Alabama Football Legends Reunion-Volume 1 (2004)

get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime gathering the legends of alabama football 32 of the all-time greats from the 1940s to the 21st century sixth decades of alabama legends including jay barker bob baumauer cornelius bennett jeremiah castille john copeland eric curry harry gilmer clem griska lemanski hull john hanna dude hennessy bobby humphrey leroy jordan kermit kendrick barry krause antonio langham marty lyons don mcneal mal moore billy neighbors west neighbors major ogilvy david palmer lamont russell gary rutledge jack rutledge roger schultz ken stabler dwight stevenson van tiffen kevin turner tommy wilcox and announcer eli gold it's the stories the lives the championships the losses the coaches but most of all the legends talking about their love for the crimson tide now settle back it's the first quarter and it's kickoff time let everybody know what the alabama football is all about everybody's talking about coaches obviously at alabama lately and uh this though i was going over the over the notes i mean even like a guy like roger here we were talking you played for more than one car i mean this isn't anything new necessarily is it no it's not new well i played for three coaches yeah perkins curry and stallings yeah and of course now these guys played for three coaches in one year so my kids are here well my kids had three coaches since he's been in alabama but uh you know and everybody always asks me what's the difference between the coaches you know coach perkins i was on there i was a freshman and you guys have played for coach perkins knows how he treats freshmen so there's really not an opinion to make it he did give me a scholarship so that was good you know and the rest of it i had to give my radishes off my salad then i played for coach curry who came in at a different time and had a different philosophy i guess than some of the you know bear bryant and then coach stallings came back in a little more tough bear bryant disciple and everybody asked me what's the difference between coach curry and coach stallings and i'd have to say one is if coach curry if you got in a fight and it happens college kids get to drinking messing around with girls and stuff fraternity guys get jealous at you you're getting a fight that's happened with the coaches yeah the blueprint i got to play for coach price you know i'm a player so they love the guy but uh but i had i never forget you get a fight curry sent you to a 12-step program he tells you that how bad you are and your person stalin just wants to know if you want you know if you lost then you got kicked off the team and that's you know that's what i kind of see the difference is of course these guys have been through it of course you got to play the position you want now how many positions were you offered biscuit when you showed up what's that old story about ray perkins promised me that i was going to get a chance to play start out at linebacker for a week switched it running back and tight end and after the first week of practice at linebacker i think after the first day he told me hey you know this next lawrence tell me so i mean basically i tell coach perkins all the time he lied to me and then that's how i got to the university coach perkins you know they promised me a world and got me here and probably like most of the guys here switched our positions but it worked it worked out fine i'm not complaining of course what was that thing did you see that piece in the paper recently uh and you might have been down there that deal in orlando the old well the retired nfl uh players they were saying that linebackers take more abuse yeah and have more memory lapses and stuff like that so if you've got stories about cornelius staggered loser hair too but it is eli uh i was at the retired players convention this year and um it's a study that's been done that linebackers are um having the highest chances of getting you know early detection of alzheimer and suffering depression they would like that for them to play though it's the reason they're depressed i mean you got to think about guys like you know coming you know coming after us so that was that was a tough deal you rea you reacted to on colors though didn't you man you saw the wrong color go by you just hit the guy i mean the wrong color jersey came by you up ended them no i wasn't that way but i just enjoyed the game you know i heard a coach once tell me he said the difference between a defensive lineman offense flying he said defensive lineman have to jump up and down and holler to get fired up hit somebody offensive lineman just naturally mean they just hit people because they enjoy it they don't have to holler and do anything they just hit people so i i think and i think that's a lot of to it you know offensively like to hit folks that's all it is weren't you there one time dwight when you saw him just you saw a wrong color flash by and he just took the guy and discarded him exactly you know john hannah you know he was uh you know i considered the greatest offense of the line to ever play the game and so i watched him a lot and it was instant he was playing the buffalo bills it wasn't canadian i wasn't there he bagged up he was uncovering his head was on a swivel and all of a sudden some a color or a different color jury crossed his face and he just attacked it like knocked the devil out the guy or whatever and stuff and we had some man can't believe it that's john hanna you know i've heard some stories about john and i run across guys now because i'm active in our retired players association and guys that played against john and they say what dwight said about john that he was the meanest toughest guy on the football field and and and i believe him because he's still mean and tough now i got bad knees just kind of stuff work did that work for you when you see a guy