Alabama
Huge development, Hootie Ingram, abortion travel: Down in Alabama
Listen to the podcast below for a weather chat with reporter Leigh Morgan. The newsletter follows.
A long-long-term housing development
Some housing developments are more involved than others. The one that’s coming to Interstates 65 and 565 is an ambitious one.
AL.com’s William Thornton reports that a planned development between Huntsville and Decatur near Mooresville covers 411 acres, will cost $2.2 billion, result in 3,500 homes and could take three decades to complete. (Think the market might go up and down during that time?)
1818 Farms Co-owner Laurence McCrary and his sister, Margaret Anne Crumlish, are selling the property to the developers in a land-partnership model that will make the project a slow build. McCrary said it’s not something they went after, but since growth is coming anyway, “We think a well thought out, predominantly residential development is the best way to do it. Not something quick, fast and cheap, and the key was finding like-minded developers.”
The developers are Rochford Realty & Construction of Nashville and Land Innovations of Brentwood, Tenn.
If you’re interested in seeing what the concept might look like, it was modeled on the Stephens Valley planned community near Nashville. Swing by on your next trip to the Opry.
RIP Hootie Ingram
Former college football player, coach and athletics director Hootie Ingram has passed away, reports AL.com’s Creg Stephenson.
Cecil “Hootie” Ingram was born in Tuscaloosa, he was living there when he died, and he’ll be buried there Saturday at Calvary Baptist Church.
He played football and baseball at the University of Alabama in the 1950s and was an ALL-SEC defensive back as a sophomore. He played a year in the NFL and then coached high school and college ball, culminating in three seasons as Clemson’s head coach from 1970-72.
According to Clemson University, it was Ingram who pushed for a logo design that resulted in that Tiger Paw print.
After that he was an associate commissioner for the SEC, then was athletics director at Florida State as the Seminoles rose to national prominence in the 80s and at Alabama in time to hire Gene Stallings as head football coach.
He resigned from Alabama when it was placed on NCAA probation in 1995.
Hootie Ingram was 90 years old.
Court setback for the AG
A federal judge denied Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he can’t prosecute people who facilitate Alabamians seeking abortions in other states, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.
The lawsuit was filed by abortion-rights groups and alleges that Marshall violated free-speech rights when he made a statement claiming anyone who helps women travel to and obtain abortions in states where it’s legal can be charged with conspiracy.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson would not throw out the case. He wrote that Marshall’s claims on the right to travel defy “history, precedent and common sense.”
“Such a constrained conception of the right to travel would erode the privileges of national citizenship and is inconsistent with the Constitution.”
By the Numbers
That’s how long it took for the MLB at Rickwood Field game (Cardinals-Giants, June 20) to sell out on Monday. More than 5,000 available tickets went on sale for Alabama residents who had pre-registered and were selected in a lottery. They could buy one or two tickets with prices starting at $275 per ticket. Secondary markets had tickets priced from around $600 to more than $1,500.
More Alabama News
Quiz results
Here are the answers and how we did, cumulatively, on this week’s Down in Alabama news quiz:
Demonstrators at the University of Alabama, calling for the school to cut ties to a defensive contractor because of the Israel-Hamas war, and counter-protestors at times both voiced disapproval of this person:
- Joe Biden (CORRECT) 64.3%
- Benjamin Netanyahu 30.4%
- Donald Trump 4.1%
- Sean “Diddy” Combs 1.2%
According to the most recent CDC data, this city has the highest STD rate in the state:
- Montgomery (CORRECT) 59.6%
- Mobile 20.8%
- Birmingham 18.4%
- Smuteye 1.2%
Which of these cities has NOT had its police chief be suspended, resign or get fired this year?
- Madison (CORRECT) 74.9%
- Selma 12.0%
- Montgomery 7.6%
- Mobile 5.6%
Birmingham Police’s effort to curb street racing and illegal exhibition driving has been dubbed what?
- Operation Knight Rider (CORRECT) 61.4%
- Operation Fast and Furious 28.9%
- Operation Hazzard 9.1%
- Operation Leave it to Beaver 0.6%
What grabbed attention when it landed next to the track at the Children’s of Alabama IndyCar Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park?
- A mannequin (CORRECT) 72.2%
- A sandhill crane 15.5%
- An Alexander Shunnarah billboard 7.6%
- A spy balloon 4.7%
The podcast
Weather reporter Leigh Morgan joins us to talk about storms, heat and the coming hurricane season.
You can find “Down in Alabama” wherever you get your podcasts, including these places:
Welcome to BamaCentral’s “Just a Minute,” a video series featuring Alabama Crimson Tide on SI’s beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.
Watch the above video as BamaCentral baseball beat reporter Theodore Fernandez reflects on the first two months of Alabama baseball’s season and explains why the team has left much to be desired despite success on the field.
At face value, this has been a successful campaign for Alabama baseball. Entering the final four weeks of the regular season, a Crimson Tide team that was projected to finish No. 13 in the SEC is 9-9 in conference play, and just one game out of fourth place. The first sweep of Auburn in more than a decade, the Frisco Classic title, and a road series win over Oklahoma are big-time results that speak to the potential Alabama clearly possesses.
