A tribute to biggest of Alabama football’s big guys, 2 of whom have a ‘76’ connection

After committing to Alabama, Fluker dominated the camp and all-star game circuit. Recruiting analyst Barry Every wondered if Fluker might not want to just skip college football entirely.

“I say this half-jokingly, but Fluker’s family needs to petition [NFL Commissioner] Roger Goodell to allow him to be drafted,” Every said. “I believe he would be drafted right now in the first day.”

Fluker redshirted as a freshman at Alabama in 2009, but became the starting right tackle the following year. He helped the Crimson Tide to national championships in both 2011 and 2012 — earning All-America honors in the latter year — before he was off to the NFL.

A first-round pick of the San Diego Chargers in 2013, Fluker played 11 years in the league with seven different teams. He was never quite a star, but carved out a nice career and living for himself.

Some three decades before Fluker signed with Alabama, another offensive line prospect wowed observers with his incredible size. Farrar Montgomery was listed on Atmore High School’s roster at 6-foot-10 and 300 pounds, though Crimson Tide coaches discovered he was closer to 350 when they officially weighed him in.

To get an idea how large Montgomery was for his era, guard John Hannah and center Dwight Stephenson — arguably Alabama’s two best linemen of the 1970s — were both 6-2 and neither weighed more than 265 pounds even in the NFL. Sylvester Croom, an All-America center for the Crimson Tide in 1974, was listed at 6-foot, 200 coming out of high school.

Montgomery was easily the tallest and heaviest player who had ever signed with Alabama to that point. Here’s a photo of Montgomery alongside 5-11, 165-pound North-South All-Star Game teammate Joe Lockhart of Leeds — who later played running back at Jackson State — that ran in the July 25, 1976 edition of The Birmingham News:

Montgomery reportedly slimmed down to 310 pounds by the time he reported to Alabama, and after a redshirt year in 1976 coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said though he had “improved 100 percent” but “still had a long way to go.” By the spring of 1978, Bryant said Montgomery “may be able to help us.”

 

Injuries, however, appeared to take their toll. A December 1978 Birmingham News report said Montgomery was still on the team but had been kept off the field by “ankle troubles.”

 

In addition to the injuries, a lineman of Montgomery’s size was probably a poor fit for the wishbone offense Alabama ran at the time. The wishbone required quick linemen who could get low and stay low, something that was no doubt a problem for the tall, long-limbed Montgomery.

 

“It’s hard on Farrar to get his weight down,” Bryant told the Alabama Journal in August of 1979. “He’s had constant problems with turned ankles and when Farrar turns an ankle he really turns it.”

 

Montgomery’s college career was apparently over by the time the 1979 season began, with Bryant telling reporters that year he was academically ineligible. It’s unclear how much if at all he ever played at Alabama — stats for linemen are hard to come by, even now — but he is not among the school’s list of all-time lettermen.

There have been numerous other very large men to play football at Alabama over the years, including recently deceased tackle Steve Wright, who at 6-6, 250 was absolutely enormous for the early 1960s. Defensive tackle Terrence “Mount” Cody was noted for his bulk (6-4, 360) as a two-time All-American in the early Nick Saban era, while both Jones (6-3, 225) and 2015 Heisman Trophy-winning running back Derrick Henry (6-3, 245) were very large for their positions.

 

But Fluker and Montgomery deserve special mention as the most gigantic of Alabama’s football giants.