Nolan Ryan.

With his blazing speed and strong arm, he was probably the best centerfielder in the game in the 1970s. He won three Golden Gloves, and was credited with popularizing the one-handed catch. Otis said it helped him get rid of the ball faster.

In August 1971, he made the cover of The Sporting News. The story ran under the headline: “Royals Otis En Route to Super Star Status.” That year—when he stole five bases in a game—Otis finished with a league-leading 52 steals.

In 1973, he finished third in the American League’s MVP voting, behind Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer. Most importantly, the five-time All-Star played a huge role in delivering the Royals from baseball’s basement to a perennial challenger.

Otis said his biggest regret was that the Royals won the AL West three straight years—1976, 1977 and 1978—but each year lost to the Yankees. In 1980, though, the Royals won the West again, and this time, whipped the hated Yanks.

Kansas City faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, and Otis came to play. “I hit a home run my first time at bat in the World Series,” he said. “I felt what you call great. I ended up hitting three in the Series but that first was the icing on the cake.”

In addition to three homers, Otis hit .478, drove in seven runs, and in game three, set a series record for putouts by an outfielder with nine. But Otis’s heroics were not enough, as the Phillies prevailed in six games.

Otis was released by the Royals in 1983. He played one year with the Pittsburgh Pirates before retiring, at 37.

His career numbers: 2,020 hits; a .277 career batting average; 193 career home runs; 992 RBI; and 341 stolen bases.

Upon retirement, Otis served stints as a hitting coach for the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies. Now, he’s living in Las Vegas, playing lots of golf, and is a regular at Royals reunions. “I am retired in every sense of the word,” he told a reporter several years ago. “I’m just enjoying myself these days. Life is good.”

In 1986, the Royals inducted Otis into its Hall of Fame. He’s also a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. There are five Mobile natives in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith and Billy Williams. If there’s to be a sixth, it will be Otis.

“The part I really miss about the game is the camaraderie, the laughing and joking around with the guys,” Otis said years after his retirement. “I don’t miss the pressure of trying to hit a 100 mph fastball.”

LEROY “SATCHEL” PAIGE

1990

National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee – 1971 (First Negro League player inducted). Legendary baseball career that spanned 41 Years (1926-66). Oldest rookie in Major League history at age 42 in 1948.

Satchel Paige

There’s a difference between fame and folklore. Think of Babe Ruth, and, across the color line, Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige.

Imagine the duels Paige and Ruth would have had if not for the prohibition against blacks in the major leagues. Think of the high-kicking Paige, by many accounts the hardest thrower of the era, firing fastballs at the Sultan of Swat.

In Paige, Mobile can lay claim to a man whose charisma matched his pitching exploits. According to ESPN, Paige “threw more pitches for more fans in more places for more seasons than anyone else did. Black or white. Then or now.”

The famously lanky Paige is believed to have pitched 2,500 pro games, winning some 2,000. He named his pitches. Among them: the Midnight Rider, the Four-Day Creeper, and the Bee-Ball, so named because, like a bee, it hummed.

In the 1930s, Negro League all-stars began playing exhibitions against white Major League stars. Joe DiMaggio called Paige “the best I’ve ever faced, and the fastest.”

In 1934 and 1935, Paige pitched against Dizzy Dean six times, winning four. “My fastball looks like a change of pace alongside that pistol bullet old Satch shoots up to the plate,” Dean said. “If Satch and I were pitching on the same team, we’d clinch the pennant by the fourth of July and go fishing until World Series time.”

Paige’s outsize personality, like Ruth’s, comes through in the old black and white photos. You see it in his eyes, his posture.

His, “Six Rules for a Happy Life,” is pure Americana, and great advice as well. They are:

Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood.
If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.
Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.
Go very lightly on vices such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.
Avoid running at all times.

And, the last and most famous of Paige’s rules:

Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.

He was born Leroy Robert Page on July 7, 1906, in Mobile, the sixth of 12 children, his father a gardener, his mother a domestic worker. The family changed the spelling to Paige to distance itself from Paige’s abusive, law-breaking father. Young Leroy earned his nickname after fashioning a device to help him carry four suitcases at a time while working at the Mobile train station.

History knows Paige as much for his looping gait, his easy-going personality and legendary storytelling as his pitching exploits. But as a boy, Paige found trouble easily, the last straw an arrest for shoplifting. In his early teens, he was sent to a detention home near Montgomery then called the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers. It was there that Satchel Paige learned to pitch.

Paige’s first experience with organized baseball came in 1924, with the Mobile Tigers, a semi-pro black team. Paige would later recall that the Tigers paid him “$1 when the gate was good and a keg of lemonade when it wasn’t.”

He began his professional career in 1926, with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League.

His talent and exploits were to make him the highest paid player in Negro League history.

Paige was famously well-traveled, with stints in Cuba and Mexico. He pitched for, among others, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Chicago American Giants, the Nashville Elite Giants, the Cleveland Cubs, the Crawford Colored Giants, and the Birmingham Black Barons.

In 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson broke the color line, Paige became the oldest rookie in Major League history when he signed with the Cleveland Indians. Almost 79,000 fans jammed Cleveland’s ballpark to watch Paige’s debut.

He was 42, and the oldest rookie in Major League history. Paige, who arrived midseason, went 6-1, with an ERA of 2.48, and helped the Indians get to and win the team’s first World Series in 28 years.