just pick him up and discard him does that work for you i mean you know different kind of jurors you know need to be attacked and the way john did it was just amazing that dave but john was such a great offensive lineman i tell you sure we were playing up in new england the miami dolphins and uh we were that was a dive uh dad at 15 and manny what's man is uh how did you pronounce his name i don't remember but he was a running back anyway they said when john hannah gets in his stance he's coming off the football and so our whole defense was set for john hannah to come off the football they're going to run this play dive 15. and they handed the ball off to the to the full back he runs up into the defense runs up into the offensive line and turns around and throws that ball back to grogan and it was a turnaround anyway it was a play that we were we had diagnosed because john when he did certain things but that's the kind of player you know we designed to play uh anyway john hannah dwight you know dwight's talking i appreciate his comment he's is good you know there's there's no better center that ever played the game than dwight and i played with a lot of good centers and seen a lot of them but dwight's best matter of fact dwight i used to i told him today i tried to copy one time i got killed in the game against chicago because i was sitting there and i've watched dwight and he had refrigerator period he'd get up under him he'd flip him and and period go on his back and i'd breaking that film down i studying it and watching on stuff so i went out there and tried to flip refrigerator the only person got flipped was me so you know i had to go back to my style but dwight dwight's complimentary but he was a one great football player don't let anybody tell you sorry about dwight when i first got to uh cincinnati bengals my coach was uh what the guy played with was tim krumrock and he asked me where i was from i told him university of alabama said i got a story about dwight stevens my rookie here he says ricky you're in the league they throw him right there against the pittsburgh steelers and then the coach after after a couple series of coaches breaking my own so so tim how's it going what is he doing to you oh coach he's hooking me cutting me off he cutting me and doing everything to me cause looking alright son i think you're weighing them down no tim was quite a player himself though the coach said that since it had to be i do recall but some of the things i learned how to do the national football league was out of uh trying not to be embarrassed there you know i played against a guy every day in practice and it was like i'd hated to go and watch my house i went against bob bumh and i would go into that meeting and it was like embarrassing and finally one day i figured out how to play bob um how to get very very close to my face right and so and i hit a free hand you know the senator and i and he get real close he had to come out the football and i just pushed his head down he hit the ground [Music] so i didn't come there all of a sudden then he started you know he adjusted his stance so when he judged he set back a little bit then i could get underneath him and that's what i was trying to do the whole time but that was some of the things that i developed was playing against a guy like bob bumhout no question wasn't the best defensive lineman they ever played here at alabama and nationally in national football take care of you later i got a barry crouch from a guy in my class from high school and playing at the university was buried across he wanted the poles from there from the goal line stands the the wrinkles in his back and when i was playing high school i was running back and tried to dive over the goal line in high school game and phillip brown who was the linebacker here he said that's how his back was that same pose when he stopped me going across the goal line you could see in his back you know kermit these guys you know they were around they that's how it's back where they had that crowd stands here just holding me up in there you can see that taking a picture of it or whatever but that wasn't you know that 79 game that's i think that sold me on the university also that one particular plan itself and and saw don mcneill i remember the sugar bowl you got hurt towards the end of the game those kind of things to see you guys from my growing up on alabama football to see you guys it's just amazing to be in the same room with all you guys this is remind me bobby you look around here and you're coaching now and in arena football you look around and you realize what this university i mean every school has stars but heck you look at that i mean the least accomplished guy in this room who's played football is you know merely an all-america you know i mean that's everybody else everybody's got super bowl rings all pro this is remarkable well i was hoping i could uh get a lot of these guys in shape and i know we can win an arena two cup championships getting some good pointers and i was sitting down talking to david and uh and we was talking about all the guys uh that have been in the nfl and have moved on and it just speaks of how uh how well the university go out and get some of the great talent throughout not just in alabama but throughout the country uh but he was telling me that at the time that he was in nfl that there were 30 i think the number was 38 players from universal alabama was in the nfl at one time and that's a that's remarkable you know it's amazing and you're looking around this room and just to be you know in a group like this here all americans and guys who have been on national championship team i i wasn't fortunate enough to be on the national championship team but just to be a part of this group and make me feel like i'm part of that national championship hey now let's talk about coach bryant you know that's a subject that