Former Alabama player, Jacksonville State coach dies at 76

Former Alabama Crimson Tide football player Jim Fuller died Wednesday following complications due to COVID-19. He was 76 years old.

Fuller served most recently as both an athletic director and head coach for Jacksonville State. Current Jacksonville State athletic director Greg Seitz confirmed the news of Fuller’s death on Thursday.

“Coach Fuller knew what being a JSU Gamecock was all about. So when he came back, he hit the ground ready to take over as Athletic Director,” said Dr. William A. Meehan, former JSU President who hired Fuller as AD in 2003, in a press release. “Jim had a solid base of support in the JSU community having been head football coach. So many alumni, fans, and former players were there to cheer him on as he led our teams into a new conference. Jim was a great asset because he knew what being Division I was all about.”

Fuller served as the Jacksonville State Gamecocks’ head football coach from 1977 to 1983 after serving as an assistant coach from 1970-73 and again from 1975-76. He is the fifth-winningest coach in Jacksonville State football history, compiling a 54-25 mark in his seven-year career. His 1977 team posted an 11-3 record, won the Gulf South Conference championship, claimed the Grantland Rice Bowl with a 31-7 televised victory over North Dakota State, and played for the NCAA Division II National Championship, finishing runner-up to Lehigh in the Pioneer Bowl. He coached Gamecock football teams to four GSC championships and made five appearances in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Fuller later served as Jacksonville State’s athletic director from 2003 to 2008 and is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.

Before he got into coaching, Fuller got into college football playing under one of the best to ever do it: Bear Bryant. Fuller was an offensive tackle for coach Bear Bryant’s national championship teams at Alabama in 1964 and 1965. He would later return to Alabama in between coaching and administrative roles at Jacksonville State, serving a 12-year stint as Alabama’s offensive line coach from 1984-1996.