Paige was the first black pitcher in the American League, and the first black pitcher to take the mound in a World Series game.

In 1969, Major League baseball did a wonderful favor for a player it had denied for most of his career. The Kansas City Athletics (soon after to become the Oakland A’s) brought Paige out of retirement, allowing him to become the oldest player to play in the majors. The 59-year-old Paige allowed one single over three scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox.

In 1971, Paige became the first Negro League player inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News—known as the Bible of Baseball—put out its list of the top 100 players of all time. Paige was ranked 19th.

Satchel Paige died in 1982 at his home in Kansas City, a month before his 76th birthday. Satchel Paige Elementary School in Kansas City is named in his honor.

In 2006, the baseball Hall of Fame unveiled a statue of Paige. His left leg pointed skyward, his right hand below his right knee, perfectly capturing the famous Paige wind-up. The inscription reads: “In honor of the Negro Leagues’ most celebrated pitcher and dedicated to all of those whose contributions to the national pastime were too long diminished simply because of the color of their skin.”

HENRY W. PAPA

2005

Soccer player, coach, administrator and international official for over 60 years. Played at Naval Academy and was inducted into National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1995.

E.B. PEEBLES

2000

Football Star at The Citadel. Served as Senior Bowl President and Mobile Arts and Sports Association Chairman. Longtime community sports leader.

WILLIAM PERDUE

1992

Skeet and clay target marksman. International Skeet Shooting Champion.

SAM PETTAWAY

2014

A highly successful boys and girls track coach at Davidson High School from 1976-92. His boys’ teams won state championships in 1976, ’81, ’82, ’84, ’85, ’86, ’87. His girls’ teams won state championships in 1987 and ’88. Pettaway’s athletes earned more than forty All-American distinctions and many went on to successful college careers. Pettaway was also involved for many years with the City of Mobile Parks and Recreation Track program.

Sam Pettaway

Sam Pettaway was a highly successful boys and girls track coach at Davidson High School from 1976-92. His boys’ teams won state championships in 1976, ‘81, ‘82, ‘84, ‘85, ‘86, ‘87. His girls’ teams won state championships in 1987 and ‘88. Pettaway’s athletes earned more than forty All-American distinctions and many went on to successful college careers. Pettaway was also involved for many years with the City of Mobile Parks and Recreation Track program.

TED “DOUBLE DUTY” RADCLIFFE

1998

Legendary Negro League Baseball Star for 27 seasons (1928-64). Earned nickname by catching and pitching both games of a double-header in Negro League World Series.

CHRIS SAMUELS

2011

All-American offensive lineman at University of Alabama. Won Outland Trophy for best lineman in college football in 1999. Six-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman in the NFL.

Chris Samuels

Chris Samuels, a Mobile, Alabama, native, was a fine high school football player at Shaw High, but was perhaps fortunate to get an offer from the Univeristy of Alabama. From that point on, the fortune was all Alabama’s. John Hannah is widely considered the best offensive lineman ever to play for the Tide, and Samuels is a close second.

He broke into the starting lineup early in his freshman year, and never looked back. Samuels started 42 straight games for the Tide. Amazingly, he never yielded a sack, and did not allow a single quarterback pressure his senior year. Samuels helped his friend, Tide running back Shaun Alexander, gain 1,383 yards 1999, the senior season for both players. The high point for two future NFL stars was a 34-7 drubbing of Florida in the 1999 SEC championship game.

At season’s end, Samuels won the Outland Trophy, given to the nation’s best interior lineman. Pro scouts drooled over his immense size and alarming speed. The Washington Redskins chose him with the third pick of the 2000 NFL draft.

It was a selection the Redskins would not regret. Samuels was a six-time Pro Bowl choice. In 2001, a Sports Illustrated cover showed Samuels, eyes-wide and racing forward, leading the way for Washington running back Stephen Davis.

Samuels started every game of his 10 year career. He had plenty of good years left, but in 2009, suffered temporary partial paralysis after a crushing helmet-to-helmet hit in a game with the Carolina Panthers. The injury, and a childhood spinal condition, forced Samuels to retire.

In 2012, Alabama coach Nick Saban offered Samuels a position as a student assistant coach—student, because Samuels had returned to Tuscaloosa to complete his education and earn a degree.

In December 2013, the big man from Shaw High joined two other Tide greats from Mobile—AJ McCarron and C.J. Moseley—in getting their degrees.

SUSIE REDMAN

2011

Played on LPGA Tour for 20 years, with career earnings of over $1 million. Was runner-up at the 1995 Nabisco Dinah Shore Tournament – one of the LPGA’s four major events. Played at Wright School in Mobile.

CHARLES T. RHODES

2001

Football Star at Alabama State University. Head football coach and athletic director at Mobile County Training School, winning state title in 1966. High school administrator.

WILLIAM BOBBY ROBINSON

2000

Negro League Baseball star (1925-42). Outstanding third baseman known as the “Human Vacuum Cleaner.”

PHIL SAVAGE

2010

Football and baseball star at the University of the South who went on to career as collegiate coach and NFL coach and executive. Helped build Super Bowl Champion Ravens in 2000 and was G.M. of Cleveland Browns. Named General Manager of the Senior Bowl in 2012.

EDWARD “ED” SCOTT, SR.

2003

Negro League baseball player and longtime major league scout, including 40 years with Red Sox (1961-90). Signed Hank Aaron to first major league contract.

