Former Alabama football player, AD Cecil 'Hootie' Ingram passes away at age 90
Former Alabama football player and athletic director Cecil “Hootie” Ingram died Monday.
Ingram, 90, was born in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 2, 1933, where he was a three-sport standout at Tuscaloosa High School. He went on to play two sports (football and baseball) at the University of Alabama. As a sophomore in 1952, Ingram led the nation in interceptions with 10 and went on to earn first-team All-SEC accolades. He added an 11th pick and an 80-yard punt return in the Crimson Tide’s 61-6 win over Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl.
Ingram spent one season in the NFL as a defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles before he started his coaching career. After four years in high school, Ingram went on to coach defensive backs at Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Georgia and Arkansas before landing a head coaching job at Clemson in 1970. Ingram spent three seasons with the Tigers prior to leaving to join the SEC as associate commissioner. He remained with the league until 1981.
After that, Ingram was hired as the athletic director at Florida State, where he worked until 1989. He then returned to his hometown and alma mater to serve as Alabama’s athletic director until 1995, replacing Steve Sloan – who also passed away this year. During his tenure as the Tide’s AD, Ingram was most known for hiring head coach Gene Stallings before the 1990 football season. Stallings went on to lead Alabama to a national title in 1992.
“I had known Gene Stallings when he was an assistant at Alabama and when he was at Texas A&M, and I knew he had done a great job for coach Bryant and coach Landry,” Ingram told Kirk McNair in What It Means to Be Crimson Tide. “I knew he could take the heat and do the job, and that’s why I chose him. I think (Roger) Sayers may have been skeptical, but he wasn’t after he met Gene.
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“And I don’t think we could have gotten anyone who could have done a better job. And we got along great, maybe because we were both pretty ornery, two hard-headed people working together.”
Ingram was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, as well as the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2007, he was presented the UA National Alumni Association’s Paul W. Bryant Alumni-Athlete Award, recognizing athletes whose accomplishments since leaving school are “outstanding based on character, contributions to society, professional achievement and service.” Ingram remained in the Tuscaloosa area until his death.
According to AL.com’s Creg Stephenson, funeral services for Ingram are set for Saturday, May 11, at Calvary Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. Visitation is scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m.
*** This story will be updated.
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