Words by Skylar Lara | Images courtesy of Wimp Sanderson
You’ve heard the phrase, “You got to start somewhere.” For legendary basketball coach Wimp Sanderson, his start came in a little town in Walker County, Alabama, called Carbon Hill.
A Florence, Ala., native, Sanderson graduated from Coffee High School and spent one year on the basketball team at Abilene Christian College in Abilene, Texas. He then transferred closer to home and finished his collegiate career at Florence State Teacher’s College, now the University of North Alabama, or UNA.
“I decided to transfer because of the distance,” Sanderson said. “The only thing you got in Abilene is a whole lot of wind, and the only thing to catch it is barbwire fences.”
In 1959, Sanderson had recently graduated from college when he attended a coaching clinic in Tuscaloosa, hoping to find a job. Unfortunately, he had no luck. Schools were looking for a basketball coach that could also help coach football, and because Wimp had no previous experience with football, he wasn’t getting any calls.
However, one day a call came from a board member at Carbon Hill High School in Walker County.
“I got a call saying that the principal at Carbon Hill had resigned. Hollis Thompson, who was the basketball coach and who graduated sometime before me at UNA, was going to become the new principal and they needed a new basketball coach,” Sanderson remembers.
Naturally, Sanderson was interested. Not only did he feel pressure to find a job, he and his wife were getting ready to welcome a new baby. A short time later, Carbon Hill had their man.
The coach, his wife, and their young child moved into a basement behind the school while Thompson and his wife lived above them. Trying to make ends meet often necessitated the young family to get creative: the Sandersons built a bedside table out of a wire spool, used orange crates as underwear drawers, and purchased a $5 stove and $10 refrigerator.
Luckily the new coach was inheriting a pool of respectable athletes. The year prior, Carbon Hill had won a state championship in football, led by future University of Alabama standout Cotton Clark. Sanderson was installed as an assistant football coach—though admittedly he didn’t know the difference between a pigskin and a poke sack.
“I was supposed to help with the line, so I did what I could, but I wasn’t very good. I knew nothing. I’d just line them up and let them knock the crap out of each other. If anything, it helped me learn the players,” Sanderson says.
The basketball team was similarly talented, led by future collegiate players Doug Key and Dwight Norris. At point guard, Frank Nix was the leader of the team and the school’s quarterback. Along with that trio, Herman Cook, Lacy Allison, Buford Edgil, and Ray Hinds added to the perfect mix of grit and attitude.
As the season progressed, the Bulldogs showed promise. Sanderson liked what he saw from his team—a remarkable toughness and work ethic—and as he pushed them to achieve their full potential, he often discovered he was learning as well.
“I remember one-time Herman Cook had rolled his ankle. He turned it pretty good, but I needed him bad,” Sanderson said. “I don’t know why, but I thought the hotter the water, the quicker his ankle would heal. So, we had a game coming up and I got his fanny in there and made him get in that hot water. He’d put his ankle down in there for a minute, he’d take it out and I’d make him put it right back. Well, that thing swelled up like a balloon, instead of me helping him I hurt him. It was stupidity on my part. I should’ve had more sense, but I was so anxious to get him back.”
The Bulldogs finished the year at 25-4 with the first loss coming at the hands of Dora High School. One of Sanderson’s biggest accomplishments was beating Carbon Hill’s archrival, Walker High School, on three separate occasions.
“We went to Walker and beat them,” Sanderson said. “Back then, for some reason, winning the county tournament was like winning the state tournament. So, we ended up playing Walker in the finals and Jack Caldwell was the coach. It was a real battle, but we beat them. Then, they came to Carbon Hill and we beat them again. That was three wins in one year against Walker— which was a big deal for Carbon Hill.”
The season ended when Tuscaloosa County knocked Sandersons’s squad out of the district tournament. “That was a devasting night for me to lose because we had such a great season,” Sanderson reflects.
Around that time, Eugene Lambert was serving as men’s basketball coach at The University of Alabama, and one of his assistants was a man named Hayden Riley, who happened to be Sanderson’s high school coach. Rumors circulated that Alabama might be making a change and appointing Riley as head coach. The thought that Wimp could possibly have an opportunity at Alabama stayed in the back of his mind and eventually came true.
Sanderson was hired as a graduate assistant (GA), making a mere $175 a month. Though it wasn’t much, it paid for his schooling and provided housing for him and his family.
Following Sanderson’s departure to Alabama, Carbon Hill hired two consecutive UNA graduates and teammates of Sanderson, Don Heidorn and Dabs Earnest from nearby Winfield.
And as Sanderson created a legacy in Tuscaloosa, winning multiple championships and awards and coaching future NBA stars as the Crimson Tide head coach from 1980-92, he never forgot where he came from.
Through the years, he remained close with many of the members of the 1959-60 Carbon Hill Bulldogs, and even invited the surviving members to his home several years ago.
“Those were great times with those kids. We have lost some of them, but they were a joy to coach,” said Sanderson. “Carbon Hill was a great community, and the people were terrific. I wish I could go back.” WL