GORDON SMITH, JR.

2008

Mobile-area amateur golf champion in 1930s and ’40s.

BILL SHIPP

1999

Star tackle at the University of Alabama 1949-51. Played for NFL’s New York Giants and was also a star in Canadian Football League with for 11 seasons (1955-65).

LOYD SKODA

2015

Lloyd Skoda, a high school baseball for 39 years, retired with a record of 902-265. He coached future major leaguers Coco Duncan, P.J. Walters, and Josh Donaldson. He was inducted into the Alabama Baseball Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

Lloyd Skoda

Lloyd Skoda coached local high school baseball for 39 years—10 years at Daphne (1992-2001) and 29 years at Faith Academy (1975-1991, 2002-2013). He retired with a record of 902-265. Skoda won five AISA state baseball titles at Faith and three more girls basketball titles with the Rams. Skoda won two Alabama High School Athletic Association titles at Daphne. He coached future major leaguers Coco Duncan, P.J. Walters, and Josh Donaldson. He was inducted into the Alabama Baseball Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

WILLIAM EARLE SMITH, JR.

2010

All-around athlete at the Naval Academy, serving as football team captain in 1956. Was also Navy’s top golfer in 1956 and played catcher on Midshipmen’s baseball team.

OZZIE SMITH

1997

National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee – 2002. 19-Year career as shortstop with Padres and Cardinals (1978-96). Won 13 Straight Gold Glove Awards and was 15-Time All-Star.

Ozzie Smith

Though many forget that Ozzie Smith was ever anything but a St. Louis Cardinal, he started out as a San Diego Padre.

During warm-ups in his rookie year of 1978, Smith would entertain teammates with back flips. A Padres promotions director, desparate to generate fan excitement for the woeful Padres, asked the rookie shortstop if he’d do a flip before the team’s final home game.

Smith initially balked. It seemed too flashy. But he ultimately agreed. His flip was a sensation, and for much of his career, he thrilled opening and closing day crowds with the high-flying routine.

It’s hard to imagine Smith worrying about seeming the show off. As a fielder—by many accounts, the greatest fielding shortstop in baseball history—Ozzie Smith dazzled, not with mere consistency, but demonstrations of athleticism and creativity, stopping balls few shortstops could touch and following through with extraordinary throws to make outs.

In 1980, a sportswriter dubbed Smith the “Wizard of Oz,” later shortened, by fans and media, to, “The Wizard.”

“I used defense as a hitter uses his bat,” Smith told an interviewer. “Most people look at momentum as strictly offensive. I looked at defense as also being momentum, how you could change the momentum of ballgame.”

Osborne Earl “Ozzie” Smith was born in Mobile in 1954, the second of six children of Clovi and Marvella Smith. His father worked as a sandblaster at Brookley Air Force Base. When Ozzie was six, the Smiths moved to the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Smith was small, but blessed with astonishing quickness and hand-eye coordination. He gravitated to baseball, played college ball, and was on a semi-pro team when the Padres drafted him.

In some ways, Smith’s most admirable accomplishments were those he produced at the plate. Whereas fielding seemed to come natural to him, hitting did not.

In 1979, Smith’s second year with the Padres, he bottomed out. He didn’t get a hit until his 33rd at-bat. He won what might be called the Reverse Triple Crown. Of players with the necessary at-bats to qualify for the real Triple Crown, Smith finished last in batting average (.211), home runs (0), and runs batted in (27).

In 1982, the Padres traded Smith to the Cardinals. What followed was a love affair between city and player that continues to this day.

Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog made a deal with Smith: He would pay Smith a dollar for every ground ball Smith hit—out or not—and Smith would pay Herzog a dollar for every ball hit in the air. Smith won almost $300 from Herzog that year, and more importantly, developed into an offensive as well as a defensive threat. No longer would they say of Smith that he was, “all field, no hit.”

Smith finished his career with 2,460 hits and 580 stolen bases. His best year at the plate was 1987. Batting second, Smith hit .303, stole 43 bases, drove in 75 runs, scored 104, and won the Silver Slugger Award for the best hitting shortstop in the National League.

During Smith’s years in St. Louis, the Cardinals reached the World Series three times, winning it once, in 1982, over the Milwaukee Brewers.

He retired in 1996, after 18 years. He set major league records for career assists (8,375) and double plays (1,590) by a shortstop (the latter since broken). He holds the National League record for most games at shortstop (2,511), and the record for consecutive Golden Gloves at shortstop, with 13.

He played in 15 All-Star games, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2002.

After retirement, Smith spent several years as a television and radio commentator. He later turned businessman, which included Ozzie’s, a restaurant and sports bar in St. Louis.

Ozzie Smith is one of those rare athletes. He was a human highlight reel. No one who followed sports during the 1980s and 1990s will ever forget him.

RILEY SMITH

1988

All-American QB at Alabama who led team to 1935 Rose Bowl Victory. Played for Washington Redskins and was second player ever selected in NFL Draft (1936).

Riley Smith

The NFL draft has become a true spectacle, preceded by months of sports stories, ESPN features and “mock drafts” endlessly speculating on which players will be drafted when and by whom.

But the first draft, in 1936, was barely a blip on the radar. Jay Berwanger, a Heisman Trophy halfback from the University of Chicago, was chosen first by the Philadelphia Eagles. Berwanger asked to be paid $1,000 a game. It was too rich a demand for those days, and he never played a down of pro football.

