Alabama Wants Football Players to Hit the Books, Too

Alabama, long known as a “football factory” which didn’t worry much about academic standards for its players, appears to be changing its strategy.

The nation’s winningest school over the last 25 years is hoping to change its image and took a step in this direction by choosing Georgia Tech’s Bill Curry as its new coach.

As a reflection of the impact of this decision, the hiring of Curry produced death threats to him and University of Alabama President Joab Thomas, who took control of the search and demanded an academics-first replacement for Ray Perkins. Perkins resigned to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Along with Curry, the school also hired Duke Coach Steve Sloan as athletic director.

Thomas said the hiring of Curry and Sloan will carry on a move Perkins initiated to change Alabama’s image “as a football factory.”

Of the 25 seniors on Perkins’ final team, 19 will graduate on time thanks to higher admission standards, more academic counselors, a new learning skills center and an athletic dormitory study hall that replaced the recreation area.

“In all candor, I really believe the (football factory image) is no longer true,” Thomas said.

Thomas insists that Curry, who never played at Alabama or coached under the late Paul (Bear) Bryant, and who compiled only a 31-43-4 record at Georgia Tech, will lead Alabama to the national championship in two years--and lead his players to graduation ceremonies.

“The kind of national reaction that came to the hiring of Coach Curry is evidence to me that there is a perceptual problem in the population at large,” Thomas said. “Many people among the so-called fans would really prefer to have paid gladiators on the field. They simply want their gladiators to win at all costs.

“I think people such as Bill Curry, coaches that articulate a commitment to higher standards, recognize the higher value of education. I don’t consider this a disarmament. I’m a terrible loser.”

Although Alabama perennially produces powerhouse teams and has won 11 national championships, it has captured only one Southeastern Conference championship in the last five years and no national titles. This failure makes Tide fans nervous.

Perkins, who replaced the legendary Bryant four years ago, left Alabama recently to take the head coaching job in Tampa Bay. Most Alabama fans assumed the school would pick a famous alumnus or disciple of Bryant--Texas A&M;’s Jackie Sherrill, Louisville’s Howard Schnellenberger, Clemson’s Danny Ford, among others--to lead the Tide.

Instead, they now have a coach who lost 19 of his first 22 games at Georgia Tech, and who lost to Auburn--Alabama’s bitter cross-state rival--seven straight years. Sloan didn’t fare much better at Duke, compiling a 13-30 mark in four years.

“There were a wide variety of complaints. Some feel (Curry) is wrong because he’s not from Alabama,” Thomas said. “Some complained he has too high academic standards, and some because he has a losing record.”

But Thomas argued that Curry was more successful than his counterparts at other academic schools that also play football, such as Northwestern (14-63 over the last seven years), Duke (27-49), Vanderbilt (25-52-1) and Rice (18-59).

“There is always pressure to win. I don’t think there is any more now than there was before,” said Thomas, who admits, “I have probably put my job on the line.

“When Perkins lost his first game, I began to get letters of complaint. I have walked off the field with Coach Bryant and had hundreds of people boo him. That’s the nature of the game.”