Favorite players from your childhood

37bamagreats55 · Apr 23, 2015

ALA2262 said:
The end of the 1993 ut game is the best example I can think of not being able to tackle David Palmer. Bama has scored late to pull within two points. Everyone on the field, everyone in the stadium, everyone watching on TV, and everyone listening on radio knows he is going to get the ball to tie the game. He did and he did!

Remember the game well. 16 years old and in the opposite endzone.

bamagradinATL · Apr 23, 2015

Being born and raised in the big city of Brewton, Walter Lewis and Calvin Culliver were my favorite players...

BamaPokerplayer · Apr 23, 2015

Palmer, Teague.

Remember those Alabama DB's are slow.

Bama-Kin · Apr 23, 2015

tidegrandpa said:
I know all of us geezers remember but no one has said, Paul Crane(towel hanging off butt), Tim Bates, Gaylon McCullough, Ray Ogden, Wayne Trimble, Willie Shelby, Johnny Mosely, Cotton Clark, Steve Bowman, Jerry Duncan. The ones everyone else mentioned, plus Jay Barker, Terry Davis and Baumhauer, all my heroes.
Ray Perkins, Homan and Tommy Tolleson also.
:BigA:

You've got some great names in your list grandpa.

My backyard favorites:
Tommy Tolleson
Major Ogilvie
Joey Jones
Ozzie Newsome
D. Thomas
Biscuit
Lane Bearden

Con · Apr 23, 2015

I liked Don Jacobs because my mom brought one of his tear away jerseys home so of course I wore it quite a bit. Since it was a tear away jersey it didn't last long. I also like Jim Bunch because his girlfriend or wife was doing some sort of teaching where I went to elementary school and he signed some black and white pictures for us. I would also have to include Cornelius Bennett as one of my favorites from my childhood because of the way he played the game at full speed.

TommyMac · Apr 23, 2015

Well, my childhood goes back a ways, way before TV so my actual seeing any Bama players was restricted to the newsreels at the Brookley theater where I spent most Saturday afternoons watching the double features. (Usually westerns, my fav was the Durango Kid.) Anyway in 1947, the big star was Harry Gilmer, who was famous for his jump passes.

We lived in a development just outside the AFB called Birdville because all the streets were named after birds. Birdville was built for housing for Brookley Field employees, both military and civilian and was really pretty nice. It's a ghetto now, but it was laid out really well with big open fields for kids to play in scattered throughout. In those days those fields were filled with kids throwing "Harry Gilmers" as Harry's passes were called. Harry Gilmer was responsible for a lot of youngsters becoming Alabama fans.

CajunCrimson · Apr 23, 2015

My first heroes: Ozzie, Billy Jackson, Tony Nathan, Ricky Moore, Rich Wingo, Tommy Wilcox, Don McNeal, Major, Steve Whitman, EJ Junior, Woodrow Lowe, Baumhauer.....

I later found heroes with: Al Bell, Jesse Bendross, Jeremiah Castille, Paul Ott Carruth, Humphrey, etc....

Fell in love again right after college with: Teague, Langham, Barker, Sherman, Lassic, Palmer, Tommy Johnson, etc.

Fave all time? Nathan and Ozzie!

bigjue24 · Apr 23, 2015

My favorite growing up was Jay Barker. I was in middle school when he was at the Capstone.

I also loved Cornelius Bennett and Derrick Thomas.

An under the radar guy I really liked was Sam Shade. He played safety on that brutal '92 defense.

Highway59 · Apr 23, 2015

A lot of guys already mentioned are favorites of mine also. One I haven't saw mentioned is Wayne Wheeler. When I was a kid throwing the football around on a Sunday afternoon, there was always a argument over who would be Wayne Wheeler. Enjoyed watching Siran Stacey also. He came through our area about a year ago and spoke to kids at our local high school. One last one from Seventies, big Johnny Davis. I don't know if he was ever tackled for loss in college.

cuda.1973 · Apr 23, 2015

I think he did lose yardage, once, in the USC game. (The one we lost, in B'ham.)

Padreruf · Apr 23, 2015

TommyMac said:
Well, my childhood goes back a ways, way before TV so my actual seeing any Bama players was restricted to the newsreels at the Brookley theater where I spent most Saturday afternoons watching the double features. (Usually westerns, my fav was the Durango Kid.) Anyway in 1947, the big star was Harry Gilmer, who was famous for his jump passes.

We lived in a development just outside the AFB called Birdville because all the streets were named after birds. Birdville was built for housing for Brookley Field employees, both military and civilian and was really pretty nice. It's a ghetto now, but it was laid out really well with big open fields for kids to play in scattered throughout. In those days those fields were filled with kids throwing "Harry Gilmers" as Harry's passes were called. Harry Gilmer was responsible for a lot of youngsters becoming Alabama fans.

"Birdville" brings back old memories from the early '60's. We used to play them in football and basketball in the Park system league -- I played for "Crawford Park" if I remember correctly. You guys were always a tough game...

I go back to Leroy Jordan, etc., but my favorite players grew to be the OL. Unsung heroes but the key to any great team.

kyallie · Apr 23, 2015

All of my favorites are mentioned just about, but I can think of a few I actually knew as a kid, and them being from the neighborhood I grew up in, followed their respective careers, with the exception of Griff, who I lost track of after graduation:
Bill Battle
Griff Langston
Jimmy Fuller

Padreruf · Apr 23, 2015

Griff is a friend of my brother-in-law -- who also played at Bama. He's doing well...

kyallie · Apr 23, 2015

Padreruf said:
Griff is a friend of my brother-in-law -- who also played at Bama. He's doing well...

Great to hear it! Thanks.

tidegrandpa · Apr 23, 2015

Another goody, somebody correct me but I think his name was Dan Kearley at 276 the biggest guy on the 64 NC team, offensive tackle, always loved him.

BroadwayJoe777 · Apr 23, 2015

BroadwayJoe777 · Apr 23, 2015

BroadwayJoe777 · Apr 23, 2015

Relayer · Apr 23, 2015

tidegrandpa said:
Another goody, somebody correct me but I think his name was Dan Kearley at 276 the biggest guy on the 64 NC team, offensive tackle, always loved him.

Kearley was a biggun' for his time. The 1964 roster listed him at 226, about 5 pounds shy of fellow tackles Fred Davis and Frank McClendon, the two biggest players on the team. 276 would have been a real monster back then.

GrayTide · Apr 24, 2015

That team had Creed Gilmer at DE dressing out at 181 lbs.

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