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re: Best recruiting stories out there...
Posted on 11/26/21 at 5:40 am to DawgNation4
Posted on 11/26/21 at 5:40 am to DawgNation4
I think that it cannot get stranger than The Blind Side. A lot of people watched and thought how sweet. My takeaway was - that's cheating. A devout Christian steered her foster child to play for Orgeron - get out of here.
Another one is Richard Todd signing day - not like what signing day is now. I will try to find that story
Another one is Richard Todd signing day - not like what signing day is now. I will try to find that story
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Posted on 11/26/21 at 5:43 am to pioneerbasketball
Oh yes, it was real.
Posted on 11/26/21 at 5:53 am to DawgNation4
I believe it was one of those don't come back to Tuscaloosa without Joe and Howard had to write some bad checks just for the trip.
There was a knock on the door one day," Namath said. "I happened to be home, my mother and I, just the two of us in the house. Knock on the door. I went to the door unsuspecting. I opened it, and there was this big man there with a very deep voice, nearly as deep as coach Bryant's -- he favored coach Bryant in that category, too, and coaching as well. But he introduced himself. My mother came up behind me, and he introduced himself to my mother as being from the University of Alabama.
"What had happened was I didn't pass my college boards at the University of Maryland, and the coach there, Tom Nugent, knew coach Bryant. So he called coach Bryant, and coach Bryant immediately sent Howard north. Alabama had come to recruit me during the basketball season that year, and I wasn't even thinking about where I was going to go to school at that time.
"But my mother liked the way that Howard Schnellenberger presented himself and she wanted me to go to college. And by gosh, she went upstairs, packed a bag that you could put under the seat in front of you on an airplane and said, 'Here you are, coach. Go ahead and take him.' Gave me a five-dollar bill and said, 'Take him.'"
There was a knock on the door one day," Namath said. "I happened to be home, my mother and I, just the two of us in the house. Knock on the door. I went to the door unsuspecting. I opened it, and there was this big man there with a very deep voice, nearly as deep as coach Bryant's -- he favored coach Bryant in that category, too, and coaching as well. But he introduced himself. My mother came up behind me, and he introduced himself to my mother as being from the University of Alabama.
"What had happened was I didn't pass my college boards at the University of Maryland, and the coach there, Tom Nugent, knew coach Bryant. So he called coach Bryant, and coach Bryant immediately sent Howard north. Alabama had come to recruit me during the basketball season that year, and I wasn't even thinking about where I was going to go to school at that time.
"But my mother liked the way that Howard Schnellenberger presented himself and she wanted me to go to college. And by gosh, she went upstairs, packed a bag that you could put under the seat in front of you on an airplane and said, 'Here you are, coach. Go ahead and take him.' Gave me a five-dollar bill and said, 'Take him.'"
Posted on 11/26/21 at 7:59 am to Jumpinjack
Good stuff, keep em coming
Posted on 11/26/21 at 10:10 am to DawgNation4
Not the final story obviously but this is funny, and one I did not know about. I had heard if Bear knew it was down to momma making up her mind, she got a call from Broadway Joe.
During his rookie season with the Green Bay Packers in 1971, Mobilian and former Alabama quarterback Scott Hunter picked up the telephone and heard the familiar gruff voice of Paul “Bear” Bryant.
“At this time, there was a big recruiting fight for Richard Todd, ” Hunter explains. Todd, who played quarterback for Davidson High School, was being recruited heavily by Alabama and Auburn. Knowing that the Packers and the St. Louis Cardinals game would be broadcast in Mobile that particular week, Coach Bryant saw Hunter’s Mobile roots as an opportunity to get an edge.
“Coach Bryant wanted me to call Todd and tell him all about how great Alabama was, ” Hunter says. “Well, we get down to St. Louis, and we practice on Saturday afternoon. I noticed there was a payphone hidden around the corner in the locker room, so I said to myself, ‘Tomorrow after we finish warm-ups before the game starts, I’m gonna be real slick with this.’”
Sure enough, 20 minutes before kickoff, Hunter got Todd on the phone, talked up Alabama and made sure the young recruit would tune in to the impending game. Though the game ended in a 16-16 tie, Hunter felt pretty confident he had scored at least one victory that day in St. Louis. The next day, he called Coach Bryant.
“I was so proud of myself, ” Hunter remembers. “Coach listened as I went through the whole thing about calling Todd between the pregame warm-ups and the kickoff.”
“Hell, ” Coach Bryant grumbled. “I don’t know what you told him, but Todd committed to Auburn last night.”
“Some recruiter I am, ” Hunter says today with a big laugh. (Todd eventually flipped his commitment to Alabama, to Hunter’s great relief.)
It wasn’t the first time Mobile was the setting for a memorable recruiting anecdote, and it certainly won’t be the last.
During his rookie season with the Green Bay Packers in 1971, Mobilian and former Alabama quarterback Scott Hunter picked up the telephone and heard the familiar gruff voice of Paul “Bear” Bryant.
“At this time, there was a big recruiting fight for Richard Todd, ” Hunter explains. Todd, who played quarterback for Davidson High School, was being recruited heavily by Alabama and Auburn. Knowing that the Packers and the St. Louis Cardinals game would be broadcast in Mobile that particular week, Coach Bryant saw Hunter’s Mobile roots as an opportunity to get an edge.
“Coach Bryant wanted me to call Todd and tell him all about how great Alabama was, ” Hunter says. “Well, we get down to St. Louis, and we practice on Saturday afternoon. I noticed there was a payphone hidden around the corner in the locker room, so I said to myself, ‘Tomorrow after we finish warm-ups before the game starts, I’m gonna be real slick with this.’”
Sure enough, 20 minutes before kickoff, Hunter got Todd on the phone, talked up Alabama and made sure the young recruit would tune in to the impending game. Though the game ended in a 16-16 tie, Hunter felt pretty confident he had scored at least one victory that day in St. Louis. The next day, he called Coach Bryant.
“I was so proud of myself, ” Hunter remembers. “Coach listened as I went through the whole thing about calling Todd between the pregame warm-ups and the kickoff.”
“Hell, ” Coach Bryant grumbled. “I don’t know what you told him, but Todd committed to Auburn last night.”
“Some recruiter I am, ” Hunter says today with a big laugh. (Todd eventually flipped his commitment to Alabama, to Hunter’s great relief.)
It wasn’t the first time Mobile was the setting for a memorable recruiting anecdote, and it certainly won’t be the last.
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