As a result, the second pick became the answer to the trivia question: Who was the first player chosen in the NFL draft to play in the NFL?

Alabama quarterback, defensive back, “blocker,” kicker and punter Riley Smith was, of course, far more than merely the answer to a trivia question. History knows him as one of the greatest all-around players to ever suit up for the Crimson Tide, and a fine pro player, if only for a few years.

“I signed because I wasn’t ready to quit playing ball,” Smith recalled years later. “I just wanted to keep playing. I signed for $250 a game and a little bonus.”

Riley Henry Smith was born in Greenwood, Miss., and spent some of his childhood in an orphanage. He led Lee High to the Mississippi state championship, then left for Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama.

In 1934, Smith, All-American receiver Don Hutson and another receiver by the name of Bear Bryant led the Tide to an undefeated season, a Rose Bowl win over Stanford, and the national championship.

Smith and Bryant were the best of friends at Alabama and for the remainder of their lives.

In 1935, his senior season, Smith was named All-American and won the Jacobs Award, given to the best blocker in the Southeastern Conference. That a quarterback could win such an award says something about the evolution of the game since then.

In Smith’s first year in the NFL, the Redskins were still based in Boston. The new quarterback from Alabama led the team to its first ever winning season and an appearance in the NFL championship game.

In 1937, the team moved to Washington. The Redskins first game in nation’s capital home was a win, and it came on the back of the rugged Smith. Washington beat the New York Giants 13-3, with Smith accounting for every point. He returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown, made the extra point, and booted two field goals.

“With deft toes and hands and a streaky change of pace when that need arose, the comparatively unheralded Smith projected himself full into the spotlight of last night’s scene to win the game for Washington,” wrote Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich.

But he was no longer the team’s quarterback. The Redskins had drafted the great Sammy Baugh. That year, led by Baugh and Smith, Washington again made the NFL championship game and this time, won it, defeating Coach George Halas and the formidable Chicago Bears.

After three years with the Redskins, a leg injury and the realization that the pay just wasn’t worth it led to Smith’s decision to retire and become football coach at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. There he met his wife, Frances Boykin, daughter of legendary Alabama congressman Frank Boykin.

He was a Navy officer during World War II, and after the war, moved to Mobile. Smith had a highly successful real estate career and was a prominent figure in the city for the remainder of his life.

He could be forgiven for losing count of all the halls of fame into which he was inducted. They included the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1988, Smith joined Hank Aaron as the first two inductees into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame. He died in 1999, at 88.

DENNIS G. SMITHERMAN

1991

Spring Hill College basketball star. Served as sports writer and sports editor for the Mobile Press-Register for 39 Years.

KENNY STABLER

1989

All-American QB at Alabama (1965-67). 17-Year NFL Career with Raiders, Oilers and Saints. NFL MVP in 1974 and led Raiders to Super Bowl victory in 1977.

Kenny Stabler

The NFL has seen better quarterbacks, and certainly ones with stronger arms, but for charisma and entertainment value, there is and will only ever be one Kenny Stabler. With his long silver mane, south Alabama twang and bad boy swagger, Stabler was the leader of the unforgettable renegade Oakland Raiders of the 1970s.

Playing for the equally colorful coach John Madden, Stabler and the Raiders were among the NFL’s dominant teams that decade. Stabler benefitted from an extraordinary trio of receivers in Fred Biletnikoff, Cliff Branch, and tight end Dave Casper.

Stabler was the AFC player of the year in 1974 and 1976. He and the Raiders drubbed the Minnesota Vikings in the 1977 Super Bowl.

He left an indelible mark on every fan lucky enough to have watched him create in the pocket, whether hurling long, flinging sideways, or, most memorable of all, pretending to fumble.

Stabler’s creativity in the face of situational desperation spawned one of the most famous plays in NFL history. The Raiders trailed the San Diego Chargers by six, with 10 seconds left in the game. Former Alabama star Woodrow Lowe had Stabler in his grasp at the 24-yard line. On his way down, Stabler gave the ball a sneaky underhanded wrist flick forward.

Raiders running back Pete Banaszak and tight end Dave Casper took turns kicking and batting the ball into the end zone, where Casper fell on it, giving the Raiders a remarkable 21-20 win.

“I fumbled it on purpose,” Stabler admitted after the game.

Few NFL plays have been replayed more often than the, “Holy Roller,” as it was dubbed.

It led to a new rule: Any fumble in the final two minutes of either half or on fourth down can only be advanced—as in, picked up and run with—by the offensive player who fumbled the ball. It’s best known by its unofficial name: “The Ken Stabler Rule.”

Kenneth Michael Stabler was born on Christmas Day, 1945, in Foley. He grew up and attended high school in the small town by the Gulf.

During Stabler’s three years as Foley High’s starting quarterback, the Lions went 29-1. In one of those wins, Stabler took off on a long, winding touchdown run. His coach dubbed him, “Snake,” and the name stuck.

In the winter, Stabler played basketball, averaging 29 points a game. In the spring, the left-handed ace baffled opposing batters. The New York Yankees and Houston Astros both offered Stabler minor league contracts. Instead, he chose to go to Alabama and play for the Bear.