everybody loves to talk about and share stories what for for people who might not have been around might not have been born back in those days what made him such a special man and a special coach what did he have that others are searching for and have never found well i guess to quote bobby marks whatever he had or whatever it was he had a lot of it [Laughter] he was in alabama you know is so fortunate to have had him but 25 years as a coach and certainly he was here as a player in the 30s on a national championship team a rose bowl team you know part of the great tradition that was started back in the 20s with wallace wade one of the greatest coaches of hall of famer with frank thomas who was coach bryant's coach a hall of famer then for coach bryant to come back and you know to build on that great tradition and then for gene stalin's and uh to come in and win another national championship just to add on to the tradition but uh coach bryant is a name across america you know that is very very powerful he was he had something about him that uh a lot of people just simply didn't have or don't have he uh he attracted people to him uh he was a great great ambassador for the for our university for the state of alabama and i think it's a name that it will be and should be remembered and as everybody that comes through here that tacks on to this tradition into the great greatness of alabama and just like today having these people here all of these players here that from different ages and different times you're scared to death of it that's what he had you know that's that's what he had he's scared of it and uh you know i we practiced mal was assistant coach we always said you could tell assistant coach in alabama because of when i was on the field when i was on the time we were practicing one day and coach bryant fell asleep in the tower and we kept scratching prep practice and finally the horn fell off his leg and made a sound he woke up and said take it in we was going in musso looked at me says damn i'm glad he wasn't dead would never got off that down you know that's what he had i mean you know i remember you you know he's saying is so true you know you tried you tried not to look up at the tower after every play you know if a good play happened you know you wanted to look to make sure he was watching but you wouldn't turn your head you just cut your eyes everybody wide-eyed you could yeah and uh it was uh he had uh he had that that air about him or that toughness about him and he was he was as mentally a tough a man as you've ever ever known he went he sent 10 guys to hospital my sophomore year with heat stroke and dehydration and a bunch of people quit and next day we go in the locker room huh weren't you i didn't quit i fell asleep but uh so i couldn't quit there's stories about you coming off the field that was tennessee he says boys he says y'all learned the big lesson yes the human body is an amazing machine you'll push it and push it and think you're gonna die but you'll not die the human body will always pass out before it dies [Applause] you know that's what it was about him i mean dang gum i mean let's face it i remember going i was about to get drafted in nfl i said coach i'd like to you know maybe after season talk to you about hiring an attorney and he looked at me says the hell john you ain't good enough me no damn attorney that's the way he was you know he just did tough maybe he's a great man i admire him and love him but he was let's call a spade snake you never made him cut his eyes yeah you know i agree with what these guys are saying you know that he had a there was something about him a knack or something he had that was different from everybody that we always looked at it made you want to please him do anything you would do anything you could to make him slap you on the ass and say way to go and recognize you in front of the rest of the team and that sort of thing and he was just he's really intimidating i just stared at him all the time when he walked on the field or came in the dorm and just mouth open and stared at him all the time and he had a a knack a way of putting things in perspective and saying things you know like a pregame meal was no big deal you know not any raw raw type you know uh talks it was all you know go with your position coaches and out there let me do all the referees let me do all the arguing with the referees is any fighting to be done out there i'll do all the fighting force out there and you know like i always remember a play in the sugar bowl we were we were playing nebraska in the sugar bowl in 1967 sugar bowl game and they were a heavy favorite they were much bigger stronger team we were we were number three in the country i think they were number two or something and first play of the game we walk out of the locker room we're walking onto the field out of the locker room down the side of the field it had been drizzling rain all weekend long down in new orleans and a wet field probably favors nebraska a bigger stronger team probably ran the ball a little better than we did and coming out of the locker room and get right in the corner of the end zone he'd been drizzling rain all weekend and i swear to god he stepped on the field and it quit raining and so we're walking it did he quit raining and we're walking down the sideline and he had that chesterfield he smoked those non-filtered chesterfields and he's looking out for under that houndstooth hat and he was always going and said so we're walking down the walking down to the to midfield and first play the game and uh he says he looked at me and he said stabler i want you to throw the ball just as far as you can throw the son of a on the first play and then later one of the offensive coaches ken meyer came over and said he wants you to run 55 sprint out and perkins does a little down and out and it was the first play of the sugar bowl and and the