Fob James

Forrest Hood "Fob" James Jr. (born September 15, 1934) is an American politician, civil engineer, entrepreneur, and former football player.

After graduation in 1952 from Baylor School, a private high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, James entered Auburn University, where he played football for head coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan.

In 1955 James was named All-American as a halfback.

During the 1956 season, he played professional football in Canada as a member of the Montreal Alouettes.

He entered the US Army and served two years as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

He received a civil engineering degree in 1957.

From 1958 to 1959, James worked as a heavy construction engineer with Burford-Toothaker Tractor Company in Montgomery, Alabama.

He had married and started a family.

In 1959, his second born, Gregory Fleming James, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Needing more money to pay medical bills, James left Montgomery in 1960 to take a job as construction superintendent with Laidlaw Contracting Company, a road-paving company in Mobile.

In 1961, James decided that he could earn a living from the manufacture of plastic-coated barbells.

In 1962, he founded Diversified Products Inc., a manufacturer of fitness equipment; it was known for the plastic-disc barbells filled with "Orbatron," which DP patented.

The company name was changed to "Diversified Products Corporation" after originally being called Health-Disc Inc. In addition to physical fitness equipment, the company manufactured ballasts and counterweights for farms, industry and trucking.

James founded DP in his basement and, over the next 15 years, the company ultimately grew to employ 1,500 people with plants in Opelika, AL; Los Angeles, and Toronto, with sales of about $1 billion annually.

James had left the Democratic Party in the early 1970s but returned to the party before the election.

In the first primary, he defeated Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, 296,196 votes to 210,089 votes.

In the run-off, James easily outdistanced Baxley.

In the November general election, he defeated the Republican candidate, Guy Hunt.

During James' first administration, the state faced considerable financial difficulties.

James was reasonably successful in attaining his education reform package, improving the state's mental health system, rectifying some prison overcrowding problems and fortifying the once financially strapped Medicaid system.

James consolidated various state agencies to reduce state spending.

Additionally, he implemented a ten percent State spending cut, instituted a hiring freeze, and laid off a considerable number of the state employee workforce.

He also chose to emphasize funding for k-12 education, over that for Alabama's colleges and universities, a highly contested action.

He also worked to acquire stiffer penalties for convicted drug traffickers.

He was instrumental in improving state highways as a result of earmarking a substantial amount of money for such improvements from the state's oil windfall funds.

James was unsuccessful in his attempts to: have a new state constitution drafted, levy a fuel tax, rectify the court-ordered desegregation of some of the state's post-secondary institutions, and secure passage of his bill to eliminate income tax deductions for Social Security payments.

One of his greatest accomplishments was integrating Alabama government.

During his inauguration, he "claim(ed) for all Alabamians a New Beginning (his campaign theme) free from racism and discrimination."

During his first term as governor, he nominated Oscar Adams to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court, the first African American chosen for such a position.

In addition, he appointed other blacks to cabinet positions, including Gary Cooper as director of the Department of Pensions and Security, the first African American in a century to be appointed to lead a major state agency in Alabama.

From 1972 to 1974, James served as president of the Alabama Citizens for Transportation, a statewide committee that developed a twenty-year highway program.

This was subsequently adopted by the Alabama Legislature.

James served as the CEO of DP until 1977, when it was bought by the Liggett Group.

James's son Gregory died of cystic fibrosis at the age of eight.

During his 1978 campaign for governor, James campaigned as a "born-again Democrat".

He served as the 48th governor of Alabama, first as a Democrat from 1979–1983, and then as a Republican from 1995–1999.

James was born in Lanett, Alabama, the son of Rebecca ( Ellington) and Forrest Hood James.

Named after his father, he was nicknamed "Fob" as a boy.

In 1981 James established the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, named in his honor.

James played an integral role in the establishment of the center.