Breaking: Former Alabama Player Dies

Cecil W. “Hootie” Ingram, a former University of Alabama football player who later became a collegiate coach and administrator, died. He was ninety years old.

Ingram was born and reared in Tuscaloosa and excelled in three sports at Tuscaloosa High School before focusing on football and playing some baseball at the University of Alabama. In addition to being an infielder, he was a standout defensive back who won All-SEC honors as a sophomore in 1952 after leading the nation with 10 interceptions (still a team record) and returning them 173 yards, including two for scores.

Ingram also set an Orange Bowl record in 1953 with an 80-yard punt return in Alabama’s 61-6 victory over Syracuse, and handled kickoffs for the Crimson Tide (as in he kicked them) – earning a reputation for lingering to ensure he got some television time.

Ingram later tried his hand at teaching, and after serving in the United States Army, he coached high school before becoming an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, Georgia, and Arkansas. He became Clemson’s head coach in December 1969.

Following legendary Frank Howard, Ingram attempted to give the program a new identity, but his teams finished 12-21.

“When I came to Clemson, then-coach Howard was still the athletic director,” Ingram said in 2000. “He had his own office, as did each of my assistant coaches. The only one without an office was myself. One of the custodians at Fike [Field House] helped me clear up a storage room. We had some carpet installed, and it was my workplace.”

Ingram had a big influence on two Clemson traditions, initiating one and nearly derailing the other. The first was the updated “Tiger Paw” logo.

“I wanted something unique,” he explained. “The tiger paw was just that.”

The other was Clemson’s rush down the hill to the stadium field. Ingram planned to have the squad enter from the west end zone instead, but after a 6-9 home record, the players descended the hill before facing South Carolina in 1972. Clemson triumphed 7-6 in the cold, freezing rain, thanks to Jimmy Williamson’s two-point conversion throw.

Ingram is best known as an administrator, having spent eight years on the Southeastern Conference staff before spending nine years as Florida State’s athletic director. On September 13, 1989, Ingram returned to Capstone as director of athletics, describing it as a “dream come true.”

Ingram’s next important choice occurred in 1990, when Bill Curry quit as head coach. One of the first calls he made was to Bobby Bowden, an Alabama native who would have accepted the job had it been offered to Curry three years earlier.

“The timing was bad,” Ingram told the Tuscaloosa News. “It was just hard to communicate with Bobby in that situation and we had several fine candidates. It wasn’t a situation where you wanted to wait that long.”

Bowden, who was in Japan to coach an all-star game when Ingram called, considered the proposition, but not for long.

“I thought about it about an hour and decided it was too late,” he said. “Gene Stallings evidently was the right guy.”

Alabama won the national championship in 1992, but Ingram resigned three years later after the National Collegiate Athletic Association placed the football program on probation, saying he could no longer be an asset to the school.