You dang right!....That game was just ugly. We actually put up a good fight though. I remember going into halftime only down 0-7…..we just couldn’t do squat against that defense. I don’t know if we even made it past midfield until the second half. I’ll say this too about NJ…..they always played dirtier than any other team we played. When you got caught in under the pile they were all pinching and grabbing for your nuts every damn play. I grabbed one NJ boys finger and tried to break it when he was trying to grab my nuts. I don’t know if it broke or not but I heard him holler like hell when I bent it backwards.

I coached against Emmitt Smith. ( I didn't do a whole lot to stop him!!) The best I have ever seen in high school was probably Greg Allen. He held 26 rushing records at FSU including several national records. (and he platooned with other backs!) He and my brother played on back to back state championship teams. A reoccurring leg injury kept him out of the NFL. Sporting news voted him the best HS back in the country. The last two games I saw him play in, he scored eleven touchdowns!

Alan Evans played at Enterprise with a dominate offensive line that made him way better than he was.When he got to Auburn he was exposed as the crybaby that he is...

When I was a senior at ole miss, we heard about this great running back up in Philadelphia Ms. We drove up to see him. I had never seen a guy that big and that fast. It was Marcus Dupree.

The best that never was. Sad story

I played against Ricky Moore when he was at Lee High School. He was a hoss and played linebacker also. He wasn't that dominate his senior year just like in College when he played at Bama. He seemed to be afraid of getting hurt. I saw Bo, Lionel James, Hershal Walker in college. All the Goodes were great out of Town Creek, our old high school coach moved to their team and they started winning.

Just off the top of my head Tyrone protho, roc Thomas was the best I’ve seen in recent times, Cadillac, a guy named conceious Moore from Anniston was really good and the little running back from Beauregard and tj yeldon. I’ve refereed all these I know they were all good

Played against Leo Jolly from Ariton High School in the early eighties.He signed with Alabama but never stepped on the field when they discovered he had health issues.

Dupree was a hoss.

Murry Hill at Atmore was something to see went to Bama but never did much but he was a hoss that could move. A gut in Cottonwood by the name of Ronnie Coachman (I think?) in the mid 80's had legs like a tree trunk and could fly

I never saw Moore play football, but I saw him play baseball. There were 3 guys from Deshler that played college football in that same time frame. One played linebacker at UNA and catcher for the Shoals area American Legion team. He was catching a game against Huntsville and tried to block the plate against Moore scoring from second on a single. He got his clock cleaned. I imagine that play would be illegal now.

Funny you mentioned this. My brother played linebacker at Miss. State in the days of Hershel, Bo Jackson, etc... To this day, he will tell you that Ricky Moore is the hardest player he has ever tried to tackle.

Murry was a heckuva high school running back. His problem at Bama was simply size. 5'7" on a good day, but he could absolutely fly.

He was a really good baseball player, too. Hit for power, covered a ton of ground in the outfield, good arm, and once he got on base...it was over. Watched him get picked off first 2 or 3 times, only to beat the 1st baseman's throw down to second. If he got on base with less than two outs, he scored probably 75% of the time.

i saw mountain brook - with major ogilvie - play decatur high - with benny perrin at safety and QB - in the 4A semi-finals at decatur high in 1976. major and benny were men amongst boys in that game. MB won 24-20 ...

I played with the best running back I ever saw in HS. Robert Stewart., he was big, 6’01”about 235 and fast. He signed with Bama and sent us all cleats because he got a new pair every week. He wound up playing nose tackle and I was in his seats for the ‘89 Iron Bowl. He was a monster as a Sophomore but the more hype he got the more the coaches coddled him. By the time he was a senior the coaches would take him out if he was strugglimg to “save” him for college.

His family was a poor as you could find but good as gold. I stopped by his house every time I passed it and was always offered something to eat. His dad was named Willie Jay and his mom was named Willie Fay.

He had two brothers who were just like him, physical specimens who never had to touch a weight to be the strongest ones on the team. James, who we called “Donkey Kong” because he looked like the gorilla was a monster defensive tackle. I’ll never forget one night during a game coach called timeout. I was playing one DT spot and Donk was in the other-in a straight up 2 technique. Coach jumped straight up in donk’s junk. He said “Donk, you’re the baddest sumbitch on this field and you’re getting whipped every single play”. Donk looked at him and said “I like it on two Coach”. Coach asked what he was talking about and Donk said “they going on one coach, I like it on two!” .

Willie Jay died year before last and I went to the visitation with my youngest son, wanted him to meet those guys. Country as hayul but salt of the earth people.

I have a good friend who played with Emmit Smith and he said that guy was unreal in person.

i have heard that he had several weight lifting records at Alabama

I sat next to Robert Stewart in a British Lit class at UA. Physical specimen, indeed. Nothing but a ball of muscle.

This made me laugh hard ... "I like it on two!" LOL

My senior year of HS. we had an OL who was big, rawboned, talented, the works. One day during practice he missed a couple of plays and got beat by the scout team DT.

Head coach lost his mind, runs to the guy feigning concern.

"Hey boy, what's wrong? Are you OK? Is something hurt? Are you OK?"

We're snickering a little. He's acting like blood is gushing out of a limb.

"I got sweat in my eyes, coach."

We almost died trying to not laugh. Coach yells to the manager for a towel and starts patting his face asking if he got all the sweat out of his eyes.

The scout team DT took an ass-beating the rest of the practice. The OL I think ended up being a two-year starter. Really fine guy and funny to be around.

We used to play pick-up basketball games at the old outside courts at Paty. Several footballers would end up playing, including Robert Stewart. It was basically tackle basketball. Physical ain't the word.

I have so many funny stories about Donk. A friend who lived on Lake Eufaula had a backhoe that he needed Donk to work on. Donk got there and they talked about the backhoe for a minute and Donk asked him if you could see the lake from his place. My friend told him he could walk out on the dock and look at it. Donk walked out on the dock, whistled and said “and some folks say they ain’t a Jesus”. Never overreact to me that he had never seen Lake Eufaula. One last one, we had a football cookout at the Columbia city pool every year at the end of fall camp. Coach would grill and we would hang out and swim. Donk walked in wearing nothing but cut off pants with a towel around his neck. He walked right by us, tossed his towel on a chair and got on the diving board. We were all wondering what he was doing because no one thought he could swim. He ran and jumped in the pool and sank right to the bottom. Coach jumped in and got him out and said “damnit Donk what are you doing you don’t know how to swim”. Donk just looked at him and said “I didn’t know I couldn’t swim, I ain’t never tried”!

Robert going to Alabama was definitely the biggest thing to ever happen to their family. Their house was a shrine to Alabama football. Dang good old country people.