Not until 1966, his junior year, did Stabler get the starting job. That year the Snake led the Tide to an 11-0 record, capped by a 34-7 spanking of Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl. It’s been decades, but if you want to get a rise out of Alabama fans, bring up the final rankings for 1966. Notre Dame and Michigan State, who tied during their meeting that season, finished one and two. Alabama, despite its perfect season, was third.

Alabama went 8-2-1 in Stabler’s senior year, but in the biggest game of every Alabama season, he delivered with his famous, “Run in the Mud.” The Tide trailed Auburn 3-0, with rain having turned Legion Field into a muddy mush. Stabler took off around right-end on a keeper, and out-raced the Auburn defense for a 53-yeard touchdown run and a 7-3 Tide win.

In his later years as a pro, Stabler, his knees wobbled by injuries, could barely run. The “Run in the Mud” is a reminder of just how swift he was in his younger days.

In 1980, the Raiders traded Stabler to the Houston Oilers. The Oilers, under Bum Phillips, made the playoffs that year, but lost to the Raiders. Stabler stayed in Houston for one more season, then was traded to New Orleans.

The 37-year-old quarterback, grey-bearded, and with a pair of bum knees, was unable to work his old magic on a Saints franchise that was bad before he arrived, while he was there, and for some time after he departed. He retired in the middle of the 1984 season after losing the starting job to Richard Todd, another former Tide star and Mobile Hall of Famer.

Stabler was almost as famous for his off-the-field partying exploits as his play. He liked to drink and, well, chase women. And he didn’t apologize for either.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m not going to change, because I don’t know any other way. I’m going to live the way I want to live,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1979. “I’m not going to let football control my entire life. I play and I work as hard as I can, and in the off-season I do the things I like to do. That’s not going to change.”

Following retirement, Stabler embarked on a second career—as color commentator. His distinctive Southern twang became familiar to NFL fans, during his time as a TV color commentator, and then as Eli Gold’s partner on the Alabama football radio network.

For many years, Stabler hosted a celebrity golf tournament in Baldwin County. Dozens of his friends from football and Hollywood descended on Lower Alabama to play golf, have fun, and raise money for Ronald McDonald House of Mobile.

Kenny Stabler died on July 8, 2015 from complications resulting from Stage 4 colon cancer.

DON STAINBROOK

1995

“Mr. Softball of Mobile.” Legendary 23-Year career as fast-pitch softball pitcher recording over 800 wins and 150 no-hitters.

EDDIE STANKY

1990

All-Star Major League Baseball player (1943-53) and manager. Served as head baseball coach at the University of South Alabama from (1969-79, ’81-83), taking team to five NCAA Tournaments.

JOHN W. STEBER III

2003

Star offensive lineman at both Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech. Selected in the 1945 NFL Draft and played guard for the Washington Redskins (1946-50).

GUY SUMLIN

2004

Welterweight boxing champion.

T - Z

JAMES “JIM” TATE

2008

Girls and boys track and cross country coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal School. In 1997, led girls cross country team to a national high school-record 14th straight state title. Teams have won over 60 state titles during career.

JAMES TAYLOR

2015

Taylor was named All-County and All-State after rushing for 3,200 yards and 16 touchdowns in just eight games at Citronelle High School. He went on to play for Bear Bryant at Alabama and was a member of the 1973 National Championship team. A member of the MOWA Choctaw tribe, Taylor is the first Native American inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

James Taylor

James Taylor played in the first high school football game he ever saw. Despite a high school career of just eight games as a senior at Citronelle High School, Taylor was named All-County and All-State after rushing for 3,200 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Taylor was selected to play in the Alabama North-South All-Star Game in Tuscaloosa. It was in that game that he caught the eye of Alabama assistant coach Pat Dye. Taylor received a scholarship to Alabama where he started at tailback in Bear Bryant’s wishbone offense. Taylor was part of the three consecutive SEC championship teams and the 1973 National Championship team. He was a game captain 12 times and was also named SEC Player of the Week during his career.

He had offers to sign with the New England Patriots and New York Giants but declined due to injury. A member of the MOWA Choctaw tribe, Taylor is the first Native American inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

RALPH TAYLOR III

2005

Baseball star at Alabama State who played in Reds and Indians organizations. Successful high school coach at Blount, AHSAA official and major league baseball scout for Astros and Braves.

RICHARD TODD

1997

Star quarterback at the University of Alabama (1973-75) who helped lead Crimson Tide to three SEC Titles. Ten-year NFL career with Jets and Saints (1976-85).

Richard Todd

No Alabama quarterback—not Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler, nor A.J. McCarron—can match Richard Todd’s astonishing success in games against members of America’s toughest conference.

From 1973 to 1975, the Todd-led Tide went undefeated against Southeastern Conference foes, and had an overall record of 33-3.

The tall, strapping Todd operated Alabama’s wishbone offense with efficiency and brio, whether handing off or pitching to the likes of Wilber Jackson or keeping it and rumbling through defenses for first downs and better.

He is also the answer to an all-Alabama trivia question: Can you name the Crimson Tide quarterback who replaced Joe Namath as the New York Jets quarterback and, years later, as a New Orleans Saint, replaced Kenny Stabler?

Richard Todd was born in 1953, in Birmingham. His parents moved to Mobile when he was a boy. Hollywood handsome and nice to boot, Todd was the big man on campus that everybody liked. He starred in basketball, football and track, setting a state record in the shot put.