But it continues to appear increasingly likely that this team may not realize that potential.
There are issues up and down the roster. The bulk of the attention has been on Justin Lebron’s struggles. His career-high in errors and underwhelming offensive numbers have led to his draft stock beginning to fall, and it led to him even being experimentally moved out of the two-hole for a game against Arkansas.
Players like Luke Vaughn and Jason Torres have struggled, and there is still a significant amount of regular roster experimentation occurring on a week-to-week basis. Will Plattner, Justin Osterhouse, Chase Kroberger, Andrew Purdy and Peyton Steele are all among the players who have started games over the past two weekends and still appear to have undefined roles.
The biggest question remains the bullpen, as it is nearly impossible to predict what it will provide on any given day. There was a two-weekend stretch where it gave up just five earned runs over 22.1 combined innings against Auburn and Oklahoma, willing Alabama to wins in games where the bats did not show up. Then there have been the lows: implosions against Arkansas and Texas that cast serious doubt on the unit’s ability to show up in big moments.
In all of those areas where the team has struggled, there is hope of a turnaround. There are the bullpen’s aforementioned elite stretches. There are the web-gem plays in short by Lebron, that will leave him with one of the most impressive defensive highlight reels of any player in the nation. There’s Torres responding to a 1-for-12 weekend against the Razorbacks with a two-hit game where he drove in one of Alabama’s two runs to avoid a sweep against Texas last Sunday.
In a sport defined by randomness, where the thinnest of margins can mean the difference between going home in a regional or making a run to Omaha, we simply have no way of knowing where Alabama will land.
Would we really expect it any other way?
That’s baseball.
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A “joyful” 10-year-old Alabama girl was found dead soon after being reported missing — with another juvenile charged with her murder.
Katheryn Bigbee, 10, was reported missing just before 11 p.m. Friday, when police were called to an undisclosed address in Calhoun County, AL.com reported.
“Officers responded immediately to the residence,” Piedmont Police Chief Nathan Johnson said in a statement. “They tragically discovered a deceased juvenile inside the home.”
It remains unclear where the house was, or whether it was the young girl’s family home — but another juvenile was soon taken into custody and hit with murder charges.
Their identity and connection to Bigbee have not been disclosed due to their age.
Bigbee’s cause of death also remains unclear, with police saying the investigation was still ongoing.
“Our family has been torn to pieces, and we have lost the most amazing, sweetest little girl,” relative Blake Trammel wrote on Facebook.
“She was a light in any room she walked into. I cannot express the pain, guilt, and emptiness that has come from all of this. We don’t have answers, only more questions,” he added.
The girl’s school also recalled her as a beloved member of its community.
“Our entire Piedmont Elementary School family is grieving as we remember a sweet little girl who brought smiles, kindness, and a bright light to our halls each day,” the school said in a statement.
“Katheryn had a joyful, spunky personality that made her truly special,” the school said. “She was an enthusiastic reader and will be remembered for the happiness she shared so freely.”
“She will always be a part of our school family, and her memory will live on in the hearts of her classmates, teachers, and all who knew and loved her.”
Alabama AHSAA softball key dates and top teams approaching the 2026 playoffs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Alabama’s AHSAA softball playoffs are just around the corner with three of the state’s top teams ranked in the national Top 15.
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The No. 5 Orange Beach [AL] Makos, No. 10 Thompson [Alabaster, AL] Warriors, and No. 15 Wetumpka [AL] Indians are all ranked in the most recent edition of the MaxPreps Top 50 with the start of Alabama’s postseason less than two weeks away.
Orange Beach was previously ranked No. 1 before losing to the South Warren [Bowling Green, KY] Spartans last week. Both teams were undefeated going into the contest, and the Barbers Hill [Mt. Belvieu, TX] Eagles took the Makos’ place at the top of the rankings following the loss.
WATCH: ALABAMA AHSAA SOFTBALL ON THE NFHS NETWORK
Key dates for the Alabama AHSAA softball playoffs
|
DATE |
PLAYOFF DEADLINES |
|
5/1-5/26 |
Area Tournaments |
|
5/11-14/26 |
Regional Tournaments |
|
5/18-22/26 |
State Tournaments |
National Top 50 contenders by classification
Alabama’s three nationally-ranked teams all compete in different classifications.
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Class 7A
The Thompson Warriors are 34-1-2, and they compete in the AHSAA’s top-level Class 7A ranks. The team’s only loss is to the No. 15 Wetumpka Indians in a 3-2 setback on April 3.
Class 6A
Wetumpka is 34-5, and as noted above, they are the only team to beat Thompson so far.
Class 4A
Orange Beach is the state’s top-ranked team despite competing at the AHSAA’s Class 4A level. Their loss to South Warren of Kentucky in a 6-1 setback on April 9 ended a 45-game win streak at the time. The Makos had only allowed 25 runs all season prior to the relative outburst by the Spartans.
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