Tide Hoops History Summer Podcast Episode 1 (Wimp Sanderson)

Podcast with former Alabama head coach Wimp Sanderson, who coached the Crimson Tide for 12 years. He is the winningest coach in school history with 267 victories, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, six Sweet Sixteens, five SEC Tournament championships and the 1986-87 SEC regular-season championship.

[Music] [Music] hello everyone and welcome to the EP or welcome to episode one of the tide Hoops history summer podcast series we are excited to be the newest member of the Crimson crossover family of podcasts and we’re looking forward to even more episodes this summer where we talk about a lot of things about the history and tradition former players former coaches about Alabama basketball so I do want to admit that when we first started uh thinking about doing this summer podcast there was only one person that we wanted to invite as our very first guest and that’s former head coach wiim Sanderson so I am very excited that coach has agreed to join us on this one um for those that U may be not familiar the newer generation or younger generation of fans coach Sanderson spent 32 years at Alabama the first 20 years as an assistant to Coach Riley and I believe coach Newton and then he became the head coach in 1980 and he was the head coach for 12 years and during that 12 years he had such a very successful run and we’ll get to a lot of those topics and a lot of those memories later in in this meeting but again coach I want to thank you for taking time to join us I can’t tell you how much of an honor and and again I can’t thank you enough for joining us well I’m glad to do it uh I have a lot of respect for you and what you’ve done for uh trying to put Alabama basketball in the past and present uh and the future uh on uh networks and on iPads and on telephones and on what everything electronic so um I appreciate very happy to to try to be on answering questions you might want to ask or talk about the past um um I was there a long time and I think I know a little bit about what went on so there’s a there’s a lot I kind of want to dig into so I know we blocked at a decent amount of time but one of the things I wanted to let you know is with the season ending I finally finally uh set aside time to read your book uh the one that we were helping you sell a few copies of I enjoyed it immensely I literally sat down Saturday night I read half the book Saturday night before I went to bed and then Sunday afternoon I finished the other half because one I’ve been wanting to read it for a while and two I wanted to to have more insight in history because you know I like to be thorough so I had a lot of questions after I read it um I kind of wanted to just go back to the very beginning coach I know you were originally from North Alabama in Florence um I know unfortunately you lost your dad at an early age so it was you and your mother and like most people who have achieved great success in their career uh it came with adversity growing up so I was just wondering if maybe you could take us back to what it was like growing up uh as a six-year-old without a father uh with your mom and what you went through there in Florence those first maybe 10 15 years well I had a great mother and of course my dad did die at six and um was unfortunate and something that sometimes you have a hard time overcoming but uh she did a great job with me and um I was one of these kids that it’s stayed out of trouble I never did really do anything as I grew up and became became a high school uh player uh I got interested basketball and and a lot of people that played the game and we went to a lot of different places to play went to North Alabama which is Florence State back then and played we go over to coffee and play we go to the community center in Sheffield and play we go around the corner we played uh um on a dirt field uh and played uh there quite a bit with people so basketball kind of became my interest I was you know fairly decent in it and getting better and um just you know I never really did anything but but I didn’t date much at all and uh I just stayed busy with basketball and I enjoyed it so in your book one of the things that I read about I wanted to ask how long did the piano lessons actually last when you were a child not very long my mother my mother wanted me to did a couple of things as mothers do and one of them she thought that it would be nice for me to learn to play piano and it was in North Florence and I I lived in Florence and it was a lot I didn’t have a car we didn’t have a car I was too young I don’t think I could even drive maybe I could I can’t remember but we’d have to walk out there and um the thing that uh that the teacher told me was that I would have to practice all week in order before I came back to see if I had if I had made any progress unfortunately practice wasn’t and and being on the piano was not one of my favorite things to do I didn’t really know how to practice I didn’t practice very well and finally I don’t know after how how long I did it but um my mother just finally she was figured out that she was wasting money trying for me to try to go out in North Florence and learn piano lessons uh the other funny thing was I noticed where you said was about my nickers nickers uh we went to church my mother would always want me to wear knickers and I thought knickers were U still do were a little bit they were a little bit yet to wear long socks then you had to put the knickers on and I just could not stand to wear knickers when I go to the store now at my age and all down through my age if if the bottom of that pant is not a straight bottom it has a curl in the bottom I don’t buy I think I won’t buy if if I say I look at the bottom to see at the bottom is a straight legged bottom if it’s a curled bottom a one that flops on your shoe I don’t buy it so I I I couldn’t stand nickers but that that was a kind of a funny thing that I had to do that that my mother made me do outside of that one anything anything you know I had some aunts that sort of took care of my mother worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs and that department was the ones that got pensions for the veterans when they came back and so she was well-liked because she wrote letters on behalf of these people and so um she W she worked you know on a regular daily basis from the time the store the place open all the way till you know to 5:00 so I had an aunt and uncle that sort of took care of me and they let me uh they let me put a a basketball go in the backyard and I like baseball too and I uh I wasn’t very good at it but I liked it and and so you know I play a little softball but we used to play we used to play cork ball and corkball is the hard game to play you have a stick and the guy has a cork and he and he flips it and you try to hit that cotton pick and Cork and it ain’t easy people that are watching this show or listening to the show try you some cork ball I know they got all different and you can’t you can’t uh uh and you would run the bases uh sort of like you know when you hit it but uh you did wasn’t often that you hit you you can take a a court and put it in your your thumb and your finger with the wind blowing and flip it through there you couldn’t hit it you couldn’t hit it a cotton Pig and wheat and U so we play a lot we played some cork ball and I would wait at my my Aunt’s house till my mother got off work and then go home I had a I had a an old 40 forward and um 40 forward uh uh was a convertible uh we didn’t have any money and uh we we uh we got that we got that 44 fixed I wanted to get my driver’s license and I had