Excellent post & I agree 100% with everything you stated..My Dad & PaPa used to tell me stories of how truly bad it once was, not just in the Wellborn area, in the Deep South in general..I would just shake my head in disgust of the stories they told me, heck, my PaPa witnessed when rioters stopped the "Freedom Riders" Bus off Highway 202 here in the Wellborn area, where they pulled the "Freedom Riders" off the bus to beat them & then set the bus fire..All that happened about a mile & a half from my house..I pass by the National Historic Marker that they have in place of the incident everyday I come home, it's a constant reminder of our past, and it makes me sooooo proud as to just how far my community has come since that happened..That's part of our history we can never deny, we can just learn from it, and allow it, to teach us how to get along with each other & become better human beings cause of our past..I have no doubt there are fine people that live in the Wellborn area-but it really was different in the 70"s everywhere in Alabama and west Anniston was a rough area back in that time. Played baseball at JHS and we played Wellborn one afternoon when the school was let out to see the game-there were guys smoking pot sitting on the outfield fence and someone's mother was poking her umbrella through the dugout fence during the game. Really had to watch what you said and did when in that part of town back in the day.
Here's a link to the "Freedom Riders" Bus when it was stopped & burned here in the Wellborn Community..It's scary to think all this happened in the neighborhood I grew up in & am living in right now..CLICK ME
And here's an actual news clip of the burned bus.....CLICK ME
I apologize Mods this post has curved away from the football aspect of my original post..Feel free to move this to Non Sport if need be..