Four of our states football greats remember the glory days of their careers

By Loyd McIntosh
Photos by Jason Wallis
Photo of Bart Starr courtesy of Bart Starr

BART STARR

Mention the name Bart Starr and certain images come to mind: the quarterback in his green #15 jersey, clouds of breath streaming through the bars of his facemask, diving forward for the winning score in the 1967 NFL Championship game, the “Ice Bowl.”

Throughout the 1960’s, the University of Alabama graduate was practically the face of professional football, and the first in a succession of Crimson Tide Quarterbacks to win Super Bowl Rings: “Broadway Joe” Namath and Ken “Snake” Stabler. Unlike his more flamboyant brothers in the Alabama Super Bowl fraternity, Starr is a down-to-earth, no-nonsense kind of guy. The son a career military man, Starr flourished under the demanding regimen of Vince Lombardi, himself a former coach at West Point.

ON WHY HE DECIDED ON THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA…

“I had the pleasure of playing football for a gentleman named Bill Moseley at Sidney Lanier
in Montgomery, who had played for Coach Bryant when he was at Kentucky. As I was coming up on my senior year in high school, Coach Mosley asked me if I would like to go up to Kentucky and work with a quarterback named Babe Parilli during the summer.

I had never worked with anyone who had played quarterback and knew how to teach the position like Babe. I’ll always be indebted to him. He taught me more in five minutes than anyone else taught me in 50 days. When I returned and we started my senior year of high school football I was so pumped. I knew I wanted to go to the University of Kentucky.

In the meantime, I was enamored with this beautiful young lady in high school named Cherry Morton. As we moved into the recruiting season, I discovered that she was going to Auburn.
God gave me enough common sense to know that if I went to Lexington, Kentucky, and she went to Auburn, Alabama, that I’d lose her. So I called the greatest audible of my life and chose
to go to the University of Alabama. It turned out to be the greatest decision I’ve ever made.”

ON HIS FIRST PRACTICE WITH THE GREEN BAY PACKERS…

“When we held our summer training, our two-a-days, a portion of that time was devoted to
the kicking game. I remember the first time at practice we were going to do some place-kicking,
and they had known that I was a holder in college, so I was assigned to do some of that.

As I was preparing for the kicker, I knelt down to take the first snap. I put my hand out and the ball went about three feet to the right and back over my head. So I got back down and this time it went about three feet to the left. So I put the third one down and—whoosh—straight up over my head. At that time the center turned around and came back and said, “Rookie, you probably don’t remember me. My name is Jim Ringo, and I was the center on the Syracuse team you guys beat the hell out of in the Orange Bowl.* I just wanted to tell you today—I get even!”

*Alabama defeated Syracuse 61 -6 in the 1953 Orange Bowl, the most lopsided score in the game’s history.

ON HIS FIRST MEETING WITH VINCE LOMBARDI…

“(Coach Lombardi) called about 12 or 14 of our offensive players in for what would be likened to a mini-camp today. The session was designed to acquaint us with his philosophy, terminology and so forth.

We were seated in 3 or 4 rows in a 10- or 12-foot-wide room in the Packer office building downtown. He began the session by telling us how grateful he was to the Packer organization for giving him this opportunity. Immediately, you sensed his character. He then got in our faces and said, ‘Gentlemen, we’re going to relentlessly chase perfection knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process, we will catch excellence.’ Then he stopped and walked up even closer and looked us right in the eye and said ‘I am not remotely interested in being just good.’

When we took a break about 30 minutes later, I ran downstairs and got on a pay phone there
in the Packer office building and called Cherry in Birmingham. All I said to her was ‘Honey, we’re going to begin to win.’ It was that obvious. That was our first exposure to this man.”

PAT SULLIVAN

It’s been 37 years since Birmingham native Pat Sullivan won the Heisman Trophy, the first of two captured by a player from Auburn University. Since that fateful day in December 1971, Sullivan’s football journey has taken him through tours of duty in the NFL, where he played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Washington Redskins. Following his professional career, the John Carroll graduate returned to Birmingham to work in the private sector before the mystique of the Loveliest Village on Plains called him home, working as quarterbacks coach for Pat Dye from 1986-1992.

Sullivan then took became the head coach at Texas Christian University, helping the univer-
sity regain its footing after NCAA probation decimated the program. During his tenure at TCU, Sullivan captured a share of the Southwest Conference championship in 1994 and recruited Ladanian Tomlinson, currently the premier running back in the NFL.

Sullivan returned home in 1999, accepting the offensive coordinator position at UAB—a title he held for seven years—and successfully beat a diagnosis of throat cancer during that time. In December 2006, Sullivan accepted the head coaching position at Samford University.

