ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
ESPN article about Forrest Gump's days at Alabama:
www.espn.com
"He must be the stupidest son of a b---- alive! But he sure is fast!"
-- "Bear Bryant" speaking of Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump"
It was 30 years ago this fall that "Forrest Gump," the story of a gentle soul who ended up traveling the globe, meeting presidents and filling the world with wisdom such as "Life is like a box of chocolates," and "Stupid is as stupid does," was running through the box office and toward six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Hanks and Best Director for Robert Zemeckis.
If you are a true Gump believer -- and judging by the film's $678 million gross, the 2.5 million copies sold of Winston Groom's book that inspired the film, the brisk sales of its recent 30th anniversary Blu-Ray re-release, not to mention the line of people I recently saw waiting to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Times Square, there are many -- then you also know that this fall also marks 60 years since the kid from fictional Greenbow, Alabama, became an All-America kick returner for Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide.
Forrest Gump, wearing No. 44, scored the very first time he touched the football, a 99½-yard kickoff return against a team that appears to be the Vanderbilt Commodores. He went end zone to end zone, including a crossfield detour midreturn as he ran toward Bryant on the Bama sideline. Then he added at least another 50 yards because he didn't stop after crossing the goal line and kept churning through the Legion Field tunnel and presumably into downtown Birmingham.
Now, amid these two very important anniversaries, and as his alma mater runs into Week 13 with an eye on running into the College Football Playoff, we ask a crucial, crimson-tinted question: Just how good at football was Forrest Gump, really?
"It's been a while since I really broke down his film, but what I did see back in the day made an impact on me," current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer confessed during a chat about how, after taking the job as Top Tider, he immersed himself in the program's unparalleled history. "He was raw, but fast and coachable. No coach is ever going to turn down a kid with that combination."
Not even the Bear.
"And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama."
There are no official statistics for Forrest Gump's time at Alabama. Trust us, we asked the sports information office as well as the Bear Bryant Museum, located on the Tuscaloosa campus. They had nothing, forcing us to show some, ahem, gumption, and piece together what we could, based on what we do know.
We know that Gump was a student at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, because he was an eyewitness to George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, when the governor of Alabama made a symbolic attempt to prevent two Black students from enrolling for class, in opposition to school integration.
We also know that Gump had already played at least one season of football before that, because we see Bryant and his staff flabbergasted as they watch the TV news and see their return specialist returning a notebook to one of those students, Vivian Malone, after she drops it in front of Wallace, protesters and the National Guard.
We also know that his first All-America season had to be 1962, because he met John F. Kennedy at the White House (and drank all his Dr Peppers). JFK died on Nov. 22, 1963, before the All-America roster for that year would have been chosen.
Forrest Gump meets president John F. Kennedy after an All-America season as a Tide kick returner.
We also know that when Gump graduates from Alabama, he says, "Can you believe it? After only five years of playing football, I got a college degree."
So it would appear that Gump's time with the Tide likely ran from 1959 to 1963, and that makes sense. If you don't recall, Gump caught Bryant's attention when, while running from a truckload of bullies, he unknowingly sprinted the length of the Greenbow High Braves' stadium in front of the Bear. That would have been the fall of '58, Bryant's first fall in Tuscaloosa and in the middle of a rebuilding 5-4-1 campaign. The kind of season that would make a college football coach desperate enough to sign a kid who was described to him as "just the local idiot" with an IQ that we know to be 75.
Back then, freshmen didn't play. Neither did Gump in '59. The following year, the Tide's third game of the season was also their first at Legion Field against ... Vanderbilt. That's the first TD return we see in the movie. The next one comes at the same stadium, and clearly in a later season, because the home crowd has figured out to unfurl "Stop Forrest!" signs to prevent him from making any more tunnel sprints. This is also at Legion Field, and the opponent appears to be wearing the distinctive colors of the Tulane Green Wave. And the real life Tide did indeed play and defeat Tulane in 1961.
See? We're figuring this out!
If this was indeed the Forrest Gump Era of Alabama football, there was nothing stupid about it. During his presumed four years on the roster, the Tide posted a record of 38-4-1 and an SEC mark of 24-4-1, went 3-0-1 in bowl games and also won the first of Bryant's six national titles in 1961.
"Of course, it didn't hurt that his quarterback was Joe Namath," noted Dr. Carl Miller, professor and chair of the English department at Palm Beach Atlantic University. "Anyone who ever talked to Winston Groom about Alabama football knows how he felt about Joe Namath."
"Always be able to look back and say, at least I didn't lead no humdrum life."
When Groom wrote the book "Forrest Gump" in 1986, the story of a boy with a low IQ who spends a lifetime unlocking pockets of true brilliance, it was inspired by two of his own life experiences. The first was a tale his father told him often, about a kid in his neighborhood who was relentlessly teased and bullied by local kids because of his apparent lack of intelligence. But when his parents bought a piano, that same kid suddenly began filling the neighborhood with the most amazing music, having taken nary a lesson. The second spark came from Groom's time as a football-crazed student at the University of Alabama.
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.
.
continued
'Run, Forrest, run!': How good a football player was Forrest Gump, really?
