Stan McNeal
Sports Editor
Leesburg Commercial
January 5, 1979
Friday night is but a few hours away and I'm sure a lot of you are thinking about carousing (Instead of going to a basketball game, probably) so let's begin this with a beer analogy.
Comparing football at the University of Alabama with football at the University of Florida is like comparing Heineken's with Budweiser. In other words, one's pretty good but the other is in a class by itself.
While 50 to 60,000 Gators invade Florida Field on fall Saturday's 70 to 80,000 March into Tuscaloosa (or Birmingham) to indulge in watching their beloved Crimson Tide.
After the three hour games, players at Alabama must endure a hour with Sports Writers from all over the country before taking on an hour's worth of autograph signing. At Florida, Cris Collingsworth and a couple of other's may John Hancock for a while, but rarely for an hour.
And the list of subtle differences goes on .
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| 1978 National Champions Alabama Crimson Tide Record: 11-1-0 Coach: Paul "Bear" Bryant Selectors: All but UPI, Sporting News Front row: Holt, Umphrey, Chapman, Pugh, Jacobs, McElroy, Neal, Harris, Shealy, Rutledge, K. Jones, Crumbley, Tucker, Legg. Second row: Haney, Nathan, Perrin, J. Jones, Coleman, Sutton, Spencer, McNeil, Ikner, Bolton, Jackson, Allman, Turpin, Wingo, Haynes, Junior. Third ro...w: Ferguson, Ogilvie, Clements, Hill, Whitman, Braggs, Scott, DeNiro, Smith, Barnes, Hufstetler, McCarty, Stephenson, Palmer, Boothe, Robbins. Fourth row: Allison, Bunch, Boler, Cowell, Searcey, Brock, Sebastian, McCombs, Hannah, Krauss, Aydelette, Faust, Clark, Sanderson (tr.), Thomas (mgr.). Back row: Vines, Mauro, Booker, Krout, Travis, Parker, Boyd, Lyles, Gilliand, Lyons, Wayne Hamilton (Leesburg Florida), Inman, McGriff, Rumley, Theis, Lancaster. |
Wayne Hamilton, the pride and joy of Okahumpka, has learned all about Alabama fever in his three years playing for Bear Bryant, since being graduated from Leesburg High School in '76.
Oh, the two-time All Southeastern Conference defensive end admits it took some getting used to all the hoopla. Those huge crowds are a little different than the 3,000 or 4,000 sized audiences which packed in to watch the best Leesburg team ever (probably) in 74.
Hamilton still shakes his head in amazement over the fact so many people can get so involved in a football team. ("Its what they eat," he says.) But, oh how he has come to enjoy it.
"I know whats going on up there now," he said Thursday morning, shaking his smiling head, after reading how the Bear is so proud of his squad. "I know how those people can celebrate. Its wild."
Acccording to the 6-5, 230 pound junior, if Alabama had not been awarded first place in at least one poll, there'd been trouble.
"If we had been No.2 in both polls, there would have been a lot of problems." Not that Bryant would have raised much of a stink.
"Our fans, they're something. I know it would have been a mess."
After finishing as runner-up in the nation last year and with a lot of players back, Hamilton said the Tide was shooting for the top even after the early season loss to USC. And finishing No.2 (in the UPI Poll) means "Bama didn't get all it was after.
I just think to us, it's a great disappointment. To play our schedule and still come out on top, we should be No.1."
A national championship, all conference honors, Sugar Bowl victories. What's left for Hamilton to conquer? How about the pros.?
"If I stay healthy, I think I have a pretty good chance of playing pro ball," he states, in a no-brag, just-fact kind of way.
Hamilton plays on the line for Alabama, though he does not rush on some passing plays. but he feels his best shot at the NFL would be as a outside linebacker. That's what one pro scout told him, anyway.
He says he's not worried how early he goes in the draft but said he could go "pretty high."
"A lot of people think a lot about getting drafted high and then when they don't, it's a big letdown. I'm not going to worry about it like that."
That's the low-key Wayne Hamilton most folks around here watched crash helmets for the Fightin' Jackets. Tough confident, but faithful to those Okahumpka roots.
Wayne Hamilton, once a big fish in a little pond, is now a big fish in an ocean. And loving every Tide of it.
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