been washing the car of the guy upstairs over the apartment that we and that I mean excuse me my my my mother and I uh lived in Mr pum oh I remember Mr pum but I watched Mr Pam’s car all the time and uh so I went to Mr pum one day and I said Mr pum I wantan to I want to be I need to borrow your car and get a driver’s license he said well I don’t mind you get I don’t mind you uh get get getting your driver’s license but I’m gonna tell you something now the seat in this car flies up a lot the front seat flies up a lot it catches the spraying I said really said he said it flies up a lot you need to be careful well I go down on Pine Street in front of the people that listen that watch this show they know where Pine Street is and where the um everything is down there so it’s time for me to take my driver’s license and uh I get in and um about the time we started off and went about a block wh the thing flew up and both both both being the P patrolman flew together and I said I’m sorry sir I said that I’m sorry my this is not my car so we drove around again and uh the thing popped again it flopped up again and so he had me parallel park and I parallel parked okay he said I want to tell you something son I’m G to give you your driver’s license but if you don’t get that cotton picking car that that that popping with that with that car he saidou gonna be in serious trouble with me and all the other patrolman I said yes sir I said I won’t be driving this car anymore because it’s not my car but I said Mr perum I’ll tell I’ll tell Mr pum that you we need to get that thing fixed I said I think he already knows of course he already knew it because he’s the one that gave let me borrow the car so that was uh that was a deal where I you know I I got my driver’s license with a car put the front seat flipped up real so let me ask another question about your childhood so um in your book you talked about playing games of hot tail which when I first read it I was I was like what but then when I when I read the explanation of what it was it’s just a Dev variation on the game that I used to play too everyone plays 21 but 21’s right 21’s right but was Hot ta if you if you were the last one in you C the hot tap and what you did you shot a long and the short and you had to go out on a long long long and short the long can two and short canid one so you had to go out and uh I think it was the more you m every time you made him got shoot again I think right then but uh you you had you couldn’t uh you couldn’t be you couldn’t be at 18 because if you were 18 yeah you couldn’t be at you couldn’t be at 19 1920 you had to you had to go out on long and short if you got on 20 you lost you could not get on 20 you had to jump you had to jump 20 and go straight to 21 if uh if you’re 18 you had and you had to go out I think you had to go out on long you had to go out I think I’m telling it’s right you had to go out on La but you could not you could not go out on number 20 you had to be 21 if you lost go ahead no no you’re going to get to the part that I had no idea lost uh you had to to bend down and grab your ankles and the guys would have two throws at you to give you the hot T now I think I think if they missed they wanted to really throw it hard and really bust you good I think if they if they miss completely you got to throw it at them but I don’t I can’t remember that for sure but uh hot tail could burn you up now what they try to do is they try to get a young squirt in there who they thought would lose and uh he would get the hot tail so they would say to me if we play you want to play hot tail and I said yeah I’ll play I’ll put some hot tail with you so they let me they let me for a while shoot grandma can’t you know like what’s his name prob shot that used to shoot all the time Grandma between your legs yed then so I uh I started off shooting grandma all but they all encouraged me to come in and play because they thought I was going to be the one to get the hot and uh so that was that’s what we play well I I see you Carri the tradition on with your sons when you were teaching them basketball oh yeah and and you showed them no mercy B on what was I made Dar I made darn sure that when they shot the ball I said something funny or did something crazy before they would miss I said I didn’t say anything I me I I don’t care and they would miss yes we’re we’re on we’re on the side we have a goal on the side of on the concrete on the side of the house we got a little Volkswagen bug that’s parked on the on the it’s parked on the uh on the curb and we’re playing hot tail I mean we’re we’re playing we playing hot tail we playing 20 we’re playing 21 I look up and the the V Volkswagen is rolling down the hill and it’s fixing to roll over 15th Street in tus loose Alabama and if it does and a car hits it coming that way I’m a dead goose and the there it roll we can’t catch it we can’t catch it and it rolls across 15th Street hits a tree or something and we were uh that slowed down that day hot tail um oh my goodness now now that was the house a Volkswagen as a Volkswagen Bug back then you don’t see many bug yeah I remember I remember those but now that was also when you you guys moved into the house that coach Stallings and Ruth Anne had moved out of when they went to Texas A&M well we did we did once but what we had done this was another house after that bees bees and uh bees is friend coach Stalin friend of mine uh but coach Stalin and iene and I jean and I went to church together and uh they had a house that uh that they rented and so Jean I I jean got a raise or got some money or did something he’s he’s a good speaker and he checked out he checked out when I found out he was checking out I checked in I called it was at Alberta City oh okay Alberta City all right City and and the problem was that the people next door to us had a bunch of had some little dogs and I got dogs now I love dogs but their little dogs would bite and if you if you kicked at them um guy that had the little dogs would be all hacked up so yeah but I did take be’s house and uh um uh it was funny one of the funny stories with be bees uh as you know beibs had John Mark who Down syndrome great little kid I mean funny kid and K he could be and Down Syndrome kid and uh I had I had a child about the same time that he did and uh so I got to know John Mark pretty good and um we we would have a u a good town with different people there and John Mark got Dem moing me on on on the sideline and so be would say John Mark Mark Mark coach wimp M show them what coach wimp does and he would throw his hands up in the air and he’d walk up and down he’d throw it he’d throw a rag down on the floor he’d do all it’s the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life he was cutest kid of the world John Mark passed away some time ago I saw Jean not long ago but uh uh John Mark used to love to mock me on the bench that’s that’s great that’s a great story I I have a question too you know I never realized that Coach Riley was your high school coach at coffee so now I understand how you ended up in Alabama because I know you coached you coached one year at Carbon Hill which I know where Carbon Hill is at I’ve been to Carbon Hill many times because I’m from fat County but I always wondered how you you coached one year at Carbon Hill and then you became a graduate assistant in Alabama but um now I know the connection to Coach Riley I just wanted to for people who are not familiar with Coach Riley if maybe you could just give a little perspective on the type of person the man he was he was a great he was a great he was a great person he was a great guy great High School coach went