POWERGRAMS

21 21 Sugar Bowl (for the 1979 national championship) and I was in the hospital," says Macguire, who has dwarfism and is just under 5-feet tall. "On Christmas Day I got a card and on the envelope corner all it said was 'Bryant.' He never put a return address on his letters because everyone in the state of Alabama knew who that was. He wrote, 'You're too tough to be down. We expect you back soon." MacGuire, 62, recalled that Bryant usually rode a golf cart by himself during practices, but on one occasion stopped, patted the empty seat and asked, "You want to ride?" "It scared me so bad I turned him down," MacGuire says laughing. In 1980, MacGuire took his love of sports to the next level, becoming a reporter for WHBB radio in Selma. Soon after, he returned home and went into statewide sales of Crimson Tide memorabilia, ads for the UA football program and similar efforts. He used his legendary knowledge of Alabama trivia to write "Crimson Tide 1,015 Questions and Answers" in 1998, a book that is out of print. In 2003, a bout with spinal stenosis required surgery that put him through 57 days in a rehab hospital and forced MacGuire into using a metal walker. Of course, he recalls that time in Tide terminology. "When I went to the hospital, Mike Price was head coach," says MacGuire. "When I left rehab, Mike Shula was head coach." MacGuire was still recuperating in 2005 when he got a call from the owner of WGYV that "reeled" him back into sports at his local radio station. Eventually, his friend Iris Whitfield Wood got MacGuire onto Facebook and she still produces that page, "Alabama Football with legendary 'Big C' Colin MacGuire including local sports." Big C's on-air guests in the past year alone have included Joe Namath, Archie Manning, Johnny Musso, Vince Dooley, Gene Stallings and Danny Ford. Each except Namath is in the College Football Hall of Fame, which represents .02% of all players in history. Namath is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. MacGuire attends most Alabama games at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The past two seasons he joined 40-year reunion festivities in Tuscaloosa for those national championship teams. "It was a lot of fun," he says. "It was the first time I'd seen some of the players since we left campus." Many of those old players and coaches continue to support their friend and school through the annual scholarship golf tournament named in MacGuire's honor. The fundraiser at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Greenville was named the 2017 Alabama Alumni National Event of the Year. About 100 golfers take part in the tourney, which has raised about $75,000 in three years. Lifelong friend Cody Wesley helps coordinate the tournament. Wesley says he has admired MacGuire since they played football together at Fort Dale Academy. He says current and former Alabama players have a similar respect for Big C. "I have a friend from another Alabama Alumni Club who asked me, 'What's yall's secret to success?'" Wesley says. "I said, 'We've got an ace in the hole and his name is Big C.'" MacGuire films local baseball game. MacGuire has covered Greenville sports for 15 years. MacGuire has popular shows on radio and internet.

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