Column: Through The Good Times & Bad, Cecil Was There

*This is an opinion column*

TUSCALOOSA, AL — I inherited a stack of old yellow newspapers when my aunt died — all frayed copies of the Tuscaloosa News that feature historic Crimson Tide moments.

We keep stuff like that here in the South because, what they lose in depreciation, they gain in sentimental value with each new year.

My Aunt Ann saved everything printed when legendary Crimson Tide football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant died. In one edition from Jan. 27, 1983, a then-little-known staff writer in his early 20s named Cecil Hurt reported on the reactions of Coach Bryant's aides after receiving news the day before that the iconic coach had died of a sudden heart attack.

That same week, in what had to have been one of his most thrilling assignments of his young career to that point, he would cover a 70-67 upset of No. 1 UCLA by the Crimson Tide men's basketball team ... the same day that a motorcade transported Coach Bryant to his final resting place at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

"Cecil was a college football historian," SEC Network television personality and former Auburn football player Cole Cubelic told Patch Tuesday night. "So even though he covered Alabama, he had the respect for and knowledge of other teams. He was a beautiful storyteller who always had you reeled in, but I always felt like that dry sense of humor really set him apart. They just don't make them like him anymore."

Cecil would go on to write extensively for the Tuscaloosa News over more than four decades, covering everything from the failure of Ray Perkins to escape the shadow of his late mentor, to an exciting young linebacker named Derrick Thomas who would forever change the game of football.

He was in the press box for the stale years of Alabama football and the return to glory under Gene Stallings. Cecil was in the crowd of reporters for the calamitous series of failed football coaches who followed over the next decade that hit its fever pitch with Mike Price being fired before ever coaching a single down for the Tide.

And Cecil was most certainly watching 15 years ago on an overcast afternoon in January when Nick Saban's private jet was met with a roaring crowd when it touched down at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport — forever changing the physical landscape of Tuscaloosa and the cultural landscape of college football.

I grew up in Tuscaloosa and am someone who in-part learned how to read by trying to make sense of sports columns from the likes of Cecil Hurt and Andrew Carroll, in addition to the beautiful writing of another of my heroes, the late Ben Windham. So it was no doubt a sad reminder of time's inevitable passage when we received news that Cecil died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 62.

I admit that I'm a typical Tuscaloosa native whose feelings on the local paper have ebbed and flowed over the years, but Cecil was always the constant.

It's funny to think about in today's digital age, but my high school teammates and I would shove and grab at the one pile of newspapers delivered each day during break period at Northside High School. In most cases, we would immediately remove the sports section and toss the rest of the paper into the trash, before standing around reading scores and talking about what Cecil had to say about Mike Shula or Mark Gottfried.

Sadly, I don't have a personal Cecil Hurt story. But WVUA Sports Director Gary Harris told me in a quick chat Tuesday that the stories like mine were numerous and underscored Cecil's reach. These include the Bama diehards who have cited Cecil in Sunday lunch table arguments with enough regularity to give one the impression they knew why Cecil was smirking in his longtime byline headshot — despite never once meeting the man.

Harris and the popular newspaper columnist appeared countless times together discussing Crimson Tide sports on WVUA. A well-known television broadcaster himself, Harris described Cecil as a friend and a Renaissance man.

"Even the people who didn't know him personally knew him through his words and that's about the greatest legacy you could leave," Harris said. "They feel like they knew him. That was Cecil's gift. He was an iconic journalism figure regardless. It didn't matter if it was news, sports or whatever. He was a sports writer, but a journalist first. It's a huge loss for everybody in this state, it doesn't matter if it's Alabama or Auburn."

Jim Rainey, who worked as publisher of the Tuscaloosa News from 2012-2018, echoed the sentiment, saying while Cecil will no doubt be remembered most for his "magnificent" columns on Alabama football, many people fail to fully appreciate the incredible work he did for many Alabama basketball seasons.