perkins catches it and we scored six seven plays later and for you know all practical purposes the game was probably over but just the way he phrased things said things and it's a hard question to answer when you go around and you travel and somebody says what's it like playing for coach bryant it's hard to explain that unless you've been around him and see the effect he has on people we would play teams that were always bigger we play teams whether it be tennessee auburn mississippi state whoever played teams that were always bigger always faster always more of them and we always won and i think it was because of coach brown i think he out coached the other guy out motivated the other guy we were always smaller we were always not as fast they had more players than we did and we you know we lost three games in three years because of because of him and eli uh john's right about how to get on on on the players but i can remember him doing the same thing with coaches assistant coaches i mean we played mississippi state john bonds you know so we were we weren't the only ones scared of him what did he do with the assistance here oh he would i'm gonna give you one story with coach donahue marty's uh coach uh we're playing uh mississippi state john bond's quarterback ran all over us the first half we couldn't stop them they just ran the option and we tried all different kind of things we come in at halftime and there's complete silence uh we're we're behind and we know that coach bryant i mean we're in for it you know so he comes over to the defensive side and he comes up to the board and looks at the board and he says ken uh we can stop these guys i want this this this this and this done and coach donald looks at him says coach we don't we don't have that defense and he said he got about 10 minutes to find it and turned around and walked away well coach donahue he goes over he always carried a briefcase he's flipping through his things he comes up showing up goes out there and draws it up on on the blackboard said this what we're going to do boys the second half went out there shut them down one at one in a football game but the example i was trying to make was yeah he was hard on players but he was also pretty hard on these guys too yeah he was he had a great deal of pride though in the tradition that was built here uh my sophomore year we beat southern miss 36-6 and came in to celebrate after the game and coach bryant walked in and basically said you know i don't know what you guys are celebrating for you embarrass the red jerseys and i was room with bob at the time and i said bob didn't we just win yeah coach brian made us go out the very next day and play the game completely over and we had beat southern miss 36 or six but uh he really said that you know what the tradition the people that made those red jerseys uh proud you have a responsibility to wear them the same way and he held everybody accountable for wearing them that way harry that's you know there's there is that affinity between your age group and the younger guys that's what i was just waiting to jump in because everybody has their heroes and coach bryant's hero was frank thomas his coach when he played at alabama i played here in the early 40s played for frank thomas we enjoyed great teams alabama did well during those times and it was fine there was never a week that brian he was at kentucky at most of this time and he would call frank thomas and talk over game strategies and that was the guy he looked up to the guy he talked over the problems with and uh talking every time i would see coach brian and he hadn't he was still away from here he would he would ask me how how's coach thomas doing he was interested in how coach thomas was doing so all of us no longer know all of us have our heroes and even even as tough as bryant was he had his two and frank thomas was the main one and i think what is interesting about frank thomas is uh too that he he was nuke rock and his quarterback played at notre dame was a great player and coach bryant always had a great respect for notre dame uh the moose krauss you know it was his buddy there and that's why the notre the first notre dame game in the sugar bowl was so big to coach brian because he he recognized the great name that notre dame has and the great name that alabama has it was two of the greatest names in america in college athletics playing and how important that game was you know what i thought eli he uh he taught me really early on about the whole team and oneness and being together and that sort of thing and no one player is any more important or bigger than the team itself or the the school itself and you know i was uh after that junior year we beat nebraska in the sugar bowl and i come back out my senior year for the for the spring practice for the fall practice and spring practice and going through a drill where you run through through three players and blocking dummies on each side turned and twisted and tore cartilage in my knee so coach bryant told me not to practice don't come out to practice and coming off of a good junior year and get your knee well and that sort of thing and we'll get through get through spring with with uh without you and i got kind of bored with that whole thing because i couldn't practice first time i'd ever been hurt so i started going and visiting my girlfriend down in mobile and that's just it you just did and uh it was good so we had buddy hall you know we have those study halls from 7 30 until nine o'clock well after that i'd skip study hall jump in a car drive four hours to mobile go to pritchard alabama and hang out with this girl i was seeing down there for four hours and then jump back in the car and drive four hours back or three hours back to try to make a seven o'clock class which i didn't make many of those and so one thing led to another and i was keep going back and forth down here to