dropped their ski ropes and skied up a ramp onto the dock
ski when their not-yet-famous father coached football
for a dry landing. Rogers was at their show, and Atkins says
at the University of Kentucky. Mae Martin had come
he chose the worst possible time to step onto the dock –
to Birmingham in the summer of 1953 to visit her
"just as we let go of our ropes to go onto the ramp."
grandmother, and skied with Atkins on the Black
"Carol Ann Duffy screams. I yell 'Split him,'" Atkins
Warrior River.
remembers. "Carol Ann and I went to the right and the
Mae Martin spent much of her time in the ski boat,
others went to the left. We grabbed him as we went by.
timing Atkins on trick runs, watching all her routines, her
Talk about shocked. I don't know who was more shocked,
jumps, in essence, being her coach. Atkins says it dawned
him or us."
on her just a few years ago that "Mae Martin didn't get the
"He could have been killed because there was no way we
could stop," she says. "You should have seen his face!"
— Atkins water skied with Mae Martin Bryant
credit she deserved. She was the first Bryant who coached a
national champion."
— Bob Blalock
and taught younger brother Paul Bryant Jr. to water
Above: Photo by Bernard Troncale — Atkins holds the award that named her winner of the women's overall World Tournament in Toronto in 1953.
S hor el i ne s | 2013 Vol:3
19