down to Alabama and had the opportunity to recruit and the reason he was offered the job of recruiting when Coach Bryan came back he wanted to find out the person that knew the most coaches in the state of Alabama and everybody kept saying Hayden Riley knows the most coaches in the state and so he got Coach Riley to come down there and be a assisted in basketball and do football coach R did a good B he played basketball there and was a good basketball coach he just basketball and football kind of inter intermingle intermingle with him uh so he was he was really a trick person if I had been a coach ride i’ had no chance and I’ve always been so appreciative to him uh he he was there 12 years as well as a coach um when I went to Carbon Hill two of my for for players two of my former teammates um were also coaches Carbon Hill after I left dab erish and Don Hy and they all so they they did after I went there and we had a good team boy we were really good and we ended up 25 and four we got beat in chance to go to state tournament but I had uh Frank Nicks was a great praise p in fact I had a had a reunion of my team 10 player nine or 10 players we had uh we’ve already lost four or five of them by death and uh I was real young I was 2020 21 I uh I was at the I was at the State uh coaching clinic in tuscalo you had you had you had a coaching clinic and um all the coaches came I couldn’t find a job and I couldn’t find a job because I had not played football and every time they look look at for a basketball coach they wanted somebody that that could be an assistant football coach well I didn’t qualif I didn’t qualify for that so I was having a hard time I was with a guy named Burl Whitson who was end up getting a job at the cater and the principal there and all so we were down there and I was looking like crazy I couldn’t find a job I didn’t know what I was going to do I had a child and U I’m thinking I don’t I don’t think I’m gonna get a job I can didn’t play any football B um there was a notice I found out as I was down there that the principal of Carbon Hill had resigned and that the basketball coach them Hollis Thompson who went who was in north Alabama prior to me he was older than me was going to go from basketball coach to principal and the basketball job was going to be open so I called Hollis and asked him if he if I could have a show shot at it and I don’t remember all what happened but anyway I got that job that way and um we had a terrific team that didn’t have anything to do with me going coffee anyway Coach Riley told me that year there’s a chance Eugene Lambert the head coach at Alabama who’s a very good basketball coach is gonna leave I can’t remember if he left to take another job go back to Memphis or what but he was going to leave he said if he leaves I think I’ve got a chance to get the job if I do I want you to come down there and help us he didn’t wasn’t gonna give you no big time assistance y he already had you know right then so I kind of just waited in the background to see if anything was going to happen and lo and behold um uh I found out that through checking on it and so forth he called me I think told me to come down there and I went down andiy with him and he said uh I can I can pay your way through school let you get your Masters and I can give you $175 a month and Annet can get a job we can get anet a job if you want to do it well I said yeah I’ll do it I I ain’t worried about no C picking money so we have got an apartment behind cars hill behind carbet Hill and the in a basement of a of a duplex and the principal lives upstairs and we live in the B basement in our house we had a $5 stove uh a $10 refrigerator and we had we had orange crates to keep our underwear and our uh stuff in uh underwear and socks and we had we we had about six orange crates for a bedside table we had found a spool that that was wrapped around with that around C around I guess was electrical spool we got it and we brought it home and turned it over and it made a great it made a great bedside table and so uh we didn’t have we didn’t have anything we had a $5 stove $5 refrigerator it it all so we had just one child so I went down there for for about two weeks for when at and Jim got there there and I was there you know whatever new a new daddy sort supposed to be so it came time that that night that that day when she got there that next morning for me to for me to heat the bottle and and feed the baby so I go in and I get the bottle and I put the bottle I’m pretty sleepy I get the bottle and I put the bottle in a pan water and I put it on a gas stove and have electricity and I went over and I sat down to take me just a short note nap while that that bottle was getting ready to feed Jim I was at about 10 or 15 minutes I looked up I was heating the ketchup bottle oh no you were sleepy got picking ketchup bot so anyway uh I stayed there a year it came time for us to leave we didn’t have any money but we found a truck that would put all our belongings on this truck and I went and the we found some apartments that were right next door where coin Coliseum is today right by the law school over there I don’t know if the law school is over now or not but there was a bunch of Barracks over there just just one Barrack after another for students and their wives and so I found I found some a Barracks over there so I went back and uh we got this guy to come and when we got when we taking all the stuff out we had one of those refrigerators with top on it a big top on you too young to know what that would look like the top falls off and goes down in goes down in the woods as they they said we I said forget the cotton picking top we’ll just get we’ll just I said it didn’t cost me $5 dollar we ain’t going after that thing so that we put all our stuff in there which is junk I mean l junko we got ropes this guy got we ROP all our stuff around there and so off we go we get down there the guy do show up he ain’t that so I’m trying you ain’t got no phone I’m trying to find the guy I I don’t want I don’t what to do he had got mixed up and couldn’t find his way to tus loose oh with all our clothes all all of our stuff was no clothes to it so but we finally got him there and you talk Michael you talk about hot you talk about hot with a new baby it’s hotter than it was Hot and Blue blazes I had an air condition a a window unit air conditioner that I had brought from Carbon Hill and I don’t know I don’t know anything about electricity much and I told and I said I’m going I’m gonna I’m going to take this air conditioner I’m gonna put it in plug it in I said we’re dying gim’s burning up back in that back R we can’t stand it so I get I put that thing in I work and work and work and work and get that thing up in the wind it’s a window unit and I get it all fixed and I’m ready to go with it and um I plug it in it won’t work it’s a 110 and the units there are 220 oh no oh no the unit the cotton picking units are 220 I mean I’m telling you stories I ain’t never told anybody it’s 220 and that end of the thing’s 110 and ain’t no good no no it’s not no you and you can’t do anything about it so you had to run out and get an air conditioning oh I had to go get an air condition I a no money to start with i a got and so I I had a little money and and I I I think I don’t want I do I don’t what I did but I got rid of that 110 and bought in that 220 so and it was hot as blue blazes so and you it’s lot of match and the whole thing going so that was my beginning of of of uh going to Alabama well now I know so as you said Coach Riley was there for about 12 years you were uh one of his most trusted assistants you were a graduate assistant