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Eddie Conyers stands for a portrait on the University of Alabama football practice field in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Conyers, 97, was a referee for the team during practices for more than 60 years. Russell Lewis/NPR hide caption
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Russell Lewis/NPR
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama's football practice field is hidden from public view behind a shrouded security fence on the edge of the leafy campus.
This is the place "Where Legends Are Made" as the school's slogan goes.
The Alabama Crimson Tide boasts 18 college football national championships. And one man has been there for a dozen of them — Eddie Conyers. He's spent more than 60 years as a referee at practices, working under such legendary coaches as Bear Bryant and Nick Saban.
Now 97, Conyers is still roaming the sidelines to make sure practice officials are up to the task, and quick with a joke along the way.
Until this season, he, too, would have been on the field as the referee lined up in the offensive backfield.
"This is the first year in 60 years I've not done this," he says with a bit of nostalgia.
Eddie Conyers got his start as a practice referee at the University of Alabama when legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant asked him to officiate in the 1960s. While he's no longer whistling fouls and throwing flags, he still attends practices to mentor other officials. Russell Lewis/NPR hide caption
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Russell Lewis/NPR
Conyers has transitioned to an off-field role, overseeing the scheduling for the practice officials and mentoring them from the sidelines.
He helped pioneer the role of Bama practice ref after being recruited by Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1962.
Conyers says Bryant's theory was to work all the penalties out at practice in hopes of fewer game infractions.
"I can't tell you how terrified and intimidated I was," recalls Conyers, who had been working as an official at high school football games at the time.
He left his day job at a local hardware store a few hours early, ducked into a service station restroom to change into zebra stripes, and reported for duty, asking Bryant what he was supposed to do.
"Coach Bryant talked low and he mumbled," Conyers says. "I didn't have a clue what he said. And I just said 'ok.'"
These days, Conyers drives a golf cart to get from the locker room to the practice field and uses a walker to steady his gait. He can't fully straighten his neck because of all the knocks he's taken over the years. But that doesn't slow him down much.
Zipping along in the golf cart, he's treated like a celebrity, even by celebrities.
"Eddie's the man. He's the legend," says Mark Ingram, Alabama's first Heisman winner, and former NFL running back who's now a TV sports analyst. "You the GOAT man."
Conyers jokes, "Hey where's my flag?" and tells Ingram he could have been good if he weren't so slow.
They compare bling — championship rings. Conyers ribs Ingram about how many more he has, a dozen to show for his years with the team.
Joking aside, Ingram says Conyers made an impression on players like him.
Former Alabama star, Heisman winner, NFL running back and television commentator Mark Ingram shares a laugh with Eddie Conyers in Tuscaloosa. Russell Lewis/NPR hide caption
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Russell Lewis/NPR
"Eddie was the constant, constant," says Ingram. "Always happy, always joyful. Made all of us happy to see him."
Conyers has thrown flags at some of the best players to take the field, including Joe Namath, Kenny "Snake" Stabler, Jalen Hurts, and Derrick Henry.
He was there for Coach Bryant's super-secretive plan for the Crimson Tide to go to a wishbone offense in the early 1970s. About the same time the team recruited its first Black players as the sport integrated.
Conyers says Bama's winningest coaches had distinct styles.
"From Coach Bryant you learn that you can do more than you think you can do," he says. "He talked about 110%. And wanted that every play of every game. That you give all you can give, then you give a little bit more."
As for Coach Saban, "it may sound kind of trite, but you did everything right." Including the little things, he says, like which arm you use to carry the ball.
Both coaches helped build the storied success of the Alabama football program.
"This place is built on history and tradition at Alabama. There's no place like it and Eddie is such a wonderful link to the history and the tradition of this place," says athletic trainer Jeff Allen, senior associate athletic director for sports medicine.
Over his 19 years at Alabama, Allen has developed a close relationship with Eddie Conyers. The two travel the state together to speak to civic groups and athletic booster clubs.
He says Conyers is the only man he's known who was brave enough to talk back to Coach Saban.
"I've got so many wonderful stories of him firing right back at Coach Saban," Allen says. "Eddie had no fear."
Conyers jokes at his age, he's got nothing to lose.
That cheery disposition has also served as a buffer at times between an "intense" coach and the practice refs.
Alabama scrimmage official Tom Danner has known Eddie Conyers for years. "A lot of times when everybody was going crazy, he was the calm one in the bunch," Danner says. "Coaches and players, they might be upset, but his mannerisms never changed. He was always the same." Russell Lewis/NPR hide caption
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"The thing about Eddie, he's very even-tempered. And you really can't ever pull anything on him," says Tom Danner, a practice and scrimmage official who works closely with Conyers on scheduling.
"A lot of times when everybody was going crazy, he was the calm one in the bunch," Danner says. "Coaches and players, they might be upset, but his mannerisms never changed. He was always the same."
Conyers, a Navy veteran, made his career working in Alabama's College of Continuing Education as an assistant to the dean. But his passion has always been the side gig as a football practice ref.
"He likes the relationship with the players," says his son, Bubba Conyers. "Maybe it's a kind of a little vacation when they talk to him. It's going to be funny. A lot of fun and no heartache."
He may have hung up his whistle, but Eddie Conyers still brings his jovial spirit to Bama practices, teasing anyone within earshot.
Another tradition he's not ready to give up is a ritual before every away game.
Conyers and Peggy, his wife of 76 years, show up at the Tuscaloosa airport to wave off the team with a big Roll Tide sendoff.
Eddie Conyers, at age 97, has stopped officiating at the University of Alabama. But he's still involved: he oversees the scheduling of the practice officials and mentoring them from the sidelines. Russell Lewis/NPR hide caption
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Russell Lewis/NPR
