No Alabama defender ever pursued ball carriers with more fire than Darwin Holt.

Even for the times, he was a small linebacker, standing just 5-foot-9 and weighing just 167 pounds, but when the ball was snapped, Holt played like a giant, attacking at full speed and delivering thunderous licks.

In 1961, Holt was a key figure on a punishing Alabama defense that allowed just 25 points in 11 games, staking a claim as one of the greatest units ever to play the game while helping the Crimson Tide capture Paul “Bear“ Bryant’s first national championship.

So listen closely when Holt, one of the best linebackers in Bama history, speaks admiringly of Nico Johnson, one of the latest men to follow in his footsteps.(more)

The thought still makes Tom Calvin laugh.

A lifetime ago, when he was growing up on a farm on the outskirts of Athens, on the same patch of dirt now occupied by the original location of Whitt’s Barbecue, Calvin spent many Saturday afternoons listening to the radio broadcasts of Frank Thomas’ powerful Alabama Crimson Tide alongside his father and three brothers.

“We were all big Alabama fans, and we’d come in from working the farm to listen to the games,” Calvin recalled. “Dad would get so mad when we’d get behind…or made a turnover or something went wrong…he’d have to go out and walk around the house.”

In time, the elder Calvin would find himself listening to the broadcasts waiting for the announcers to call his own boy’s name. (more)