I guess for the one year and then you became a full-time assistant um and I know during that time you had you recruited a lot of good players I know coach Riley as far as the success on the court wins and losses you had good years some down years maybe some issues with consistency like like that but I know you thought a lot I know you thought a lot about a lot of Coach Riley the opportunity that the opportunity that he gave you during that period um I’m trying to remember was it at the end of Coach Riley or actually the beginning of Coach Newton when uh the basketball team also started with integration and and recruiting the first African-American players well we we uh coach Newton came down there for a year for Coach Newton had played basketball at Kentucky when coach Brown was the football coach so there was a connection there okay here’s something else some people don’t realize Frank Rose was a president of Transylvania College oh co coach Newton played coached at Transylvania College guess what Frank no rose was the president of the University of Alabama ah okay it was lock City okay it was lock City he’s going you know if he wanted could get the job so he called coach Bryant and through Frank Rose and Coach Bryant they worked it out for coach for Coach Newton to get the job because Frank Rose was President coach Bryant was a ad and so that they so he he stayed there a year and uh the phone off I’m sorry um uh so um um when he did that um he got the job uh as the head coach and so when when that was going on there and um um I can’t remember we had Leaf Carlson was the head assistant coach Lea Carlson had played at Michigan State for uh all the great coach at Michigan State I I can’t think of his name um but he was terrific terrific coach Jo I can’t remember his name but uh he was very good but Le Car the only one I can think of was Jud heathco but it probably before him no before it was before Jud okay it was before Jud uh but he had played he worked at Michigan State and and was very good very learned about basketball so he helped a lot he didn’t recruit much and so uh coach Newton had been there for a year and working on his Doctrine and he left so he had been to Alabama when the job came open he’d already been there for a year and gone back to Transylvania he dropped away from Transylvania for a year and let somebody else coach so we went that back there and coached and then after that um um that that was okay and uh so um um he came in coach Newton did and and we we started having good teams and I was in charge of recruiting and we were very fortunate there were a lot of good players in in in the state of Alabama yep um Jean Barto uh Alabama UAB had decided to start Athletics coach Bryant got mad and Coach Bryant said that the Pres he he didn’t like it because the the board trustees approved and he said we’re not going to play we’re not going they going they get try to get some of the football players that we want at UAB at Alabama we’re not going to play them anything and I said fine Su me I don’t want to play him anyway so it was a situation where if I beat him I was supposed to if I lose to them I’m in bad trouble so no whenn so coach Bryant coach Bryant said no said no and so uh we had a pretty much conab and fuss as the newspapers just absolutely escalated it and really blew it into a big deal Jean and I jean and I and sunny sunny was was getting at Alburn and I was at Auburn and and uh he was okay there and I was a new guy there that nobody really wanted nobody wanted me at Alabama coach Brant didn’t want basketball he hired Wim Wim has never been a head coach in college uh it’s a bad mistake that they just shows they don’t want any basketball there so I didn’t I didn’t nobody wanted me zero so BTO uh the basketball job came open at UAB when they decided to start Sports the athletic director of The Board of Trustees calls you see a and says to Gan Barto can you give me some recommendations for the head basketball coach here at UAB and and it come down exactly like this he said yeah I can give you I can give you some me uh he said you he just wanted out of UCLA yeah well UCLA coach wooden was still keeping the camp and the camp money was big money and so uh when that happened um uh that’s how they hire Jee BTO so Jean BTO comes in with a name I’ve got no name Sun’s coached several places he’s done okay he’s got a better name than I do so now we’re off to the races to get the best players in the state of Alabama and the ones in Birmingham and there’s Enis Watley and there’s and there’s Reginal King and there’s Eddie Phillips and there’s his own there’s T dun there’s all kind of players there all kind of good players there and uh but our job was to get them now uh when when you go into the homes with the coaches the name coach is Jean bartop the no Dame coaches a sunny and I especially me because I had not been a head coach so there we go and we get into some really big stinks and in fact sunny and I we we writing articles I’ve got some those articles by the way that I wrote I love you read them and I was a writer for the Birmingham paper for a while and remember that b right but I mean I wrote my own Sunny had somebody right is but I wrote my own I thought they were pretty good I’ll show them to you sometime I don’t think Jean wrote but I wrote my wrote my own so um I would uh uh get our Lums who we had about I had about five or six Lums in in in Birmingham who love basketball they didn’t like they didn’t like UAB they didn’t like Jean they didn’t like they wanted Alabama to be good they didn’t want to have basketball or football there and so I would get them to help me go by not buy them but just go by and visit with them say hello to the mother to the mother of them just be Sho around find out the gossip and all that kind of stuff so I was in charge of that and uh um without being boastful I did a good job with I got I got most all of them I lost one to I lost one to Houston Alan Murphy he uh they came in and beat me on him in the last last minute too long story to tell but uh the rest of them we evaluated them good we took some guys that um that maybe just a little bit questionable as far as how good they were but we stayed right there in the state in the state right there as best we could when we first started off CM wanted to go to Kentucky and get some and we did we went to Kentucky and we got three or four good players at Kentucky and uh right prior to the minorities coming in as you wanted to mention um coach Bryant went uh coach newon went to coach briyan and said I think we need to start recruiting minorities um I had recruited for a long time not recruiting minorities from I had recruited Illinois and places like that so we did that and um hope I’m telling this right but anyway he went in there and felt like we need to recruit some minorities Pat D was the uh assistant football coach at Alabama eight for eight years when I was there and he was recruiting a kid from ozar Alabama U the great great running back Bok not H not hurricane but uh you you you everybody knows somebody that sees the show like I should have thought of it and I can’t think of it but anyway had a great running back uh at Ozark Alabama and U we were involved with with trying to get a good basketball players the best basketball area best basketball school was was uh was uh uh where Wendell Hudson was and uh Wendell Hudson and his group were were really good at the gone black not Carver but the Parker and C Brown was the coach at Parker and Cat Brown was a well-known coach but he’d let you come in and watch practice and those kind of things and I got in there pretty good I didn’t really recruit