LOOKING BACK | This week in West Alabama history: January 6, 2020
50 years ago this week
• Plans were announced by Tuscaloosa city commissioners to begin straightening up the city’s crooked, confusing boundaries. A new state law would make the city able to annex any contiguous area where 51 percent of the residents request admission into the city; previously 100 percent of all land owners had to request annexation.
• Mayor Snow Hinton and other community leaders threw a gigantic birthday party in honor of the woman who helped most of them struggle through high school mathematics. Sara “Granny” Gray, who turned 90, taught math at Tuscaloosa High School for years and, after retirement, tutored many young people in plane geometry and algebra.
• Dr. Rufus O. Moore was named the 1969 Lion of the Year. Dr. Moore had been in the Tuscaloosa Lions Club for 30 years.
• Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant offered to resign after Alabama slipped to a 6-5 won-lost record including a Liberty Bowl loss, leaving Bryant displeased with his football program. Bryant still had four years on his contract. After the administration and athletic staff had “taken a hard look” at the football program on the recommendation of Bryant, it was decided that Bryant would stay and start grooming some of his people to take his place in a few years.
• The division engineer for the Alabama Highway Department said area motorist would have to wait at least two more years to use the new $10 million bridge under construction across the Black Warrior River between Tuscaloosa and Northport.
• A cold spell sent weather to 6 degrees in Tuscaloosa, but that was by no means a record. Thirty years before in 1940, the temperature had plunged to a record minus 10 and the Warrior River was frozen from bank to bank.
• Dr. F. David Mathews, president of the University of Alabama, was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in America as selected by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
• The old University of Alabama administration building on Ninth Avenue would house an expansion of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. The building was vacated when the new Frank A. Rose Administration Building opened on University Boulevard on Jan. 5.
25 years ago this week
• Former State Sen. Ryan DeGraffenried resigned from his new $48,000-a-year job as a political consultant for the city of Tuscaloosa. DeGraffenried said he would help his hometown free of charge.
• At the urging of the Tuscaloosa City Council members, Mayor Al DuPont said he would talk to Chief Inspector Dennis Miles about condemning the old Brown’s Department Store building. On the corner of University Boulevard and Greensboro Avenue, the Brown’s building had been empty since the 1970s.
• Gulf States Paper Corp. officials met with residents of Moundville who were concerned about the company’s plan to build a $33 million sawmill on about 150 acres south of Moundville. Most of the resident’s concerns regarded the mill and its big log trucks would affect highway safety and property values on County Road 46, west of Alabama Highway 69.
• The community was named after a man who said he wanted land for a goat farm while it was actually for the site of the Central Foundry, but Holt residents wanted to keep its name, becoming more concerned as utility bills arrived with Tuscaloosa as the address, rather than Holt.
• Holy Spirit Catholic School officials had approval for a new high school from the local parish, the diocesan Board of Education and Bishop David Foley, contingent upon successful completion of a capital fund-raising drive.
• When Sipsey Valley Volunteer Fire chief L.A. Marlowe was robbed at his Buhl store, about 30 volunteer firefighters responded to his radio alert for help and, within minutes, nabbed two of the three suspects, one only a few yards from the store.
10 years ago this week
• The Tuscaloosa City Council unanimously adopted a citywide curfew for juveniles. People younger than 18 were forbidden to be in public places between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday - Thursday and from 11 p.m. - 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Tuscaloosa City Council dropped its lawsuit against the state to halt the sale of Bryce Hospital. The vote came after Gov. Bob Riley and state Sen. Phil Poole said that an agreement had been reached to build a new psychiatric hospital on Partlow Developmental Center property.
• The University of Alabama was one of the top 100 best values among public colleges, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine; it was ranked 65th.
• For the second time since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the Alabama Army National Guard’s 2101st Transportation Company out of Demopolis, Aliceville and Butler were going overseas.
• Northport City Hall was about to undergo a renovation that would include replacing the roof and doubling the size of the City Council chambers.