see that girl and chasing and hanging out down there not going to school that sort of thing and uh i got a telegram one day my parents house i got a telegram that says you have been indefinitely suspended that's exactly what it said you have been indefinitely suspended coach paul w bryant i got a telegram the next day from namath and it said he means it i mean he had to do the same thing with job so i had the hardest thing i've ever had to do was try to come back get eligible to get to to play by sec standards come back go to summer school take all those tough classes to come to become eligible and then i had to go in his office and it's the hardest thing i've ever had to do like so intimidated by him that toughness and fairness about him and you go in his office you know how it is you see the replica of it over in the in the bright museum and you go in there and that desk is raised and that couch is soft and so you go in there and sit down in front of him and you're talking to him you're talking to him kind of like that you know it's about going into culture i've done everything necessary to become eligible by sec standards my grade points back up and i want to come back out for the team he's spitting that tobacco like that he looked me dead in the eye and he said you don't deserve to be on this team get your ass out of here i said well i'm gonna come back out anyway coach he said we'll see so i went and two days later jimmy sharp pat died jimmy sharp and pat dye took care of me they just took great care of me the whole time i was there to keep me going straight and trying to keep me going straight and they came to me and said coach bryant said you come back out for the team well that was you know excited about that go back out there the first day of practice in the fall and as you guys know your the uniform dictates a team you're on red jersey first team white jersey second team blue jersey third team orange jersey fourth team green jersey fifth team and he always had this thing he would call you when you were out of favor with him he ever called you a turd because he's been called a hundred times but i came back out after being all sec where's coach grissom come back out after being there all sec and mvp and the sugar bowl and i get my basket and it had a brown jersey in it so i put on that and he made me work myself back he made me work myself back to the to the top of that by doing these drills he would take the linebackers which was jackie sherrill and tim bates and paul crane and a bunch of tough guys and i was a quarterback and i was under a center no offensive lineman take the ball and sprint out all of you put your hat on him all right now do it this way you know and all afternoon and getting the bat back you know you know by all these guys and then work my way up through all through the practice worked my way up he would have never started me i didn't give a damn what i did until we played florida state in the opener in birmingham and joe kelly started the game and we went three and out and then on the second series we got the ball i was standing there beside him you know waiting to go in and he hit me in the back so hard it knocked the breath out but he said go ahead so we went in it's like somebody said a minute ago you know you win a game and they take you back and treat you like you know we played florida state and they were they weren't ranked and we were coming off a number three in the country and probably the number three in the country coming into my senior year and we beat him it was a 37-37 tie he took us back to tuscaloosa 6 a.m the next morning out there doing goal line you know teach you boys you know over and over and over and that lesson for me out of all of that was you know not one player is any bigger than the rest and that was one thing that i really noticed about him that he treated everybody the same from the groundskeeper the school to the president of the school to the bus driver to the grounds guys everybody we're all in it together we're all the same i'm watching climb and don and dude everybody's nodding their heads uh uh you know coach everybody that clearly must be the way it was right clem right you know what uh we go back 40 some years with this group and with harry now we go back a little further than that and you know without the x's and those and everything what really fascinates me is a fact the bond between us in other words the 45-46 team and the 90 team and the 66 team they're all in one shell in other words just the camaraderie you know i hadn't seen some of these guys in 10 12 15 years and here they come in today and just hugging and acting like they're really glad to see us harry what do you want to have there i had an experience with after i started coaching in pro ball i was with ben brooklyn at minnesota and i was coaching receivers at the time and this was the year that namath had was finishing up here nemeth uh was there was a talk of a big contract the first real big money in pro in pro football so he i i'm back here i'm living in tuscaloosa so i i go up there and he's bryant sees me with his door open he sees me walk in there just i'm just coming in to say hello and he says you're exactly the man i've been looking for i'm sure glad to see you i got to talk to somebody he says you know joel is going to probably be the first guy taken in the draft this year and uh uh i need to talk to somebody about salaries up there he says what is a first round pick what is the first round picking and i said i have no idea what do you mean you don't have any idea you're coaching up there aren't you i said yeah but i coach receivers i don't care what he makes i'm better off i don't know what he makes i said if he makes too much he'd get rid of me so i said we'll just i honestly don't know but i don't get into salary talks with these folks and so he come back he says you can't tell me that well he kind of