Wendell uh as much uh I recruited him but we all kind of worked we had Leon Douglas who was in Leon Alabama yeah Leon’s not very far from Florence it’s Carby County I lived in Lauderdale and so we were all recruting Leon and so I helped some on Leon we had some other coaches to help see him help um uh Leon’s mother liked fish and U you know she like to do that kind of stuff well back then that those those years you could sign you could sign uh the conference letter but there also was a national letter and if you we signed Leon to the conference letter but we couldn’t get him to sign the cottet national letter okay so so U what’s his name uh I think of it when I hang up was up one of the first minority coaches that really came South U I can’t think he comes down there he comes down at Leon you can call Leon as he comes down at Le starts playing uh cards with him Checkers with him goofing with the pool room shooting pool with him Leon Leon ain’t got anything but a pool room and a church and uh but we’re worried because we we know we we know we got a 10 Team league so we just got a 10 team lead but we we we’ve cut the other night out we got we got the conference letter signed but we don’t have the national letter signed so um we were uh they W going to be much money passed by there wasn’t going to be no if it was $5 $10 something it was no money was no buying much wasn’t we I was he just get you was no such thing as three visits and all that kind of crap we just go in and see them so um one of the funny things that that uh um no nobody nobody ever knew was uh I found out I didn’t get credit for recruiting Leon rest of I gave him credit uh I heard I found out that Leon brother needed a car and he lived in chattano so I had a car my one of my best buddies was a car dealer so I said nor would you sell Leon Douglas’s brother get Leon Douglas’s brother a car at cost and he said yeah I think I can so I can’t remember with a with a he this this boy’s passed away he one of my best friends we go we go and nobody knows it but we trying to get the brother to tell Leon come on sign the C National letter 10 get the get the thing signed and so you know we got you got this sign an Ask letter tent you get ask letter T I can get a c calls so uh so that’s kind of what I pull like we we we got National 11 tent sign I mean uh we got the na 11 10 sign but that didn’t all that didn’t sew it up Leon didn’t even know it he didn’t even know you could call Leon tonight he said huh he wouldn’t know it I got we got the brother and uh so uh that’s that’s kind of the way we got him of course he was a big we we and he came to Alabama and they say Leon you know he’d stand up made all holler and Screen you know about come to Alabama which was a little bit unique thing for Alabama basketball and so we uh we got him we had Wendell Hudson was the first we got HUD it was the first one we got and I don’t know that I could take credit for Hood we I worked on him some but um I was up there a lot recruiting um recruiting uh Parks players had a kid named ra R Scott who who played for Mark who Co coached with Mark godre and um he was a good gu hard and u i I was with him I was with him night and day trying to get him sign I couldn’t get him sign he wouldn’t sign he he yeah he almost GNA sign think he’s gonna sign I mean I was worrying him to death to sign I was up there every day trying to get sign I couldn’t I couldn’t get sign uh so I could tell he was getting annoyed with it because me being up here so much and me said when you going to sign so I went to a baseball game he’s going to pitch I get behind the Umpire behind the fence right behind the fence and every time we ra ra look down for the for the sign to pitch it he’d see the catcher the Umpire and whm right there you wore him down yeah I wor down and we got through he that’s that’s enough I had enough I ain’t doing that I had enough I’m on sign I’m on sign I had the had the principal in my pocket he’s dead too I’m telling stuff a and I he he was a big card player and he’s a good friend if I need and all those guys had great we was no big great deal then but if I need if I just needed a guy to have a be if I just really needed for him to have a be when he had a c Miss Thompson I think you probably would need to be so I don’t know that I didn’t do much of that because Mr Thompson Mr Thompson could do what he wanted he wanted to come to Alabama but I was in Miss Thompson so um well that we had a player named enus Wy everybody en waty was the first guy in state of Alabama who would look East and throw West I remember those P look right Phils high school he looked right and throw and throw other way I talked to him occasionally and of course we was recruiting him hard and I would have people go by boy I another named reg King I don’t forget reg and so I would go around trying to see him and uh UAB got his sister a job uh I think at UAB they got they got his s BTO and them got his sister something me and my assistant Le or Clinton we’re going in now on the official visit I got the official visit all lined up with his mama his mama’s got a little list of things she’d like to have I wasn’t nothing uh uh $10 for church every Sunday one was nothing I I still got it I still got it in there or well framed it and uh it wasn’t he was she and and the daddy when we got there the daddy was in the front yard working on cars he ain’t going no he ain’t going no C pick meeting me and Leon and the mama and the mama mama don’t know not know basketball she don’t she just knows coach Sanderson from Alabama’s in there and so forth and so on so we all ready ready to go guess what in 38 years of coaching he didn’t show up for the official visit you were there with the parents no show oh no so I’m I don’t know what to say we gone in there with the mama we done a good job with the mama we told her everything thing was nothing that we was nothing we missed and we’re walking up to the sidewalk and I’ll never forget it and I said to Leon how in the name of Pete are we going to get anym he don’t even show up for the official visit I was putting pressure on him see and he said we’ll do we’ll do something coach we’ll we’ll you know you I don’t remember what he said but uh uh it was one of them nerve la things well I come to find out from a guy that the statement was made that if if uh they were going to they were giving her that job just for the to get Eno that things didn’t go right uh they were G to fire well I kind of put that that didn’t sound good see that didn’t sound no so I got that out I got that out I said they going they tell me don’t fire you sister you know I said you know they I said i’ get her job I would do something so um we ended up uh we ended up getting him and he was he was a good player uh I uh hired a guy that [Music] uh uh I didn’t know he was he was working for a friend of mine and I thought he was a good recruiter and I and I made a mistake on and uh uh he comes into my office and he said at the end of his sophomore year and he says uh I think any ought to go pro I said what he said I think you want to go pro I said go pro well um some things came down CA anyo didn’t anyo didn’t like class he didn’t care anything about going class he wasn’t here no basketball class I mean not basketball he wasn’t here no class but so it was a little bit of a rub there he’s the only one we lost outside of Derek mcke we lost Eno after two years I talked to Eno sometimes occasionally and um he was on a good some good teams for us one team at North car we we should have beat North Carolina didn’t but uh um anyo uh uh deadly at the end two years I hated that too he got some money and I don’t know