Roll Tide

Ten years ago this week, I left home for the University of Alabama. I went down early, because Football practice started several weeks before classes. I was working with the athletic department, taping practice.

It was a big change. It was also lonely. Tuscaloosa was a ghost town. The summer semester had ended and the fall hadn't yet begun. I just remember how quiet everything was, especially at night. And here I was an 18-year-old, away from home for the first time.

The summer of '95 was a hot one. We had two practices a day. One around 10 in the morning and another around 3pm. Sometimes the 10am would be hotter. Man we would get hot. Of course no where near as hot as the players. That first week of practice, there was a lot throwing up.

I shot video from a tower above the practice field. You would haul your camera, beta recorder and gear out to the tower. You would put it in a metal basket, climb the tower and then turn a crank to get it to the top. There was one tower that had no basket. So you tied a rope around a very expensive piece of equipment and brought it up. I always knew it was going to break and fall, but it never did.

My job was to shoot offense wide. A guy in the tower with me, Jason Lamb, would shoot offense tight. There were two guys on the Defensive practice field who did the same thing, Matt Roper and Norm Love III. I can't leave out the III part. The last I heard of Matt Roper, he was working at the CNN Airport channel. His job, to edit out any news that might be negative about air travel. I'm not kidding. I haven't heard from Jason or Norm in awhile.

There were three fields at the practice field facility. The Red, the White and the Blue fields. The red field was Defense, the White Offense and the Blue kicking. I always thought the kickers had the best job on the team. They would kick at the beginning of practice, go inside and play wiffle ball, then come back out and kick at the end of practice.

When I got to work everyday, our boss would have a little slip of paper that told us what parts of practice we shot that day. I'm sorry to say that I can't remember exactly what those pieces of paper would say exactly. I probably have one saved somewhere.

So we shot practice. I also helped out at home games. It was pretty nice. I would help set up the shooting equipment and then spend the rest of the game on the sidelines. I've actually tossed around a football inside Bryant-Denny Stadium and Legion Field. You got to have a pregame meal in the field house. Then at half-time, you went back and had a hotdog or some popcorn. After the game, I'd help take everything back down.

I also got two pairs of new Nikes. I got two pairs of UA shorts and two UA shirts that were to be used at practice. We also had a game day uniform, that consisted of shorts and a golf shirt. For colder or wet weather, we had UA sweats and a UA rain suit. I still have all those clothes.

After the season ended, which was after the Auburn game, (The Tide was on probation) we still got paid. We got paid until the following April. We did have to shoot Spring practice and a gymnastics tournament

I hate that there is not a single picture of me working for UA. I've thought about going to the Bryant Museum and looking through their pictures to see if I could find one.

The 1995 Season wasn't a good one for the Tide. We went 8 and 3. (Hey, that dont' sound half bad right now.) As I said, we were on probation. We also lost to Tennessee for the first time in 10 years. We were told to be very careful leaving the field. They told us not to make eye contact with the Tennessee fans in the stadium. We went into the locker room under a storm of oranges, cups and popcorn. I just kept thinking, "Dang, you won. Why are you throwing things at us?" We also lost to Auburn that year. But that was back in the days when we were taking turns with the Tigers. We would win one, and then they would win one. We had won in 1994 and would again in 1996. So 1995 was their year.

By the way, I only had one meeting with Coach Stallings. One day I passed him on the stairs at the football complex. I said, "hi coach." He never looked up at me and all he could seem to do was muster a grunt. I couldn't wait to tell my dad; Coach Stallings had grunted at me.