ON PLAYING AT AUBURN AND FOR RALPH “SHUG” JORDAN…

Coach Jordan was a very good man. He didn’t seek the spotlight or call attention to himself. He was always very much in control of himself and his emotions. Coach Jordan was also very intelligent. He was a well-read man and he always related football to something to do with war, usually World War II or something of that nature. But he also had a great sense of humor that complemented his quiet, strong nature.

I can remember going to the Downtown Athletic Club in 1971, the year I won the Heisman.
Coach Jordan came with me and he spent much of the night talking to John Wayne, who was one of the presenters. Later on after the presentation of the award, John Wayne came up to me to congratulate me and he put is arm around me and said, ‘Kid, you got a hell of a coach.’

ON HOW FOOTBALL CAN DEVELOP A MAN’S CHARACTER…

I think that football or any team sport teaches you to work with people. The visibility, the fish-
bowl [you’re in], forces you to conduct yourself in such a way because everyone is aware of what you’re doing. It teaches you to work within the framework of a team or structure.

I also think football teaches discipline. You have to be disciplined in your training and in your playing in order to succeed, and [you have to have] a work ethic. When other people are resting you’re out working or practicing, trying to get better.

ON BEING THE HEAD COACH AT SAMFORD UNIVERSITY, PLAYING IN A NEW CONFERENCE, AND PLAYING AUBURN AND FLORIDA STATE IN THE COMING YEARS…

“It’s great to be a head coach again. It’s something that I’ve dreamed about and I’ve wanted
to do, but to be here in my hometown is great.

Going into the Southern Conference, there will be a learning curve because we haven’t played any of these teams. With the past history of the Southern Conference and with all the quality teams in the conference, we will certainly see great competition every week.

It’s very special to our team and to our Samford Family to be able to go to these places
(Auburn and Florida State), and it’s exciting to our players to go those venues. This will help
us in recruiting, and for us to build our program to where we want it to be, this is what we need to do.

ON BEATING THROAT CANCER…

I have people stop me in the service station or the store, total strangers, and tell me it’s been 18 months since they’ve had a dip. It really makes me feel good and they thanking them for helping them. There were so many people who helped me through that time, most importantly my wife Jean, that if we can help one or two or just three people through a difficult time than that makes it all worth it.

JAMES “RED” PHILLIPS

Alabama Sports Hall of Fame inductee Red Phillips was a key player during Auburn’s golden period in the mid-1950s. The Alexander City-native is today thought of as one of the best two-way ends in Auburn football history. In addition, Phillips was a co-captain on Auburn’s 1957 National Championship team and was drafted in the first round by the Los Angeles Rams in 1958.

Phillips enjoyed a ten-year pro career with the Rams and with the Minnesota Vikings, and was selected to the Pro Bowl three straight years—1960-62. He retired as a player in 1967 and spent a few years as an assistant coach in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers, and the New Orleans Saints, and in the NCAA with Florida State.

ON PLAYING FOR COACH JORDAN…

“Coach Jordan was a very business-like man. He didn’t have a lot of nonsense floating around him. I enjoyed being around him very much. My senior year I was co-captain and he’d meet with us outside his office and kind of shoot the bull with you. It was very enjoyable. He was kind of like me—just quiet and did his business.

He never got on a player in practice. Now, he would get on the coach of player, but never directly on a player. He was very fair that way.”

ON WINNING A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AT AUBURN…

“We had no idea how that season would turn out. At least I didn’t. We had worked together from freshman on up and we all were very well coached. But, you got to be lucky to have a 10-0 season, with injuries and all. We played both ways back then, offense, defense, and special teams.

Also, at that time, there wasn’t any television coverage of us and the newspapers were all a two-and-a-half hour drive away in Birmingham. All the reporters would do their scouting over the phone and then the story would come out and it sounded like they had been there all day. There wasn’t that much pressure on us back then.

The only time I remember us being in the news a lot was when we were getting ready to play Georgia down in Columbus. That put us in the spotlight. At that time I was scared to death with a microphone in my face.”

ON BEING SELECTED TO 3 PRO BOWLS…

The league only had 12 teams at that time, so it was a pretty big honor to be picked for the Pro Bowl, and I made it three times.

One year at the Pro Bowl, Coach Lombardi was our coach. I got mixed up on a flight out of
Montgomery and got out there a day late. He [certainly] let me know how things were and what
he expected out of the players on his team.

ON BEING TRADED TO MINNESOTA…

I was with the Rams from 1958 through 1966 then I was traded to Minnesota. The head coach at that time was Norm Van Brocklin. He was a tough coach to work for, but I enjoyed my time playing for him. Those were difficult times up there. We had two sets of coaches in three years.

After Van Brocklin, Minnesota brought in Bud Grant, who was a very different kind of coach. For instance, we would practice standing on the sideline for the national anthem. Our helmets would always be on our right arm, facemask turned out, and there was no chewing gum. To him, the national anthem was important and [he] put special emphasis on it.

