I spent two priceless hours on the afternoon of November 30, 2012.
Two priceless hours with then Alabama Athletic Director, Mal Moore, and future AD, Bill Battle.
As a child growing up in South Alabama, it didn't get much better than that.
We were discussing a future project and my love of telling stories about college football, sitting with greatness... discussing Coach Bryant, Coach Stallings and Coach Saban. Alabama's past, present and future.
I could have spent two days sitting there if more pressing duties hadn't called Coach Moore back to downtown Atlanta. Dinners, alumni & donor greetings and hopefully a victory on that Saturday against Georgia in the SEC Championship.
He seemed to relish this respite from his official duties. He seemed to relish sitting there with two other country boys talking about glories gone by. He smiled a lot and laughed a lot too. He seemed fine physically, spry, those crystal blue eyes glistening. He asked for water a lot, multiple times, but I didn't find that too unusual.
As we parted ways, we shook hands and he promised I could turn the camera on next time we met and let me capture his great stories, one of my passions. We discussed how we would tell them, where we'd share these stories, and how they needed to be preserved for future generations, especially of a bygone era before big money contracts and the like. We never got that chance.
Just two hours. I wouldn't trade them for the world.
R.I.P. Coach Mal Moore
