Bobby Lee Hurt
Basketball
The phone buzzes, and soon a friend hands it off to Bobby Lee Hurt. On the other end is Wimp Sanderson. In a matter of moments, decades melt away. Wrinkles disappear. The hair under Bobby Lee’s flashy crimson Panama hat goes from gray to dark. Old images come into focus. Wimp, scowling and prowling on the sidelines in one of his magnificent plaid sportscoats. Bobby Lee, so dominant, with his elegance and power. Crowds chanting “One … two … three … Bob … bee … Lee!” Those glorious days where being Bobby Lee Hurt must have been the absolutely coolest thing to be in Huntsville, Alabama.
Hurt rocks back and forth on his chair, laughing throughout the conversation with his former coach at the University of Alabama. “He made jokes, you know,” Hurt says, thinking back to playing under Sanderson. “And then he’d get that face, that look. We know what that means. It’s time to play.”
One big last laugh in the phone conversation, and a random name pops up.
Jim Nabors, the Sylacauga native most folks recall as the TV character Gomer Pyle.
It seems that the choice of colleges for Bobby Lee came down to Alabama and Hawaii. Nabors by that point was living a life of prominence in Hawaii. He’d call Hurt, trying to convince him to come to Hawaii. He painted pictures of wonderful weather and potential future glory in Hollywood. Sanderson learned of Nabors’ outreach. So did football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. The latter called Nabors, basically saying that Hurt needed to remain in-state, and for Nabors to cease with the phone calls.
Aloha, Honolulu. Bobby Lee Hurt signed with Alabama following his epic career at Butler High School, where at 6-foot-9, 242 pounds, he was a man amongst boys. He averaged 20.2 points and 13.3 rebounds per game as a senior, hitting 69 percent of his shots. “Remember, he only played about half of every game,” his coach Jerry Rice told a reporter. He was a McDonalds All-America selection and two-time all-state player. His senior year, Butler reached the state finals, where it lost a two-point heartbreaker to Hayes, with Hurt being named tournament MVP. En route to the state, Hurt had what he called “probably my best game” when the Rebels trounced Tuscaloosa’s Holt High and Bobby Lee had 32 points, 16 rebounds and 10 dunks.
Many Huntsville folks would proclaim Hurt as the best basketball player in the city’s history. Certainly few have ever been more decorated or highly recruited. As The Washington Post wrote in 1981, “he was the State of Alabama’s No. 1 commodity. Cotton was second.” The microscope on him was often very critical and the attention was massive. “I always kept my poise, you know, just kept working hard,” he says. “I always wanted to get better.”
He was hardly a one-man team for Butler. The 6-foot-5 Robert Taylor was also an All-State selection, and there was a guard named Jimmy Key, for whom professional baseball and a 15-year career in the major leagues would become his legacy in Butler sports lore. Hurt also gave wrestling a quick fling – as a wrestler, he was a great power forward – and was recruited for the Butler track team when the coach noticed Hurt’s loping strides and dazzling speed while running 440-yard conditioning sprints. Even with no track training and experience, his time nearly matched that of Butler’s top 440 guy.
Once at Alabama, Hurt was an immediate star and fan favorite. He averaged 25 minutes’ playing time as a freshman, averaging 10.2 points per game. The numbers would only increase: 15.3 points, 8.9 rebounds as a sophomore, 15.6 points, 9.1 boards as a junior, then 12.8 points and 8.6 rebounds as a senior, starting every game his last three seasons. He led the SEC in rebounding as a sophomore and is still 20 th all-time in the SEC in rebounds and led the league in blocked shots as a senior. Hurt was third-team All-SEC as a sophomore, second-team All-SEC as a junior and first-team his senior year, and all three years was first-team All-SEC tournament. The Tide reached the NCAA tournament in each of his four years, with Hurt joined by such greats as Buck Johnson, Ennis Whatley and Eddie Phillips. Hurt was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 18 th pick but they could not come to terms on a contract. Hurt took his talents overseas, playing in Italy, Spain, Turkey, France and Germany before returning to his Huntsville home.
--Mark McCarter
