The Sports Xchange
Ex-Crimson Tide lineman Neighbors dies at 72
Former Alabama lineman Billy Neighbors, a star on coach Bear Bryant’s first national championship team, has died at 72.
Neighbors died Monday afternoon at Huntsville Hospital, according to an ESPN.com report.
Neighbors, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was an All-American in 1961 for the Crimson Tide, playing both offense and defense. He led a defense that allowed just 25 points and posted six shutouts in 11 games that season.
“Billy meant so much to Alabama football over the decades,” Alabama athletic director Mal Moore, who was a teammate of Neighbors, said in a statement. “He was one of our first great players under Coach Bryant, and he had become a tremendous friend to me and everyone in the Alabama family.”
After leaving college, Neighbors played professionally for eight years with the Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins.
———————————————–