Todd undoubtedly benefitted by playing for Glenn Yancey, one of the greatest high school coaches in Mobile history. Yancey—a 2006 inductee into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame—had helped develop another member of the Hall, quarterback Scott Hunter, when at Vigor.

In his senior season, Todd received one of the greatest honors available to a prep athlete—he was named to the Parade All-American team.

Todd had some reservations about going to Alabama, because of its running-oriented, wishbone offense. But he wanted to play for Bear Bryant, and he wanted to win. And win he did. Alabama went 11-1 in each of Todd’s three seasons at the helm.

Todd considered his final game against Tennessee—a 30-7 drubbing of the Vols in 1975—as his greatest college game. He ran for 90 yards and three touchdowns and passed for another.

“I always told people I was just a glorified fullback, and in that game I had the chance to run the ball a lot, and I had some success,” Todd was to say later.

Notre Dame edged the Tide in a pair of heartbreaking bowl games after the 1973 and 1974 seasons. In Todd’s final game at Alabama, the Tide beat Penn State in the Sugar Bowl to end a long bowl drought. Todd was named the game’s MVP.

Todd did not generate big passing numbers operating Bear’s wishbone, and hoped to be drafted, at best, in the middle rounds. Lucky for Todd, he was from Mobile. He would say later that the Senior Bowl would not have chosen him were he not a hometown boy who’d played for Alabama.

Too many players to count have seen their stock rise from good performances at the Senior Bowl, but few benefitted more than Todd. He threw for 332 yards, including an 82 yard touchdown pass.

Despite his lack of big numbers at Alabama, the New York Jets chose Todd with the sixth pick of the 1976 draft. Remarkably, no Crimson Tide quarterback has been selected in the first round since. That’s 38 years and counting.

The Jets had dwelled in the NFL cellar pretty much since winning the 1969 Super Bowl, and remained there in Todd’s early years, when he was largely a back-up.

In a 1980 game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Jets fell behind and Todd was directed to fire away. He did, setting an NFL record for completions in a game with 42. The mark stood for 14 years.

In 1981 and 1982, Todd guided the Jets to the playoffs. They lost in the wild-card round in 1981 but in 1982 beat the Bengals and the Raiders to advance within one game of the Super Bowl, but lost to the Miami Dolphins in the AFC championship game.

Hopes were high for Todd after the Jets made the playoffs two straight years. In August 1983, at the start of preseason, Sports Illustrated put Todd on the cover. “Still On The Hot Spot: Jets Quarterback Richard Todd Battles On Against the Namath Legend.”

Todd never took the Jets to the Super Bowl or developed into top-tier pro quarterback. His lack of passing experience in college may probably contributed to that.

New York traded Todd to New Orleans in 1984. In mid-season, he unseated Stabler as the Saints starting quarterback. He stayed with the team for two years and retired in 1986, after 10 years in the league.

Todd lives in Atlanta with his family, and is an investments professional at J.P. Morgan Securities. He’s also a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.

ALBERT “TIPPING” TERRY

2005

Tuskegee University Hall of Fame inductee. Successful high school football coach at Willliamson and Blount who led Williamson to the 1962 state title.

MABEL WALKER THORTON

2010

Member of 1948 United States Olympic team, competing in the 100-yard dash and 440-relay at games held in London, England. Also starred on Tuskegee Institute’s track team.

Mabel Walker Thornton

In the first half of the 1900s, many of the means we now take for granted that allow an athlete to shine and climb the ladder didn’t exist. Imagine, if you can, being an extraordinarily fast teenage black girl in Wilcox County during the mid-1940s.

Your likelihood of being discovered and making the United States Olympic team would be, what, one percent? Less?

Not the Olympics and assuredly not a trip to London, England, was on the mind, even in the dreams, of little Mabel Walker. She and her friends at all-black Camden Academy just wanted their school to have a May Day, with activities and competitions.

“There was a school in a little town called Pineapple, and they had a May Day, and they were an even smaller school than us, and we always wanted to go to their May Day,” she recalled recently, her mind going back some 70 years.

“We asked one of our teachers, ‘Why can’t we have a May Day at Camden?’”

Thornton (her last name since her marriage in 1950), though born in Mobile County, was raised in Wilcox County by her grandparents. Her grandparents had to return to Mobile when she was a young teen. Mabel remained in Camden, as a boarding student.

You can still hear the gratitude in her voice when she talks about the teacher, Nora Francis Smith, who taught them physical education.

Smith agreed that her students should also have a May Day. She explained that the events would include running track. “We didn’t know what that was,” Thornton said. “We asked her, ‘What is running track?’’

“She put us on the football field and said, ‘Just run down the field,’ and she observed,” Mabel said, stressing that last word.

What Smith observed was astonishing speed, especially from the short, pretty girl from Mobile. Smith was so impressed that she called the track coach at all-black Tuskegee Institute. She asked if her “team” could compete in the Tuskegee Relays, the oldest African American track meet, and a hotbed of black talent in those days.

The Tuskegee coach reluctantly allowed Smith to bring her young girls to the meet. “We had these black and orange uniforms—basketball uniforms—and we just ran over those people,” said Walker, laughing. “Many of the attendees were confused.They were told we were from Camden, and they asked, ‘Camden, New Jersey?’”

The Tuskegee coach asked Smith if Mabel and her cousin could run for his team. Smith thought the girls too young and declined. But the next year, she let them run for Tuskegee.

Because of World War II, there had been no Olympics in 1940 or 1944. The London games, then, were to be the first in 12 years.

