Alabama Sports Legends

Alabama has produced some of the greatest athletes in sports history.

They have come from small towns and big cities, high school fields and gymnasiums, college campuses and neighborhood playgrounds. Their journeys have taken them to the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the Olympic Games, championship arenas, and halls of fame.

Their stories are part of the story of Alabama.

In Alabama Sports Legends: The Athletes Who Made the Heart of Dixie Proud - Volume One, longtime broadcaster and author Mark Bixler begins an ambitious five-volume journey celebrating 100 men and women who have helped shape Alabama's remarkable sports heritage.

Volume One features 20 legends from different sports, generations, and backgrounds. They are not ranked. This isn't an attempt to determine who was No. 1 or who belongs at No. 20.

Instead, each chapter asks a more important question:

What made this person a legend?

Among the stories in Volume One are baseball greatness, football glory, basketball championships, Olympic triumphs, record-setting performances, historic breakthroughs, and careers that reached the highest levels of competition. The book includes figures such as Hank Aaron, Bo Jackson, Joe Louis, Bart Starr, Charles Barkley, Derrick Henry, Frank Thomas, Mia Hamm, Bobby Bowden, and many more.

But this book goes beyond statistics.

Bixler explores where these legends came from, how their careers developed, the obstacles they encountered, the moments that defined them, and why their accomplishments still deserve to be remembered.

For Bixler, Alabama is also personal. During part of his broadcasting career in the Athens-Huntsville area, Alabama radio listeners knew him by his on-air name, Mark Payton. His years in the state gave him firsthand experience with the passion Alabama communities have for sports.

Now he returns to Alabama sports from a different perspective-not simply as a broadcaster covering the games, but as an author preserving their history.

And Volume One is only the beginning.

Twenty legends. Twenty stories. Five volumes. One hundred Alabama sports legends.

Whether you remember watching these athletes compete, grew up hearing stories about them, or are discovering some of them for the first time, Alabama Sports Legends celebrates the people and performances that helped make the Heart of Dixie proud.

Remember the names.
Preserve the history.
Tell the stories.

The journey begins with Volume One.