ON LIFE ON THE ROAD IN THE NFL…

We had a teammate in L.A. named Dick Bass from Mississippi. Dick had a great attitude and liked to joke around a lot.

In those days we might drive to San Francisco to play a game then fly to Milwaukee to play a game and then stay in a hotel for 10 days and play in Chicago. It was cheaper to stay out on the road than to fly back to L.A. in between games.

Anyway, to keep the Chicago Bears from spying on us we might drive around for hours trying to confuse anybody who might be following us. We had a coach who was always nervous about other teams spying on us.

One day we left a restaurant and got out on the road and one of us saw a car following us. He started telling the driver ‘Take a right here,’ and we’d drive five miles or so and then he’d say ‘Alright, take a left here.’ Finally we wound up in a cul-de-sac, and as we were turning around we could see inside the car—it was Dick Bass. He had borrowed the car from some people back at the restaurant.”

FRED SINGTON, JR.

Gadsden resident Fred Sington, Jr., is literally responsible for kicking-off the Bear Bryant era. An offensive and defensive lineman and place kicker for the Crimson Tide, Sington scored the first three points in Bryant’s debut as head coach, kicking a field goal for Alabama’s only points in the 1958 season opener against LSU. Despite losing that game 13-3, Bryant’s arrival not only signaled an end to the dreadful Ears Whitworth era, but the start of the halcyon days at the Capstone.

Alabama managed only three wins in the three years prior to Bryant’s first season as head coach. The 1958 squad finished the season with a record of 5-4-1. That season proved to be a pivotal one in the program’s history, as Bryant went on to win six national titles and 13 SEC titles over the next 25 years. Sington, along with his brother David, was there at the beginning and had a glimpse what lay ahead for the Crimson Tide program thanks to his father, Fred Sington, Sr. The elder Sington was a teammate of Bryant’s at Alabama before he embarked on a successful career in professional baseball. Heavily involved in hiring Bryant away from Texas A&M, Sington, Sr. was present when “The Bear” signed the contract to coach the Crimson Tide.

Sington, Jr., is one of just a few Crimson Tide letterman to play on six Alabama football teams
(1953-55, 1957-59), and played in Tuscaloosa under three head coaches (Harold “Red” Drew,
Whitworth, and Bryant). Fifty years later, Sington, Jr., has lots to say about that glorious time. Portions in italics were taken from Sington’s comments in the book, Alabama’s Family Tides,
by Tommy Ford, 1992.

ON BRYANT COMING ‘HOME’ AND HIS FIRST SPRING AT THE CAPSTONE…

My father and Dr. [Frank] Rose (then University of Alabama president-elect), went out to Houston to the Shamrock Hotel to sign Coach Bryant. He called my brother David and me and said, ‘You’re about to see a change in football as you know it.’

“Coach Bryant came in the middle of January and implemented a gym program. It was the first time I had ever seen an off-season gym program. It was three days a week and was probably as hellacious a workout as I’ve ever been through.

We were aware of his reputation at Texas A&M. We weren’t the Junction Boys, but we may as well have been. Coach Bryant brought in people from everywhere, the Army, Marine Corps, just everywhere. We had 146 players out there first day. After one week of practice, only 46 players were left.

Coach always had a lock on the gate so there wasn’t any way out. I remember one day in the second week of two-a-days during preseason in August and we were about 15-20 minutes from the end of practice. I was in the huddle and this guy standing next to me said. ‘I’ve had about all I can take of this crap.’ As soon as the ball was snapped he sprinted off the field, climbed the fence in full gear and the last sign we ever saw of him was his gear piled up outside the locker room door.

We had a team manager at that time named Gary White. After that fellow ran off Coach Bryant yelled out ‘Gary!’ ‘

Yes, sir, Coach!’

‘Tell those boys we’ll unlock the gate if any more of ‘em want to quit today!’

ON COMING BACK FOR SIXTH SEASON…

I graduated in the spring of 1959 and got a job in a sales consulting firm in Birmingham.
I’ll always remember it was on July 7 when the operator buzzed me and said I had a long-distance phone call. I got the phone and it was Coach Bryant. He said, ‘Fred, you ever thought about going to graduate school?’

I told him I’d considered going to law school at some point. He said, ‘I’ve been at the enrollment office and I’ve found out you have another year of eligibility, and I need a kicker. You come on back down here and play for me and I’ll have you enrolled in law school.’ So, my wife, Joyce, and I packed up and moved back to Tuscaloosa.

The last day of the semester, I had just finished my last exam and had a 105 degree fever. My wife brought me home and think I slept for three days. Looking back on that experience, I wouldn’t take a million dollars for it.