got my dander up i i kind of bristled a little bit and i said well i'll tell you what if you won't listen to me i can tell you what one guy made that was the first pick of the draft a few years back he says what are you saying i said well there was a guy that was the first pick in the nfl draft and he got a ten thousand dollar signing bonus and a ten thousand a year salary and that's the truth and that's all i can tell you about it and i don't know who anybody what anybody made sense in and of course i was telling him what i got and and he and he stood up and you know big impressive guy he stands up and he looks down at me and he says hell you don't know what they're doing do you and with that we got up off of the steps of the old building the old office building and he walks back in and leaves me sitting there did coach perkins was he able to help you a lot i mean not clearly you were going to be a you know a top flight nfl did did he sit down with you and he had great lasting impression on my life he took me outside oh i guess this spring of my second year and started grooming me for my life after the university and broke football yeah here we would have uh great talks about my future and even offered that if i ever needed an agent you know when it came time for that if i wanted him to he'd help me negotiate a contract i mean that's how he took care of me i don't know if he had talks with other guys that had nfl potential or not but he really really has that impression and on me now i think about things that he told me 20 years ago you know 18 20 years ago now in my life and just like the things that he learned from coach bryant coach perkins has that kind of impression on me personally you know a lot of guys didn't get along with coach perkins but we had a special relationship on days during the spring practice i'd go out and you know i was kind of open you know overpowering to some of the younger guys that they would be in all of me on the field guys freshmen coming in i'd go out and first five or ten plays of practice man i bang bang bang bang bang because i didn't want to practice that day and he'd get biscuit you get out you just come over here so we can have practice because we can't practice if you're out there you know just i was disrupt practice you know but that was my intentions i did not want i had probably hung out the night before or something but i wanted to get out of practice and he would he would throw me a bag tobacco and i'd stand over there pop a chew in and stand next to him the rest of practice or whatever but he really took good care of me well i was that guy who was beaten and he told me he goes just let me lick you a couple times i'd get out of practice because i'm gonna be part of my signing bonus i still haven't seen it yet but he would shoot it back i always thought that was funny when i first i was a freshman and this cornish bennett this guy's a great football player over two in the back with the coach i thought that's unbelievable what a country yeah cornelius was talking about what uh coach parker's told him when he could play this position this position it was a uh i believe it was january or whatever 87 and perkins is at my house coach perks at my house on on saturday we're sitting there eating lunch recruiting i'd i'd already committed to him and so forth and uh my mother asked him said coach perk we're hearing rumors that you might be going to tampa bay no ma'am miss turner i'm gonna be alabama for a long time yeah so uh well as a story go that tuesday after after that day he was gone to tampa and my mother was so she was really upset and uh and it turned and about six years later coach perkins is my offensive coordinator at new england my mom comes up for a game she says where's that perkins guy i want to see him let's just see what i said come on this this is my ball sound so yeah dude i was watching these guys were telling great coach brian stories and you were smiling and nodding and you pulled out the piece of paper i believe you got a whole thing stories coach bryan loved me if he hadn't loved me he'd fired me a long time ago but coach donahue says i'm going to show the film coach bryant playing in the bowl game i said hell you have to do all that on the floor you can't touch it or break the damn tape and everything so he gets running i said wait a minute i'm gonna grade upgrading so some more coaches come in there so donahue run it and i said uh hell he loafing that time [Applause] that's a man next play i said damn shut his eyes he didn't even see the man that's a ninus that's two masters i went on i said yeah you don't you don't get off on the snap the name of the game is you got to get off when everybody go about that time he opened the door came in donnie you just said coach brian dude he's greeted you on that field how would he say that duty at uh dude looked at coach brian he looked for me anyway back out i don't know what he'd come in there for he didn't want to hear this oh no so but i'll give you i'll give you this other one this is one and uh mouse in this one and uh that's sperm it again all right mal's got it i never know what he's gonna tell you that's what you're gonna tell well uh i ain't gonna tell the one bad until it's good he's down on the sidelines and uh he's on the phone he's got a new headset and mal has i'm up in the press box and i got on two and i'm not gonna be here and see what they're doing everything coach brian come up there and he said what in the hell is going on out there and mal he just grabbed at the headset and almost tore his damn ear off right here and all at once he said anybody know what's going on so he got the phone and i went i guarantee you that's true then cliff that is true i uh it was the first time i was ever on the phones on the sideline richard williamson was on the other phone he he was tet we were playing vanderbilt we were supposed to win the