Pat Trammell

Patrick Lee Trammell (July 11, 1940 – December 10, 1968) was an American college football player.

He played quarterback at the University of Alabama from 1958 to 1961.

Trammell's football career at the University of Alabama began in early 1958, before Bear Bryant's announcement that he planned to return to his alma mater to take over as head coach of the ailing football program.

Trammell's family recalls a personal visit at the time and a 'pep talk' from Bryant saying that, "if you'll commit to Alabama, then I'll come back to Alabama."

Trammell had actually planned to attend Georgia Tech, after being heavily recruited by Hall of Fame head coach Bobby Dodd but at this point, made a career-altering decision that would change the rest of his life.

Bryant's influence would once again bring the program into the national spotlight and Trammell was his first star player.

Bryant had promised the team in the fall of 1958 the impossible notion that they would win a national championship within four years, if they could "stick it out", as told by team-mates Billy Neighbors, Bill Oliver and Mal Moore.

This was going to be an uphill battle, as Alabama was coming off of four straight losing seasons.

In 1959, when Trammell was a sophomore, he led Alabama in total offense and then led in total scoring in the 1960 season, including a win against the Fran Tarkenton-led Georgia Bulldogs.

In his senior season, he led the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide football team to a perfect record of 11–0 and the national championship, and finished fifth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

A third-generation physician, he lost a six-month battle with metastatic testicular cancer at age 28, shortly after earning his medical degree.

Trammell was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, as the middle son of a prominent local physician, Dr. Edward Lee Trammell.

He quickly excelled both in athletics and academics.

He wished to become a physician like his brother, father, and father's grandfather.

Trammell was the starting varsity quarterback at Scottsboro High School, where he earned All-County, All-State, All-Southern and All-American honors during his four year prep career.

He broke a string of records including having thrown 5 touchdown passes in a single game, twice, and 40 touchdown passes during his high school career.

He was also named most valuable basketball player in state of Alabama as a high school senior.

In 1961, Trammell led the team to a perfect season and a national championship, the first in 20 years for Alabama.

On December 5, 1961, at the National Football Foundation's reception in the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, with President John F. Kennedy attending, Bryant and Trammell accepted the MacArthur Trophy in recognition of Alabama's perfect season and national championship.

The black tie event was hosted by Bob Hope and was also attended by General Douglas MacArthur, Vince Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Sidney L. James, the founding editor and publisher of Sports Illustrated and dozens of other College Football Hall of Fame Inductees.

Trammell was selected Academic All-American, was named the 1961 SEC Most Valuable Player, SEC Player of the Year, All-SEC (First Team) Back of 1961 season (AP, UPI) and All-SEC Academic Selection.

He was voted as the 1961 Collegiate Player of the year by the Touchdown Club of Atlanta.

He was chosen as the 1961 Most Valuable Back by the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club.

He was chosen to receive the Most Valuable Player Award for 1961 by the Nashville Banner.

He finished fifth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy, which was won by halfback Ernie Davis of Syracuse.

By becoming the 1961 permanent Team Captain, Pat Trammell had his hand prints and cleat-prints stamped into the Walk of Fame in 1961 as "most outstanding player" on the ingress of Denny Chimes on the Quad at the University.

This was the last time that this designation was ever made.

Several interviews of family members and players that knew him best gleaned some light on what made him so exceptional and "unbeatable".

He had mastered the cognitive component of the fundamentals of the game by using his unique gifts of an eidetic "photographic" memory, "sixth sense" and "field presence".

At any given moment during any play of any game, he knew how it was intended to unfold, not just for his position, but for every player on the field.

He would have anticipated the next move of his opponents well before they knew it themselves and would often manipulate them into a more suitable position for his offense.

Even when far outmatched, he would home in and exploit the weak link of the defense to leverage an upper hand.

He welcomed adversity and would actually thrive on it.

What Bryant found to be so amazing was that even though he was not a superior athlete, he was always able to find the necessary resources in the exact way at the exact time to overcome the odds, "make things happen" and deliver a win.

Bryant would continue to build on this foundation for the rest of his career to turn average players with average skills into exceptional players who would believe in themselves and become winners both on and off the field.

p. 88, p. 90

Teammate Billy Neighbors ('59–'61) would later say that Pat Trammell was the "smartest and best football player I'd ever played with .... period. And I played with some great players, like Bob Griese and Babe Parilli. Pat Trammell was still the smartest football player .... it was just the way he ran the team, the offense."

p. 89

Although the Birmingham Touchdown Club SEC player of the year award did not begin until 1979, he has been publicly honored and recognized by this organization on multiple occasions.

(Of interest, a similar semi-fictional scene was digitally remastered in Winston Groom's film, Forrest Gump, in 1994, with President John F. Kennedy digitally morphed into the set with Tom Hanks, who played Forrest Gump, a celebrated fictional Alabama football player, who had accepted a handshake from the President and was asked "how does it feel to be an All-American?". Winston Groom had been a freshman at the University of Alabama in 1961 during this era.)