How ‘Unfinished Business’ Propelled Parker High to its First-Ever Football Title in Alabama

A.H. Parker High School Principal Darrell Hudson, far left, coach Frank Warren, next to Hudson, and assistant coaches of the state 6A championship-winning team are honored by the Jefferson County Commission. (Soloman Crenshaw Jr., For The Birmingham Times)
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By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | For The Birmingham Times

Unfinished business. That’s what A.H. Parker High School’s victory in December to capture the state 6A championship, the first in the school’s 125-year history, meant for some at the school. It was more than about school pride.

Jacoby Leonard would know. He was a member of the 1980 Parker football team that reached the Class 4A championship game only to lose 15-13 to Vestavia Hills. He was also the son of Cecil Leonard, the head coach of the 1980 squad.

Jacoby Leonard was in the stands of Protective Stadium in December when the Herd finished the journey his 1980 team began. Leonard’s team reached the championship game; the 2024 squad claimed the title, the first in the Bison’s 125-year history, ironically as Parker celebrates its founding in 1900 as Birmingham’s oldest Black High School.

“To me, Parker has always been a quality style school as far as championship play,” he said. “To finish that overall goal there is huge, man, because that will establish them for what they’ve been trying to do for many years as a football powerhouse. Now they can finally say, ‘Hey, we’re a powerhouse in football overall.’”

Carl Crosby (class of ’78) played guard from 1974 to 1978 for Hall of Fame basketball coach William “Cap” Brown and was frequently reminded of the Parker legacy.

“I thought about it often because, of course, I played basketball and baseball for Cap Brown and he constantly reinforced the legacy that we were following the legacy that had been laid for us,” Crosby said. “It was a constant. It was something that was constantly brought to bear, to our consciousness, that we were at a special place and that we were following people who had laid the groundwork for us. That demanded greatness be achieved.”

“Finest Lineman I Have Ever Seen”

That demand for greatness led Parker grad Buck Buchanan into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. A 1959 grad, Buchanan was captain of the basketball and football teams for the Thundering Herd. He went to Grambling State to also play both sports but left the hardwood behind for gridiron greatness.

Grambling State football coach Eddie Robinson called Buchanan “the finest lineman I have ever seen.” Buchanan earned All-America honors at Grambling and All-Pro in the NFL.

The 6-foot-7, 274-pounder was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame after a stellar career with the Kansas City Chiefs which included being a runner-up in the first Super Bowl in 1963 and grabbing a championship in Super Bowl IV.

In that first Super Bowl, he recorded the first sack in Super Bowl history, taking down former Alabama QB Bart Starr of the Green Bay Packers.

Buchanan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and he is one of four Grambling State players coached by Eddie Robinson who are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 1999, Sports Illustrated included him on its All-Century Team for college football. The FCS (Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known at Division I-AA) presents the Buck Buchanan Award annually to the FCS’s best defensive player.

Top Players

Rubin Grant, the former Birmingham Post-Herald sportswriter, said Parker produced more than just great players on the gridiron and a strong football program.

For example, the University of Alabama built its men’s basketball program on players from Birmingham, featuring Parker standouts Robert “RahRah” Scott and Eddie Phillips. Before them, Alabama’s first Black men’s basketball player hailed from Parker – Wendell Hudson, who was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

On February 17, 2020, Hudson’s number 20 jersey was retired by the Alabama men’s basketball team, becoming the first and only player to have his jersey number retired by the program.

Still another Parker guard was Allen Murphy, who went on to play shooting guard for the University of Louisville Cardinals. Murphy was part of Louisville’s 1975 Final Four team before having a short stint with the NBA‘s Los Angeles Lakers.

Grant pointed out the May brothers – Lee and Carlos played baseball for the Thundering Herd and ultimately took their skills on the diamond to Major League Baseball.

Carlos May’s 10-year career went from May 1968 to October 1977. He hit .274 with 90 home runs and 536 RBIs in 1,165 games. He had 85 career stolen bases and 545 runs scored. In 4,120 at-bats, he had 1,127 career hits.

“Lee May was one of the top players when I became a Major League fan,” Grant said, “playing for the (Cincinnati) Reds until he was supplanted by Tony Perez at first base.”

Lee May was a standout in both baseball and football at Parker. He played fullback on the varsity football team and was offered a scholarship at the University of Nebraska. However, the Cincinnati Reds organization was also interested in him, and the team signed him to an amateur free agent contract with a $12,000 bonus on June 1, 1961.

Accolades

After his 18-season career, the Big Bopper, as he was called, was inducted to three Halls of Fame: Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame (1988), Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame (2006) and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (2009).

Carlos May won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award, but lost to Lou Piniella for the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder, first baseman and designated hitter from 1968 to 1977, most prominently for the Chicago White Sox where he was a two-time American League All-Star player.

Carlos May also played for the New York Yankees and the California Angels.

The Crosby brothers – Carl and Gerald – made names for themselves as basketball players at Parker High. Carl, three years older, graduated and ventured a few blocks west where is earned a spot in the Birmingham-Southern College Sports Hall of Fame.

Gerald earned Parade All America honors at Parker before taking his sharpshooting talents to the University of Georgia. He helped the Bulldogs reach the NCAA Final Four, falling in the semifinal to eventual national champion North Carolina State.

Still another Parker guard, Eric Bledsoe, led the Thundering Herd to the 2008-09 Class 5A AHSAA state championship. He played one season at Kentucky before playing 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Phoenix Suns, the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans.

Barry McNealy (class of ’89) who teaches history at Parker and is an historical content specialist at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, said the school’s wealth of athletic talent is at least partly due to generations of segregation that sent Black students to the school. But Parker’s successes go beyond that concentration of students, he said.

“As time moved forward, those people have children and they have children and they have children,” he said. “These people have a connection to this institution. As generations go, people tend to want to be a part of that family story or that family tradition. We could pretty much rely on the best of the best, and the largest number of people wanting to get in because of what Parker represented.

“When you have a product that is something that people want, you don’t have to work too hard to sell it,” McNealy said. “It sells itself.”

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