where the money came from he got some money ain’t no money like they getting today ain’t nothing ain’t no money like that I ain’t talking about buying much money but he got but they would but but a little bit of money went long way back then you know $10 went a lot further than it goes today so um so you know we we ended up getting him but we lost him after two years and lost Derek key uh was at Mississippi well there’s speaking of that there there’s something I wanted to make sure the the listeners understand about the level of consistency that you had during your tenure so I want to do a Shameless plug for you coach so I want to remind everybody that’s listening that are not familiar with the coach Sanderson era you were the head coach for 12 years 10 out of 12 Years you went to the NCAA tournament six times you went to the Sweet 16 nine times out of those 12 years you played for the SEC tournament title and five times you won it the level of consistency that you brought to the program during the 80s when I was watching the program and in the early 90s when I was in school is is what I believe is is is one of the the great things about the history of this program there’s been other eras of of greatness too but I’m going to say that 12year period was was something that I always remember and what I wanted to ask you is and this is just my opinion and I I don’t know much more than anyone else not a coach not a technical expert but I always felt that these four teams that you had 1982 1986 1987 and 1990 that any four of those with any just a little bit of luck or a different seating could have gotten to the final four those four I always felt in my heart that they could I was just wondering how you felt about those four teams yeah I think you’re right we had U we had tough draws yep uh we had we didn’t play uh especially um especially the one year that we and we we didn’t get great seeds we had tough draws no terrible seating by the committee yeah we was absolutely awful my last year that we went all the way to California and beat Arizona but anyway all the maramont I’ll talk about that sometime um so we were getting bad pretty tough seeds we we got a two and uh the 86 well the league was so good and I don’t mind comparing the league to now the league was better back then and the reason the league was better back then the players just as good or better and nobody ever transferred nobody ever left like they do today it was no new team every year the league in 86 uh was better than the league is today not that doesn’t really matter I don’t really have compare TI particularly but uh it it was um we are playing um uh to go to either play Providence or believe was Austin PE that’s right that’s the game that went in overtime and now we won we’re just waiting to see who we going to play Providence fouls a guy at the buzzer if he makes either free throw the game’s over and we don’t and we play them we play them in Lille up in L he miss some both uh Provence come back and wins we go up there and we do a poor job it’s my fault we did a poor job of defending the three or we didn’t defend the three very well or we defended pretty good at times and they made everything a shot they were just hot that day yeah they beat they beat us uh we uh we ended up having to play Providence uh I thought we were ready to play uh obviously we weren’t ready to very ready defensively and um we we found a progress team team that had relied on the three they shot the lights out of it killed us and um so we lost that game one of our better teams uh we got we got tough draws um I guess I’m known as the the guy who got us to the Sweet 16 and couldn’t get by that and I am to some degree um we had some off took with North Carolina uh at North Carolina state was a was a game that uh we uh should have won uh we deserved to win that game we did not win the game uh we should have we got beat by five and they they uh we playing at North Carolina State um we um um I don’t remember the other places we went uh what we did what we did with our team was we had 10 Team league um we the 76 the uh 86 uh won eight out of nine on the road which is almost unbelievable back then the Kentucky up there went eight out of nine uh on the road uh fin 16 and two got beat by Kentucky at home uh and lost on the last shot at Florida that was an overtime game too yeah I I don’t know how I can remember all this for some reason I’m able to I guess uh um it was uh just a deal where where U my batteries got to go a little bit further uh uh so uh we had great teams we got to the 16 couldn’t get back we uh back then uh round robin was important if he won the league wasn’t talked about as much the tournament had come into play and it was a big deal um we we got a ring we would get a ring if we wanted turn kids like Rings we were cons you were considered back in those days the champion of the SEC if you won the tournament okay people that listen to this show are saying it shouldn’t be that way it should be the round robin I’m not arguing that with anybody probably if you play if you play eight if you play everybody in your league uh twice which we did they don’t do that now we played everybody in the league 10 teams so that mean we played 16 we played H 16 game schedule 10 uh 18 18 game schedule same thing they’re gonna do this year 18 games and we played everybody home and home when I first went to Alabama we played Saturday Monday and we drove a bus from tsoa to play Tennessee and Knox and on up to Kentucky play Kentucky and Kentucky he got no chance we we have we didn’t have the money to to uh spend for a plane we flew a we took a bus and uh all those things were ridiculous but we did and um it was it was the 10 Team league but uh with the thoughts of of the tournament being the Champions we uh did a good job of getting our teams ready to play uh we emphasized that uh we added a little bit of offense to our to our team that had been scouted all year uh we got our team to play hard I felt like and I thought we played hard in the games that we lost but uh we got to the point to where we uh it meant it meant a lot to us you know the the SEC tournament is sort of around spring holidays y you’re not careful your players will be thinking you know if we get beat we can be in with our girlfriends in Florida for Five day period uh so it was a little bit scary to be darn sure that you got your team ready to play and for whatever reason uh we had we had good players very good players and and uh the success to winning games is to have as good a better players than your opponent and get them to play hard you can say that first sentence but you don’t get him to play hard and I had a game or two where outside the tournament NCAA tournament that uh we didn’t we didn’t play as hard as we should so uh uh we we won uh in Atlanta be LSU we won in Orlando we won won in Knoxville we won in Nashville we won in Lexington uh we never won in Birmingham we uh we got to the finals three times in Birmingham against Georgia uh Kentucky and Auburn Auburn alurn that was over that was overtime Auburn game whatever oh that one that one hurts me to this day 85 overtime game yeah so anyway we uh we got where we put a lot of emphasis a lot of talk about us being so good being a tournament team and it just captivated and being that kind of team every year everybody’s always what’s what’s Alabama going to do in the tournament so we sort of became a tournament team so as it is it pointed out in the 12 years that I had the job we got to the the final game nine times and won it five times you can look back on it and see where we could have won it should have won about seven but we didn’t and uh it