game but fourth quarter we were trailing coach brown was coming to me i'm on the defensive phones with to find out what they're doing defensively and stop us and do say god now tell him to go to richard and talk with ken meyer to see what they're doing defense we're monitoring their offense i said dude my this cord's too short i can't get away from you and while we are arguing about the game coach bryant just rips those fawns off my head he said hello hello through the phone back i caught the fall and put him in and do some pretty bad nights [Applause] we're getting beat in the fourth quarter and what because i do not want to happen but that uh we we ended up winning the game but it wasn't cause of dude now i mean we was trying to dodge coach bryan i've got one more to tell you this is uh we uh i went scout uh down in the two lane one scout down on their thing and uh we were going to play them and i came back and i never had to give a scout report before he said dude and you need about 30 minutes on the scouting report there yes circle i said 30 minutes he said i said 30 minutes so i go and uh i have to do this this way here's the damn blackboard right here and i'm drawing up and you're supposed to start with the kicking game if you don't you're in trouble well i screwed that up i didn't get it i didn't get it so i got up here and i was right with his hand racing with it i went on and went on and i said they got a big old fullback he weighs about 240. we stopped him we can beat them this offense and here's the defense and went over that i sit back down and turn around and look and all assistant coaching the players we're right like that and what the hell is going on so i went on and coach brian we were walking out on the field and i was ahead of it but not for long he passed me pretty quick he said did you even go to the damn game i said uh yes our coach i said yes sir coach and i look up i look up and i'm supposed to be right in this pair of defense vents and he was behind me and when i looked up he was down there just right like it just that quick going down there never said another thing so that's why he loved me i'd say he loved me or i wouldn't been there you know i when i was at quarterback coach moore was my quarterback coach and he was very excited on the field you know he would talk he's on on the phones and he'd come over and put his hand on my shoulder pads you know as i was on the sideline and you know everybody's had those little white slobber marks right here on the side of your mouth you know so about every game i'd he'd be able to carry one right 36 right there then all sudden he just he'd get my jersey and wipe his mouth with my charger and i had more sweat there than i did for myself you know but another story i had real quick about coach bryant the first play i ever played at alabama was my sophomore year and i backed up terry davis and that year was the year they had uh tearaway jerseys and i was a backup quarterback it was the first game of the year but i really wasn't expecting to go in i was over sitting on my helmet watching the game pretty much and all of a sudden they're hauling rightly drunk let's get in here and terry's trotting off with this jersey torn well coach moore gets me on the sideline he's next coach mike says i run over there to him he's gary one right 40 knot counter 49 options hardest wishbone play ever where you you fake to the right you reverse out turn your back to the defensive end and you'll pitch it outside first play i've ever you know i've ran into practice a hundred times but my first varsity play you make me run the hardest play well i reverse out the end luckily he's not coming at me harder i run out there and i pitch it on the ground pitch it on the ground well i'm trotting back off the field because terry davis is back coming back on so i won't run back over to coach moore and coach bryant and i was expecting to get chewed out i was expecting to get ringed really bad and coach bryant looks at me says gary i just want to apologize for mal for calling that play you know you're talking about motivation and i don't know how other people but i remember when i came here there's two dining halls by coach bryant's dormitory and there's one on the left you walked in and you stood in line and you got spaghetti and lettuce and hamburgers and stuff like that but now dude was talking about good grade in the winter now if you graded a winner at six o'clock you would go in and you would sit down and these ladies would come and they would serve you steak every night now you might have cornichon or lobster or something with it but you always had a steak and i'd be darned if i you know you talk about motivation what am i going to eat spaghetti am i going to eat steak that's pretty good motivator and uh you know it you know that's they don't do that anymore because everybody wants uh what's they call it equilibrium or whatever it is all these uh all these uh educators have forgotten what football makes men out of you instead of going around and uh you know everybody won't be parody crap you know it's just you know terrible what they've done how about coach stalin what was he like in this kind of deal motivation and and cutting up and at the same time being serious was he bad at all coach darling he was like that but coach darling he always believed in his movies now you had to go to the movies on friday night you had to go to the movies on friday night his movie when i was moving when the movie was he picked up he picked the movie and it always had to do something had something to do with guys fighting in the military all we had there was some kind of war movie we had to go see so i think we go we want to see i think it was a few good men or something like that maybe something else way before then we went to see the movie so then we get in the meeting room that night so his always his speech always started out