The U.S. track trials were held in Providence, Rhode Island, itself quite a haul from rural southwest Alabama. Though she raced against other hopefuls, the team was selected on times. You could win your trial race, but if your time didn’t measure up, you didn’t make the team.

Walker, just 18, turned in the fastest time in the 100 meters. She would go to London, and become the first athlete from this area to compete in the Olympics.

“Wilcox County was in the country, and there was no TV. We had never seen anything like London,” she said.

In London, she ran the 100 meters and the first leg of the 4×100 meters relay.

“It was amazing,” she said in an interview after being chosen for the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame. “The only thing I knew about the Olympics was what we had studied about the Greeks. It was awesome to me, growing up in Wilcox County, and in one year to get to this.

“I didn’t understand how I got that great opportunity except my coach had great foresight. She kept saying, ‘You can do it.’”

“I can still talk for days about it,” she said. “The fellowship you create and the friendships with people of all different cultures was amazing.”

Only two members of the U.S. women‘s track team medaled. Not Walker, but not for lack of trying. “I wish I had done better but I honestly gave it my all,” she said.

After the Olympics she had a fine career running for Tuskegee’s track team. She returned to Mobile, and married in 1950. The Walkers had two children, a son and a daughter.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Walker earned a different sort of fame—for making thousands upon thousands of Mobilians happy by serving them ice cream.

She managed a staff of teenagers at the Widemire’s Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe on Old Shell Road, just west of McGregor Ave.

Not until years later, upon her induction into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, did her thousands of old customers know that Mabel, the sweet pretty woman at Old Dutch, had been a star.

JACK TILLMAN

1998

Welterweight Boxing Champion.

TURNER WARD

2007

12-Year Major League Baseball career with six teams (1990-2001). Currently the manager of the Class AA Mobile BayBears minor league team.

ERICK WALDER

2015

Erick Walder attended Murphy High School and the University of Arkansas and is considered the greatest combination jumper in college track history. He still holds the collegiate outdoor long jump record with a leap of 8.53 meters – a record that has stood for 22 years. He is a medal winner at the Goodwill Games, the World Championships and the World Indoor Championships.

Erick Walder

Erick Walder is considered the greatest combination jumper in college track history. He competed for the University of Arkansas from 1991 to 1994, winning ten national individual championships in indoor and outdoor triple jump and long jump. Walder led Arkansas to four indoor and three outdoor NCAA championships. Walder is one of only two men to win three straight national outdoor long jump championships (1992-94). He still holds the collegiate outdoor long jump record with a leap of 8.53 meters—a record that has stood for 22 years. Walder won the silver medal in the long jump at both the 1994 and 1998 Goodwill Games. He won the silver at the 1997 World Championships and bronze at the 1995 and 1999 World Indoor Championships. He was inducted into the University of Arkansas Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. He won state titles in long jump and triple jump his junior and senior years at Murphy High School.

LEVI WASHINGTON

2002

Football and baseball star at Grambling University. Recorded over 300 wins as football coach at Williamson High in Mobile and McCall H.S. in Tallulah, La.

STANLEY WASIAK

1991

“King of the Minors.” Managed minor league baseball teams for 37 straight seasons (1950-86) and holds record for most professional games managed with 4,844.

DELORES BRUMFIELD “DOLLY” WHITE

2011

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player from 1947-53 for the South Bend Blue Sox, Kenosha Comets and Fort Wayne Daisies. Longtime college coach and administrator.

Dolly Brumfield White

In 1946, some shipyard workers read an unusual notice in the newspaper: A professional women’s baseball team was holding try-outs in Pascagoula.

The men thought of a scrappy 13-year old girl who seemed to live at the school field in her neighborhood in Prichard. She played with the boys there during the day, and when the workers from the shipyards and paper mill came to play in the later afternoon, joined them as well.

The workers went to see Delores “Dolly” Brumfield’s mother and offered to drive Dolly to the tryouts. Dolly’s mother wasn’t having that, but ceded to her daughter’s pleas to be given a shot.

“She borrowed my grandmother’s car, and took me out of school one day and drove down to Pascagoula and I tried out,” said Dolly. “Max Carey, who was president of the league, said I was too young, but told me to come back the next year.”

That was little Dolly Brumfield’s introduction to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was immortalized in the 1991 movie, “A League of Their Own,” starring Tom Hanks, Madonna and Rosie McDonnell.

Brumfield’s story really begins in 1942. America—the world—was in the midst of unparalleled upheaval. Major League baseball was far and away the country’s most popular sport, but some 500 major leaguers exchanged their baseball uniforms for service uniforms.

Chicago Cubs owner Philip Wrigley, fearing for the cancellation of the 1943 season, hit upon an idea to maintain interest in the sport: Have women play! And darn if he didn’t do it.

Every team in the league was located in a four state area around Chicago. Gas was rationed during the war and post-war years so the teams had to be near enough to one another to limit long trips, Brumfield said.

Fast forward to 1947: Though the war was over and major league ball resumed, the women’s league remained popular. The year Brumfield was deemed too young, another Mobile girl, Margaret “Margie” Holgerson, had tried out and made the league, as a member of the Rockford Peaches.

Holgerson was a pitcher and infielder. As a pitcher, she had a career record of 76-69 and an outstanding career ERA of 1.07. She was married in 1948 and played under her new name, Margie Silvestri, until her retirement from the league, in 1952. Silvestri died in Mobile, at 63.

