What do the players do at the Bryant Conference Center before the game?

Position/team meetings and team meals.

Or that's what they used to do in the 90's. Only used the conference center if the hotel banquet rooms were booked.

I worked at the hotel and conference center in the 90's while in school. Saw some crazy stuff over the years.

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Sleep there the night before.

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Should have added that. Team stays at the hotel Friday night before all home games. It was always a 3-ring circus when they'd get there on Friday nights.

And night games they wouldn't leave for the stadium until 3ish, so they'd have a good deal of downtime. You couldn't even move in the lobby the afternoon of the 94 Georgia game, and the team was running behind. Stallings was NOT happy when he got off the elevator and saw the throng of people. We had to sneak Jay Barker out the stairs/fire exit. The little old lady Bama fans LOVED him.

Logan Young had a room there for every game. Stallings kept his players and staff away from him. I forget which assistant told us, but he said Young wasn't as close to Bryant as he always claimed to be, and Stallings hated him. Anyway, Dubose's first year was my last season to work there, and Young had access to as many players as he wanted. The night after every game there was a steady stream of players going up to his room. He even left an envelope of cash at the front desk for one player, but I forget which player it was. I knew we were screwed when I heard his name back in 99 or 00 when the NCAA investigation started up.

The Syracuse basketball team, including Donovan McNabb, trashed their rooms and stole a bunch of stuff when we played them one year. Jim Boeheim made them all write an apology letter, sent all the stuff back, and gave a personal donation to some scholarship fund.

Not really a story, but if you can meet Sarah Patterson and not come away an Alabama gymnastics fan then something is wrong with you.

I made a smart arse comment to Rick Pitino and he tried to get me fired. Frick that guy.

Kenny Stabler gave me a $100 tip for getting his daughter's Super Nintendo working in her room so he could drink and watch football in his adjoining room. Joe Namath gave us signed footballs for making Easter baskets for his daughters when he was there Easter weekend one year. Cornelius Bennet bear hugged me when I said "Wassup Biscuit" to him. Ozzie Newsome has the strongest handshake I've ever felt. Thought he had broken my hand.


Away from things Alabama related, it's no wonder so many school teachers sleep with students. There was some conference for teachers every summer, and they went absolutely buck wild like it was Spring Break at Club La Vela.

Oh, and one final story. I forget what event was going on at Coleman Coliseum one night, but I was in charge of checking parking passes for the hotel parking lot. I want to say it was maybe the Brooks & Dunn concert. Anyway, I'm manning the entrance when a car with 4 women pulls up. They didn't have a parking pass on the dash so I stopped them, and they started pleading to let them park because they were running late. The lot was already pretty full, otherwise I probably would have just waved them through. Lady in the passenger seat leaned over and said her son was on the football coaching staff and was there anything she could do to let them park there in a real suggestive voice. I don't full know what she meant by her suggestion, but draw your own inferences. Her son was Dabo Swinney.

I did let them park there, and they all gave me a hug and said they had an extra ticket to the concert if I could get away from work and go with them. I couldn't though.

I wouldn't have even if that is what she was suggesting, which I'm not sure she was. Now, one of the other occupants in the car with her was straight fire, and I would have definitely let her have her way with me.