Touchdown Tony: Running with a Purpose - Hardcover

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Tony Nathan was the African American Woodlawn High School running back in the legendary game of 1974 in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a Parade All-American in high school and went on to play for Paul “Bear” Bryant at the University of Alabama, winning a national championship in 1978. In 1979, he began playing for the Miami Dolphins and played with them from until 1987, which included being the starting running back in Super Bowl XVII and Super Bowl XIX. In 1981, he was named the team’s MVP. After his retirement, he began coaching, eventually becoming the running backs coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2006, he was inducted into the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame and made his return to the NFL when he was hired by the Baltimore Ravens. He is currently the Bailiff for former teammate Judge Edward Newman in Miami-Dade County court.

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Touchdown Tony

CHAPTER ONE

MOM AND POPS

As a twelve-year-old kid in 1968, I had no notions of being a professional football player. In fact, I hadn’t played much football up until that point. Sure, I’d played with the other boys in my neighborhood, but I’d never played on an actual team in an organized league. While I enjoyed playing the sport, I didn’t really like running with the football. I much preferred being the one who did the tackling, rather than being the one who was getting tackled.

Even though I didn’t have big dreams for my future, I knew two things I didn’t want to do when I became an adult: I didn’t want to pick cotton, and I didn’t want to work in a steel mill. My father, William Nathan II, worked the graveyard shift at Conner Steel, which was one of the bigger plants in Birmingham, Alabama. My father, whom my family calls Pops, started his career as a laborer in the steel mill. Because of his strong work ethic, he was eventually promoted to mechanic. Pops went to school and learned how to fix things—a skill that was very valuable at the steel mill. My father worked hard, and I rarely heard him complain about his job. But working at the steel mill was dangerous, and hearing the horror stories about the accidents there made me realize that I wanted no part of it. Pouring steel wasn’t easy, and the plant was always hot——especially during the sweltering Alabama summers. I remember seeing my dad covered in grease, dirt, and sweat when he came home in the morning. He always looked exhausted. I was sure that I didn’t want to punch the clock at the mill when I was older.

I also knew I didn’t want to pick cotton, because that’s what I did when I spent time at my grandfather’s farm. My paternal grandfather, William Nathan, had a farm near Uniontown, Alabama, which is where my dad grew up. My grandfather’s farm was about ten acres, and he raised cows and other animals. He also planted cotton, corn, watermelons, peanuts, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables every spring. Farming was hard work, and my grandfather went to the fields every day. When I was twelve or thirteen, I spent a lot of weekends and most of the summer working my grandfather’s farm. He woke up every morning about 4:00 a.m., and then he’d get me up a couple of hours later. Though I could have helped him with his earliest chores, he’d always let me sleep a little longer. We’d harness a mule to a wagon, and then the mule would take us out to his land, which was a couple of miles from the house. The mule knew exactly where to go, so we’d sleep during the short ride.

Once we were old enough, my two brothers, two sisters (my biological aunt Erma Gean was only a couple of years older than me, so I refer to her as my sister), and I picked cotton, hoed weeds, and helped my grandfather harvest the fruits and vegetables. During those weekends and hot summer days, we usually worked from sunup till sundown. Those days were long. The constant threat of being eaten alive by fire ants and gnats made it even worse. It was difficult work, and I didn’t want to do it, but I learned to respect anyone who did. It was a tough way to make a living. More than anything, it taught me what I didn’t want to do with the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong: I appreciated what my father and grandfather did for a living, and I certainly didn’t think the work was beneath me.

By having me work on the farm, my dad and grandfather gave me an opportunity to see how they were raised and what they had to do to survive, and I’ve always respected them for what they did. And they definitely passed on a strong work ethic to me—a valuable lesson that has served me well.

Even though I didn’t want any cotton picking in my future, I also knew that if farming was what I had to do to make my way in life, then that’s what I would do. In the fields, I learned that you do what you have to do to make ends meet and provide for your family. And if I had to work in a steel mill, then I knew I could do that, too. If it was good enough for my father, it was good enough for me. My father was my mentor and is now my best friend. I can’t thank him enough for providing me with the chance to do what I wanted in life.

Pops didn’t have much in terms of material possessions when he was growing up. He went to school, and he worked on the farm; he did what he needed to do to help his family survive. After high school, my dad joined the army and was stationed at Fort Rucker in Dale County, Alabama. A week before my dad was to be deployed to fight in the Korean War, the United States and North Korea signed an armistice ending the three-year-old conflict. Obviously, he was among the lucky ones. Pops spent the next two years working as a drill sergeant at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. He was discharged from the army in July 1955, following the end of the Korean War.

The year before my dad joined the army in 1953, he met my mother, Louise, whose sister was dating one of his brothers. My mom said she really wasn’t attracted to my dad initially, but he seemed to grow on her because he was at her house so often. Even though my mom was only fifteen years old, Pops persuaded her parents to let them marry on Christmas Day 1955. My dad was twenty-two years old on his wedding day. While my mother would be considered too young nowadays, they’ve been happily married for nearly sixty years. They taught me a lot about the sacrifices a husband and wife have to make for a marriage to work.

In the spring of 1955, Pops moved to Birmingham and my mom joined him there the next spring, where they started their lives together. I was born on December 14, 1956. My sister, Diane, was born two years later, and then my brothers, Vincent and Cedric, came along after her. I was five years older than Vince and ten years older than Cedric, and I still regret that I missed so much of Cedric’s childhood. I was out of the house by the time he went to high school, but despite our age difference, we’re still very close today.

When I was seven years old, my aunt Erma Gean came to live with us in Birmingham after my maternal grandmother died. Erma Gean was only two years older than I was, so she’s always been more like my sister than my aunt. When I was a kid, she and I spent some fun times together at my maternal grandparents’ farm. My mom’s parents, Dorsey and Mary Williams, lived about twenty-five miles from Grandpa Nathan’s farm. I loved spending time with Erma Gean. She and I liked to run through the cotton rows and cornfields together. We ran to the end of dirt roads and back. She was probably the one who taught me how to run. Erma Gean was bigger than me, and I had a difficult time keeping up with her. Even though she might have been faster than me, I was determined to ramp up my speed. By the end of the day, my calves were usually swollen from trying to catch her. Sometimes, we rode my grandfather’s big pig in the front yard, which was quite an adventure. Erma Gean and I were always looking for ways to have fun.

Once I reached high school and was old enough to drive, I went to work for a man who owned a farm near my aunt Elizabeth’s house. The man paid me three dollars a day to drive a tractor. I was lucky that I didn’t have to help bale the hay, like the other boys who were younger than me. They would load up a wagon with hay, and then I’d drive the tractor to the barn. At the time, three dollars a day was a lot of money to me, so at the end of the summer, I didn’t want to go back to Birmingham. But Pops told the farmer...