In the spring of 1947, Holgerson met with Brumfield’s parents, and they agreed to let Dolly play in the league.“She became my chaperone, and we boarded a train to Miami, and then to Havana,” Dolly recalled. “That was Jackie Robinson’s first year, and because of segregation, the Brooklyn Dodgers held spring training in Cuba. When they finished, we followed them in.”

The living arrangements of the women’s league were likely unique in the annals of pro sports. The younger players—and there were many—had chaperones, and the players lived with fans.

“When I was with the Sound End Blue Sox, my landlord worked at Sears & Roebuck and his wife stayed home. He was an usher at the ballpark. My roommate was from Tampa and the two of us rented a bedroom in their home,” she recalled.

“We had a chaperone who was responsible for where we lived and who we lived with. It was a very controlled situation.”

In the girls league, the distances—between mound and plate, and the bases—were shorter. “The outfield was cut down some too, but there were not that many fences,” Brumfield said. ”It wasn’t like ball fields today and it was different in every city. In Grand Rapids, right field stopped at a factory wall.”

Brumfield played with three teams: the South Bend Blue Sox, the Kenosha Comets and, lastly, the Fort Wayne Daisies. She played every position but pitcher and catcher.

In 1952, she joined the Daisies and their coach, legendary major league slugger Jimmy Foxx. He was said to be the inspiration for Jimmy Dugan, the role played by Tom Hanks in, “A League of Their Own.”

The Hanks’ character talked a mile a minute. Brumfield recalls Fox somewhat differently, as a “great guy” who was “quite reserved, very down to business.”

She tells a story about Foxx directing her to second base. “I never played second base,” Brumfield told him.

To which Foxx replied, “That’s OK,” and off she went to second.

Brumfield’s best season was in 1950. In 108 games, she amassed 108 hits, scored 58 runs, drove in 37 runs, and stole 37 bases.

She retired in 1953 and the league, suffering from low attendance, folded the next year.

Though she barnstormed in the summers, Brumfield was able to go to high school at Murphy High in Mobile, then college. In 1954, she graduated from the Alabama College for Women—now the University of Montevallo. Later, she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in physical education at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Brumfield coached softball at Henderson State University in Arkansas for 31 years. While there, she met and married her husband, Joe White.

In 1988, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown installed a permanent display called, “Women in Baseball,” to honor those who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball Association.

She has been inducted into the University of Montevallo and Henderson State halls of fame. In 2003, Dr. White was invited to the White House by President George W. Bush, a big baseball fan. She served as first base coach in one of the South Lawn tee ball games hosted by the president.

JOE WHITT, SR.

2007

Football star at Alabama State. Served as assistant football coach at Auburn for 25 seasons (1981-06), with 20 of his former players going on to play in NFL.

BILLY WILLIAMS

1989

National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee (1987). 18-Year Major League Baseball career with Cubs and A’s (1959-76). Six-time All-Star and 1972 National League batting champion.

WOODY WOODALL

2015

Woody Woodall played football at Auburn and later signed with the Dallas Cowboys but gave up football due to a leg injury. Turning to golf, he played in four PGA Tour Tournaments, making the cut in all four. He then entered the military and deployed to Vietnam, receiving a Purple Heart and the Army Commendation Medal.

Woody Woodall

Woody Woodall played football in the SEC and golfed on the PGA Tour. He is also a war hero and has been a mentor to hundreds of young athletes. After turning down an offer to sign for the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school, Woodall attended Auburn University where he played football. He was the Tigers starting placekicker in 1961, 1962, and 1963. He led the team in scoring in ’61 and ’62. Woodall signed with the Dallas Cowboys but gave up football due to a leg injury. He turned to golf, and in 1965 played in four PGA Tour Tournaments, making the cut in all four. In 1967, he entered the military and deployed to Vietnam. In 1969, he received a Purple Heart and the Army Commendation Medal. In 1975, Woody was named Director of Golf at the Country Club of Mobile where he stayed until his retirement in 2008. Woody helped in the formation of what is now The Junior Golf Association of Mobile. Thirty of his students from the CCM played collegiately. He has been inducted into the Dixie Section PGA Hall of Fame.

GLEN YANCEY

2006

Successful high school football coach who led five area teams: Vigor, Davidson, McGill, LeFlore and Faith Academy (1954-95), winning 145 games.

RICKEY YOUNG

2013

Star running back for Vigor High School and Jackson State. 8 seasons in the NFL. Led NFL in 1978 with 88 receptions. Pro Bowl player for the Minnesota Vikings.

Rickey Young

TEAMS

1947 Mobile Bears Baseball Team

1988

Brooklyn Dodgers Class AA farm team won Southern League title. Team members included Cal Abrams, Chuck “Rifleman” Connors and George “Shotgun” Shuba.

1988 Vigor High School Football Team

2014

The only Alabama squad ever designated National High School Football Champions. The Wolves went 13-0 and allowed just 44 points all year as they won the Alabama 6A Championship. The team was named National High School Football Champions by ESPN. Eight players were named All-State. Several players went on to successful college and professional careers including Kevin Lee, Lectron Williams, Mitch Davis, Roosevelt Patterson, and Kelvin Sigler. The ’88 Vigor Wolves will join the 1947 Mobile Bears as the only teams inducted into the MSHF.