was it was a captivating deal so um you know we got in the NCAA tournament because of of winning but I think you know there wasn’t as many teams going it was harder to go back then everybody was good there was a lot of leagues you had to really you know be darn sure that you got in the league my first year we did not get in there and then one other year we did not get in there uh we got a bunch of people hurt my first year but we did they they they sent us to the NIT and they tried to get rid of us and uh they did everything they could to get rid of us they sent we play up get where near the end they sent us to St John’s loose Cara the great coach at St John’s we played him and they and we end up we beat St John’s at St John’s they sent us to Duke and we get beat by Duke with with two players on the bench that been starting for us so they got rid of us back then they tried to get rid of you if you if you you know by sending you to somebody’s home game they didn’t always have it we had it there were some games before I before I got the job some teams where you played all the games in New York at Mass Square Garden yeah oh nit yep we got uh we got we beat uh and and if you played a Kentucky team uh you better play good because you playing seven of them you playing them and the two officials they you didn’t you didn’t need you they didn’t need for a team sponsored by by nit to go to to lose out when nobody came we played Manhattan one time beat them I shot of the game Glen Garrett shot yeah made the shot uh to win the game and we got in the final four a couple of times but uh that was about it so uh well if I remember correctly you know during your 12 years you were right the only two years that you didn’t make the NCAA tournament was the end of the 81 season and the end of the 88 season what I wanted to ask you there’s a couple questions I want to ask you and then we can wrap everything up but one thing I wanted to ask you about the NCAA tournament I know from a fan perspective it makes it exciting from television and fans it’s a oneandone deal but from a coaching perspective that’s got to frustrate the heck out of you especially when you know deep down you have the better team and you just had a bad night yeah you talking NCAA yes in the NCAA tournament that’s correct I don’t think that people realize when you get a tough draw how hard it is to get to the final 16 I mean we played we played Arizona uh and then we played uh VCU David Hobs was assistant coach on that team uh in Albuquerque New Mexico two great wins um we played uh I don’t know all can’t even remember now but we you can look at you know you keep up with it better than I do but we played we played some really hard games in those first two games to get to the 16 I mean it would be it would be it because they always expect us to win that game they always say Alabama’s at the final 16 for the third straight you know that kind of stuff and then they they cut us up but but because we got beat but uh um we we had we had some tough games to win and everybody does and I’m and not and so I’m not doing this podcast to make excuses at all we were very fortunate to get to the final 16 six times and U six out of 12 years is quite unbelievable really and to get in that 10 out of 12 years was great uh unfortunately we didn’t get certainly as far as the final for Te did this year well and and I think and again I’m not trying to disparage anything from 20 4 and even this past season but you can see it takes luck timing getting hot at the right time and the right matchups to be able to get through and navigate that because if all it takes is one bad matchup or one off night and it doesn’t matter how good you are one game situation you go home yeah we held Michael Jord Jordan to 13 I believe it was uh because I know Watley and he on the same team Watley used to kid him all the time about that’s right they were in the Bulls together for uh um we held him and we should have won that game I can’t even think of of uh of you know the places that we that we played and lost but the SEC tournament U the funny part about it we won it everywhere except at home home got beat three times in the finals so um it was u a lot of good players who played hard there were a lot of good players in the state uh the controversy between Jee BTO and somewhat sunny and myself was there uh the newspapers had an opportunity to write up anything bad I said uh uh if you had to pick out Fair hair boys fairhead coaches probably best coaches or whatever you probably start with Jean because he had one I just saw today that Bill Walton passed away yeah I saw that was sad Walton I did a clinic and I got the biggest kick out of Bill Walton because I because it pleased me um and so I was I was getting Bill Walter to speak to the clinic we got to be friends and he came in and you can look this up he played he played uh it was either UAB or whoever Jean had Memphis I believe and he either missed one shot or no shots and he was started talking about that defense they had life and making fun of it course I was loving it when he got up there think about how bad your defense but either you I know you’re gonna look it up after I hang up but he either scored 23 uh shot it 12 times and made 11 you’ll look it up and see it next time I see you’ll tell me what it was but he came in and bragged about that bless his heart quite a a different guy and uh uh he was some guy but he was a guy that nobody understood very much but uh he was some player and he he did a good job coming in uh to Birmingham and speaking for him well coach I’ve got one last important question and it was something that when I read the book I thought I would find in the book but unless I missed it I I never saw the answer to this one question that I’ve had so to me what I would like to ask you is the final question is where did the Plaid sport Coates come from and when did it start because what I want to say is this everyone knows that Alabama football is synonymous with hounds to and I dare say that everyone says the same thing that Alabama basketball is synonymous with plaid so is there a hidden story behind the really not I just want to thank uh I want to thank Alabama uh B museum for putting it in in there the other day and a picture of our stuff and and a little bit about Alabama basketball and and one of my they came by and got one of my plid Sport coachs and put in there and I was pleased with that Olivia was did a good job with that Arnold I think it is um I I wore a plaid sport coat and I don’t know why and I read something about it read something about me BR yeah and and uh Bor again and they said something else about it and uh we needing interest we needing fans we’re needing home court advantage um and it it had gotten to way it was kind of popular I was going over to see a kid in Georgia can’t think of his name and we got there oh I called him up and I said can we see so and so so and so she said yeah you can come over but you got to wear one of those pled sport coats that’s funny so I thought I said yes ma’am I will one more we go down in Florida this guy got with the pros can think of his name go down in Florida I got PL sport code on it’s hot and we in there we talking all and I take it all and the little boy’s sister comes over there and says could I touch it I said yeah you touch it so she touched it so um the funny part about that plaid thing that Hound s hat I’ve got one of Coach by hat he sat on our bench when I was assistant coach at New York Sunny welin we pronounced that quite right it was the head guy of New York Jets Jets or GI Jets I think I think it’s jet he gave coach one of those hats Oh yeah