Former Alabama Football Player and Athletics Director Cecil "Hootie" Ingram passes away at 90 – WAKA

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by WAKA Action 8 News
Former All-SEC football player for the Tide and athletics director at Alabama, Cecil “Hootie” Ingram has passed away at 90. The news came from Ingram’s family on Monday.
Ingram spent the majority of his life in Tuscaloosa. In 1991, Ingram was inducted into the the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame after being heavily involved within the athletic community surrounding Tuscaloosa. Ingram had a 43 year career that involved playing, coaching and administration.
Ingram was born in 1933 at Druid City Hospital and he went on to be a three-sport star at Tuscaloosa High School. In 1951 he enrolled at the Capstone and went on to letter in both football and baseball for the Crimson Tide. On the football team Ingram played both halfback and defensive back. During his sophomore season in 1952 Ingram led the nation with ten interceptions which is a record that still stands at Alabama and in the SEC to this day. On the baseball field Ingram was a All-SEC second baseman for the Tide.
Ingram would go on to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles and retired without having played a game in the league. After retiring from the NFL, Ingram moved back to Tuscaloosa and began coaching at local high schools. After four years of coaching at the high school level, Ingram made the switch to the college level where he would spent the next twelve years. Ingram’s college coaching career included stops at Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Arkansas and Clemson.
After spending twenty years coaching and playing, Ingram spent 17 combined years as an administrator at the Southeastearn Conference (1972-81), serving as associate commissioner, before moving on as the athletics director at Florida State University (1981-89). In 1989, Ingram returned to The University of Alabama as the director of athletics where he served until his retirement in 1995. Soon after being hired as the Alabama AD, Ingram hired Gene Stallings as the new head football coach, who went on to lead the Tide to the 1992 national championship.
After being inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, Ingram was named to the UA’s “Team of the Century” as the second team defensive back in 1992.
In 2007, he was presented with The University of Alabama National Alumni Association’s Paul W. Bryant Alumni-Athlete Award, recognizing athletes whose accomplishments since leaving the university are “outstanding based on character, contributions to society, professional achievement and service.”
(Information from the University of Alabama)