• The Alabama Crimson Tide was back on top with its 13th national championship by beating the Texas Longhorns, 37 – 21, at the Rose Bowl.
• The Alabama gymnastics team, the defending Southeastern Conference champions, opened the 2010 season with a win at Auburn, marking the Crimson Tide’s 99th consecutive win over the Tigers.
• Alabama’s defensive coordinator Kirby Smart was formally offered the same position at Georgia since returning from Pasadena, Calif. for the Rose Bowl, but he turned down the offer.
• Deaths this week included Charlie O. Sealy Sr., founder of Sealy Management Co., at 90.
• Citing an ever increasing case load in the three counties that comprise the 24th Judicial Circuit, District Attorney Chris McCool announced Andrew C. “Andy” Hamlin would take the newly created position of chief assistant district attorney.
• University of Alabama junior linebacker Rolando McClain announced he would forego his senior year to enter the 2010 NFL Draft.
Five years ago this week
• Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge John England Jr. conducted the investiture of Ricky McKinney as Municipal Court judge.
• Shane Lyons, who had held the No. 2 position in the University of Alabama athletics department for more than three years, was named athletics director at West Virginia University, his alma mater.
• Cinram Operations Inc., formerly JVC America, closed its Cottondale plant and permanently laid off at least 100 employees. The building was put on the market for $5.9 million.
• The first day of class was held in the new building of the Alberta School of Performing Arts.
• Phyllis W. Odom announced her intention to run for election to the unexpired term of her late husband, Councilman Burrell G. Odom, who died Dec. 22 after almost 13 months in office.
• Construction crews were demolishing the old Alpha Phi sorority house at the University of Alabama, part of a campus master plan to build two larger chapter houses on the lots where three existing buildings sit.
• Jerry Carpenter, who spent his career at The Tuscaloosa News – starting part time while in high school and working his way up into management – would receive an Alabama Press Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Carpenter started working with the paper in 1959.
• University of Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper, safety Landon Collins and running back T.J. Yeldon announced their decisions to declare for the National Football League Draft.
• The 1977 Casavant Freres pipe organ in the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa was dismantled and its parts shipped to an organ company in Quebec where the company would take the best parts from the organ and combine them with the best parts of a 1921 E.M. Skinner organ, some new pipes and a new console to create a one-of-a-kind instrument that was expected to be returned to the church in early October.
• An estimated $2.5 million in repairs was underway on the railway crossing the historic Mobile and Ohio Railroad train trestle spanning the Black Warrior River.
One year ago this week
• The number of homicides in Tuscaloosa during 2018 dropped to the lowest number in 16 years. The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigated 10 homicides in 2018, down from 17 in 2017 and 20 in 2016.
• Birmingham artist Daniel Moore would be honored during the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Moore has built a career with his photo-realistic paintings that chronicle pivotal moments in sports history.
• Alabama was defeated by Clemson, 44-16, in the College Football Playoff Championship Game.
• Northport’s Hannah Brown was one of 23 women competing on the 23rd season of ABC’s “The Bachelor” for the affections of Colton Underwood, a former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers and a contestant on the 14th season of “The Bachelorette.”
• Hardy McCollum presided over his final County Commission meeting after being probate judge and leader of the commission for 42 years. Rob Robertson would be sworn in as the new probate judge.
• Renovations at Skyland Elementary School were complete and students and faculty returned to the building after two years sharing Southview Elementary School’s building.
• Alabama co-offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was named offensive coordinator at Michigan. Gattis was leaving Alabama after one season spent with the Crimson Tide’s wide receivers.
• Jonah Williams, Quinnen Williams, Josh Jacobs and Irv Smith Jr. would forego their senior seasons to enter the 2019 NFL draft.
• Verner Elementary School and Central High School were named CLAS Schools of Distinction.
• Alabama quarterbacks coach Dan Enos would head to Miami to become the Hurricane’s new offensive coordinator. Enos had spent only one season with the Crimson Tide, helping the team finish 14-1.
Compiled by retired News librarian Betty Slowe.