and when coach came back he had that hat on everybody saw it kind of like hat Nick has on now when he plays God and so he he he starts get those things done not to the point that you would today you could make a fortune out of today and uh but he got those and I got a couple of them U um I gave G McCulla one who uh was a close friend of Coach B I could talk about him L because I I was there under um 4 ads and four four new head football coaches so when they talk about coach leaving this year and what went on what didn’t go on you know I saw it four times and it was always quite quite unique we uh we had some special wins and then I’ll close we had a special win if if you want to call him special we won the SEC tournament and the SEC Championship at Kentucky 198 special win 4846 we blew him out 4846 I won’t go into what happened and uh then uh we are in California and we’re going to play Southern Cal and then we’re going to play uh uh Southern Cal who was really good Bob boy was coach he coach of Mississippi State uh he was beat he was tough boy he was really good Southern Cal and uh Georgetown Patrick Y and we went out there and won both those games it’s almost against the rules to go out there and beat southern cal southern cal can’t hard do it we did it we come back home and we’re going to play we’re going to play uh UCLA who was number one team in the nation uh in a big game vital all the big shots going to be it’s uh it’s Sunday afternoon I’m out in the hall getting drink of water to the double lowers comes Coach Brown never been to my office always go to his came in sat on my couch I went and got a chair and sat down and sit talk he started talking about the game they lost against Georgia about how he didn’t do a very good job disciplining making Snak stable behave just different I can’t help just different stuff that’s on Sunday on Monday night he gets sick on Tuesday he gets sicker uh he probably dies Tuesday night I’m not sure whether it’s Tuesday night or when it was we we’re down there practicing we’re going we’re going we’re going to play UCL and uh we uh are practicing they come down and they say to me uh they’re fixing to announce that coach Brian has passed away I said wow we woo I hate that so bad and it’s terrible and I said you know I I I got I got it was secondary but I got to figure out what we need to do about this UCLA game so um I don’t know if I went right after practice I probably did because we were gonna leave on Thursday and play the game on Saturday uh but I called Paul junr and I said you know we’re supposed to play UCLA no ination and his answer was Papa would have wanted you to play so we did went out we saw the service we saw the funeral possession that went through Cal little towns all the way to burn ham to the barrel and uh very emotional thing and uh we didn’t go out to win the game for Coach Bryan or anything like that I said we just went out to play and uh we got a we got a two three baseball guys who were good officials called the game and we got we got a fair call call game the game called fairly I thought very fairly out there they got it mix up on the clock and we end up winning the game and I would uh I would dare say that that’s one of the most Monumental victories in Alabama basketball history that was not associated with any Championship or anything like that but was needed I mean was needed more than ever given the circumstances of what the Alabama nation was going through at the time I you know we got people watching this tonight watching it when you get through doing it they you know they were so young they don’t even know it they don’t even remember it but but for people like you you’re probably the best basketball guy in America keep up with Alabama basketball better than anybody in America so um no it was it was a special time it was a good win it was exciting time the funny part about it so stupid I did some stupid things I I guess stupid we had a kid named Terry Williams on our team he really play he burned it up against uh against Georgetown and um Southern cap shot the lights out there was a buddy of mine who was assistant at UCLA he came and Scout us twice we come back and I can’t even remember but we I get into it with Terry or what something that happens I suspend him well the guy watching the game for say suspense ter whbs he got 20 something each game he ain’t gonna play in in that game that’s where I was on top of that I took Terry with the team in Street close oh and I made him sit on the bench in street clothes and then we win the game and so we had a reunion not long ago and Terry came back he I don’t I don’t think he he’s in love with me but but he came back and uh but to do that was kind of the way I did things just kind of the way I you know I suspended Robert oy for the Vander for the Vanderbilt game uh for the opening game at Vanderbilt the SEC tournament and uh I suspended for one game we got into it and Philip Pearson who was on that team a friend and and coach of Georgia and so forth played for me he said they had bets the next game well what time I put Robert in the game we played all in the second game oh we opened up with with uh Florida go get this we opened up in Florida we’re down 15 or 16 a half everybody the dressing room is mad at everybody else and I’m mad at myself why the crap did I do that I could I should have done something and you don’t need to suspend them you need to make them behave and get them straight and and we came back the second half and beat them Lon Krueger was a coach he coached great coach he coached it in the pros he got he got Florida to four yeah and we played D and uh and then we played Auburn and we were great against Auburn then we had to play Tennesse right there and we just clobbered Tennessee yeah I remember that too I to real quickly to go back again to the UCLA game I was 13 when all that went down and I remember in junior high they the principal came on and announced over the PA system when coach Brian had passed away and you could have heard a pin drop in our high school and then I remember uh keeping up with the UCLA game I believe it was on a Friday night because the funeral was that afternoon or early midday and then you guys played later that night I remember all the all the circumstances and all that yeah I remember when all that happened and that was coach Bryant’s body yeah they took coach Bryant’s body down through cille and all the little towns leading into the cemetery and people would have Flags Alabama stuff and all that kind of stuff and it was uh it was such that it was on television National Television we watched it from the hotel uh in in U in California so those are some heck of stories of a lot of different things that happened I hadn’t told all those I had told those in a long time well coach I uh again I can’t thank you enough for for I want to thank you for what you do for Val basketball what you did for me and what you know you go back and look at you know I always laugh it when people say I was there new Coast I said well that means you’re old so help that’s me I’m right there but I appreciate you do i’ be happy to do it anything you want me to do I’m glad to do it yeah well again coach it was an honor and as I said there was no one else that uh that we wanted to invite as the first guest for this summer podcast series when it comes on call me let me know I I will I’ll let you know after it’s edited and when we publish it but again okay I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you’ve done for me these last seven months too by the way I really appreciate it glad to do it you you deserve it thank you thanks coach take care bye bye bye