with the movie what the guy did in the movie and then it was going into football and he started talking about it then he always and man this guy he believed in what he what he saw he fought for whatever he believed in and if we come out and we go pull right so and so roosevelt what do you have that guy cuffed down there and when nobody would expect it so they had an answer and right at the last minute coach don't say hell man how can we play a football game if you don't know what to do he believed in his movie now but it was it was it was funny he always he was he was coach dawg was a great mother when he started out he let us pick the movies but i picked a real he let the captains pick the movie my senior year i picked one that was so bad i can't i think it was highlander 2 or something like that really bad and uh after that point we uh he chose the movies well sometimes we picked goodfellas one time and he didn't like all that cussing man i can't take ruth in that movie like we loved it you know i get you fired up for a football game and he's like oh man that's awful beat a guy up put him in the trunk but coach i don't forget our first meeting with coach stalin's course as all the coaches that i had we're going to meeting and friday we're usually going over the game plan but we're not going over in detail and we're all sitting there all the offensive lineman and of course we know our assignments he comes into meeting he goes it schultz what do we run out of the blue formation i'm thinking blue i mean because when i'm in a lego you know red right blue 20 you know i think of the number and i just hear that i don't pay any attention to the first part of the call and he kept asking what we run out of this formation and i said that uh goal line there you know gold handles yeah well blue silver on gold line blue in the field that's so i got a reprieve from that we had a guy named charlie there and they go charlie they go charlie what do we run out of out of this formation he goes or what formation we run these plays out he goes uh i and he goes oh and he sees his face and goes don't know you know and so that whole time we were sitting there going god we've never been quizzed like this and he's really going of course we lose the first three ball games that year but you know he's like thinking because we don't know the formation so now we have this little cheat sheet every week and then finally i think they just gave up on us these guys are the dumbest lineman i've ever had ain't never gonna know but i said who cares what formation we run a play out of but now after coaching a little bit you understand it but i'll never forget all that he'd get so mad at us i don't know i don't sure he didn't sleep how about dealing with you as a quarterback he was tough it was like father's son you know type atmosphere for me it was yeah steps exactly and no disrespect i'll never forget uh about the first and malino's this coach moore from i mean i couldn't throw a spiral i think the first week i was i don't know if i ever threw a spiral by some people's idea the whole time i was in alabama but uh he kept telling me man john mark could do better than that but who in the world is john martin i had no idea who john mark was and then when we we realized what it was realized what he was saying uh but it was he was a motivator it's funny he'd take a movie i mean home alone we saw home alone before the auburn alabama game like 92. we're all going up what's he going to get out of this one and he's like all the obstacles this kid faced and starts going into all these different ways you gotta have strategy man you gotta have a plan but i tell you i mean i grew up watching most all these guys except for the guys i played with and um i miss an honor for me to be here somebody said outside while ago they said could you imagine playing for this team and i said no i'd never play i'd be i'd be sitting the bench the whole time with these guys but it'd be fun to watch though yeah it'd be fun to watch but coach bryant was a guy that i i grew up wanting to play for and i felt like out of gene stalin's i got the next best thing i really did um i'll never forget i was almost headed to auburn because uh bill curry wouldn't give me a shot at all and i said god you got to open up the door somehow bill curry got fired praise no i don't want to say praise god i was i was glad it happened because i had an opportunity to go play for alabama and play for gene stallings and a guy that i just i still respect a bunch bill curry came up to massachusetts one time do an alumni thing and i took around some of the high schools and stuff trying to introduce around and try to get some players so we're going back to boston this meeting and curry looks at me and says well i got a plan i said well what's that coach well first year we're going to come in we're going to try to have a winning season and second year we're going to try to you know compete for the sec and then we're going to four or five years try to go for a national title i looked at bill i said bill i think you got alabama football wrong he said what do you mean he said well alabama people just figure if you win the national championship everything else take care of itself you know he i knew he wasn't going to last he will he just didn't have it for outbound football he's been happy coming up in the second quarter did you know that they used to play with helmets you could fold up and put in your back pocket the legends of alabama football continues on volume two

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 24,700

Keywords: Alabama Crimson Tide, Alabama Football, Eli Gold, Kenny Stabler, Marty Lyons, Cornelius Bennett, Lee Roy Jordan, John Copeland, Eric Curry, Dwight Stephenson, Van Tiffin, Gary Rutledge, Jay Barker, Bobby Humphrey

Id: JGo2uCom5YY

Length: 52min 18sec (3138 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020