This made me think back to his story of Alabama's 1983 win over No. 1 UCLA, where Cecil described the black ribbons on their Crimson uniforms to honor Coach Bryant. It was a story that on a regular day would have been on the the top fold of any paper in Alabama and a major story across the country.

"He was as passionate about covering a disappointing basketball season as he was a championship football season," Rainey told me. "And Cecil wasn’t just a great wordsmith. He was also a very good reporter, whose sourcing was always impeccable."

Former Alabama basketball coach Wimp Sanderson — who coached the likes of NBA stars such as Latrell Sprewell and Robert Horry during their time at the Capstone — told Patch he always appreciated Cecil's impeccable coverage and spoke to the longtime columnist's ability to follow the nuances of a sport and not just the numbers on the scoreboard.

"Cecil was so level-headed and understood teams, coaches and players," Sanderson told me Tuesday evening. "He will be missed and I hate it so much."

Cecil also died just days before the Iron Bowl, with his absence setting this year's installment apart from most others over the last half century. But it would be at one these annual rivalry meetings that Jim Rainey — Cecil's future publisher at the Tuscaloosa News — would first meet the patriarch of modern-day sports journalism in Tuscaloosa.

"My first memory of meeting him was in the press box at Auburn before an Iron Bowl," he said. "He was reading a book that appeared to be as thick as 'War and Peace.' I was the publisher of the Opelika-Auburn News at the time. I asked the person next to me, 'What’s up with this guy? He doesn’t seem much interested in the game.' I was told 'That’s Cecil Hurt.' That’s when I noticed his laptop beside him. Half of his column was already written."

Rainey said he kept a close eye on Cecil to observe how he would watch a football game, noting that he would read the thick book during a television timeout, before writing a sentence or two of his story.

An accomplished and talented journalist in his own right, Rainey noticed that Cecil continued in that rhythm until the end of the game.

"The next morning, I read everything on that game and realized, though it was a Bama loss, no one came close to capturing the moment like Cecil," he said. "He is a legend for a good reason. He was that good. Some people march to the beat of their own drummer. Cecil conducted his own marching band. He saw the world differently than the rest of us but was uniquely gifted in communicating things the rest of us might have seen in a light that brought them to life anew"

Cecil's Legacy

This gift for seeing the whole picture was not lost on the scores of younger journalists who looked up to him — including the author of this column. Cecil's storytelling ability and passion for commentary rubbed off on many others, ranging from his co-workers to those in the athletic press pools in Tuscaloosa who were technically his competitors.

Former Tuscaloosa News reporter Drew Taylor, a contemporary journalist I greatly respect who regularly hammers out complex pieces of journalism for CBS 42, is one-such writer in the next generation of journalists tasked with making sense of the world around us.

"Cecil Hurt was one of the best sportswriters in America in a way that was unassuming, yet undeniable," he told me. "Many columnists and talking heads pander and provoke to get attention. Instead, Cecil just tried to tell it the best way he could. At The Tuscaloosa News, you wanted to do the best stories you could just so you could feel like you were in his league. The truth is that no one was in his league. No one will ever be in his league, but he made all of us better by always pushing forward and always keeping his mind and heart open."

Taylor is right. No one is in Cecil's league. That's why everyone else in this story is formally referred to by their last names. And after all, it's the only way I've ever heard the man referred to in my 32 years on this earth.

AL.com Crimson Tide beat writer Michael Casagrande, while also among the younger generation of journalists, has seen volumes during his time in the press box. With the Iron Bowl approaching on Saturday, it will be the first normal season during Casagrande's career covering The Tide that he knows Cecil will not be back in the columns of the paper the next day.

"Cecil was an institution and I could see that the minute I walked into the Alabama media room," he told me on Tuesday. "You could see how much respect he had within our business and the readers who consumed our work. He was every bit as hilarious in person as he was on Twitter. His one liners in the press box was a reminder of how fortunate we were to work in this business. I can’t imagine how it will feel at the Iron Bowl without his wit and humor."

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