We searched high and low, talking to NFL scouts, "Bear Bryant" and even Kalen DeBoer, to find out how good a player Forrest Gump really was.
'Run, Forrest, run!': How good a football player was Forrest Gump?
"He must be the stupidest son of a b---- alive! But he sure is fast!"
-- "Bear Bryant" speaking of Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump"
It was 30 years ago this fall that "Forrest Gump," the story of a gentle soul who ended up traveling the globe, meeting presidents and filling the world with wisdom such as "Life is like a box of chocolates," and "Stupid is as stupid does," was running through the box office and toward six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Hanks and Best Director for Robert Zemeckis.
If you are a true Gump believer -- and judging by the film's $678 million gross, the 2.5 million copies sold of Winston Groom's book that inspired the film, the brisk sales of its recent 30th anniversary Blu-Ray re-release, not to mention the line of people I recently saw waiting to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Times Square, there are many -- then you also know that this fall also marks 60 years since the kid from fictional Greenbow, Alabama, became an All-America kick returner for Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide.
Forrest Gump, wearing No. 44, scored the very first time he touched the football, a 99½-yard kickoff return against a team that appears to be the Vanderbilt Commodores. He went end zone to end zone, including a crossfield detour midreturn as he ran toward Bryant on the Bama sideline. Then he added at least another 50 yards because he didn't stop after crossing the goal line and kept churning through the Legion Field tunnel and presumably into downtown Birmingham.
Now, amid these two very important anniversaries, and as his alma mater runs into Week 13 with an eye on running into the College Football Playoff, we ask a crucial, crimson-tinted question: Just how good at football was Forrest Gump, really?
"It's been a while since I really broke down his film, but what I did see back in the day made an impact on me," current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer confessed during a chat about how, after taking the job as Top Tider, he immersed himself in the program's unparalleled history. "He was raw, but fast and coachable. No coach is ever going to turn down a kid with that combination."
Not even the Bear.
"And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama."
There are no official statistics for Forrest Gump's time at Alabama. Trust us, we asked the sports information office as well as the Bear Bryant Museum, located on the Tuscaloosa campus. They had nothing, forcing us to show some, ahem, gumption, and piece together what we could, based on what we do know.
We know that Gump was a student at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, because he was an eyewitness to George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, when the governor of Alabama made a symbolic attempt to prevent two Black students from enrolling for class, in opposition to school integration.
We also know that Gump had already played at least one season of football before that, because we see Bryant and his staff flabbergasted as they watch the TV news and see their return specialist returning a notebook to one of those students, Vivian Malone, after she drops it in front of Wallace, protesters and the National Guard.
We also know that his first All-America season had to be 1962, because he met John F. Kennedy at the White House (and drank all his Dr Peppers). JFK died on Nov. 22, 1963, before the All-America roster for that year would have been chosen.
Forrest Gump meets president John F. Kennedy after an All-America season as a Tide kick returner.
We also know that when Gump graduates from Alabama, he says, "Can you believe it? After only five years of playing football, I got a college degree."
So it would appear that Gump's time with the Tide likely ran from 1959 to 1963, and that makes sense. If you don't recall, Gump caught Bryant's attention when, while running from a truckload of bullies, he unknowingly sprinted the length of the Greenbow High Braves' stadium in front of the Bear. That would have been the fall of '58, Bryant's first fall in Tuscaloosa and in the middle of a rebuilding 5-4-1 campaign. The kind of season that would make a college football coach desperate enough to sign a kid who was described to him as "just the local idiot" with an IQ that we know to be 75.
Back then, freshmen didn't play. Neither did Gump in '59. The following year, the Tide's third game of the season was also their first at Legion Field against ... Vanderbilt. That's the first TD return we see in the movie. The next one comes at the same stadium, and clearly in a later season, because the home crowd has figured out to unfurl "Stop Forrest!" signs to prevent him from making any more tunnel sprints. This is also at Legion Field, and the opponent appears to be wearing the distinctive colors of the Tulane Green Wave. And the real life Tide did indeed play and defeat Tulane in 1961.
See? We're figuring this out!
If this was indeed the Forrest Gump Era of Alabama football, there was nothing stupid about it. During his presumed four years on the roster, the Tide posted a record of 38-4-1 and an SEC mark of 24-4-1, went 3-0-1 in bowl games and also won the first of Bryant's six national titles in 1961.
"Of course, it didn't hurt that his quarterback was Joe Namath," noted Dr. Carl Miller, professor and chair of the English department at Palm Beach Atlantic University. "Anyone who ever talked to Winston Groom about Alabama football knows how he felt about Joe Namath."
"Always be able to look back and say, at least I didn't lead no humdrum life."
When Groom wrote the book "Forrest Gump" in 1986, the story of a boy with a low IQ who spends a lifetime unlocking pockets of true brilliance, it was inspired by two of his own life experiences. The first was a tale his father told him often, about a kid in his neighborhood who was relentlessly teased and bullied by local kids because of his apparent lack of intelligence. But when his parents bought a piano, that same kid suddenly began filling the neighborhood with the most amazing music, having taken nary a lesson. The second spark came from Groom's time as a football-crazed student at the University of Alabama.
.
.
.
continued
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