« on: September 03, 2014, 07:36:48 AM »
Never understood why he didn't make it in the NFL longer than he did. Sad.
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The 1983 Auburn football media guide offered this snippet about Donnie Humphrey:
donnie humphrey.jpgDonnie Humphrey
"A kind person off the field, but an awesome terror on the field when the ball is snapped...Wants to work with children."
Drug addiction and eventual incarceration thwarted Humphrey's desire to work with children until the later years of his life. Said his friend, Ocie Maddox Jr., "He was very redemptive. He knew he made mistakes and he wanted to make things right."
Humphrey, a former J.O. Johnson High standout and Auburn defensive tackle before a brief NFL career, died overnight at age 53 at his home in Yucca Valley, Calif., after a brief illness. He had recently undergone surgery to have a leg amputated. Arrangements have not been finalized but services will be held in Huntsville.
Humphrey was working as an assistant coach for a team called the Hi-Desert Heat in the National Developmental Pro Football League in southern California. He had been living in California for five years.
Humphrey was remembered as one of Huntsville's best all-around athletes despite his lineman's size. Said Maddox, "He was our second Condredge Holloway," referring to the multi-sport Lee High standout. Humphrey played baseball and basketball and ran track at Johnson in addition to being an All-City football player.
"Me and Donnie played together back in the parks and recreation leagues at Lakewood and all the way up through high school," said former Johnson teammate Ralph Battle. "Of all the teams I ever played on – no matter the sport – Donnie was always the most athletic player on the team."
There might be an argument whether he was the best athlete in his family, though. Brother Frank also played at Johnson and sister Gwen was a basketball standout; Donnie's daughter Tasha played in the WNBA after starring at the University of Georgia.
He signed with Auburn and was a five-year letterman – one season was aborted by injury and the NCAA permitted another year's eligibility – earning All-SEC honors in 1981. He was on Auburn's 1983 SEC championship team.
"He was all you could handle," said former Alabama lineman Hoss Johnson. "He was quick as a bug."
The Green Bay Packers drafted him in the third round in 1984 and he played three years in the NFL.
He returned to Huntsville and helped coach at Johnson High while also working as a security officer at Westlawn Middle School.
"They call me the 'Westlawn Police Department,'" Humphrey said at the time.
In 1994, having moved back to Auburn and dealing with a drug problem that began during his NFL days, he was convicted of forgery and sentenced to prison after he took a check from the office of Auburn equipment manager Frank Cox. He cashed the check for $700 and said he was using the money to feed his drug habit. He was sentenced to seven years at the Lee County Jail, not far from the stadium where he earned collegiate glory.
"Believe it or not, this is the best thing that ever happened to me," he said in a 1994 interview with The Huntsville Times during his incarceration. "I was going nowhere, except maybe to being killed. I wrote a letter to my family apologizing for the embarrassment I caused them. So many nights they worried that I was dead."
Maddox related a recent conversation with Humphrey.
"He told me, 'I gave my life to God. There are a lot of things I've done in life I'm not proud of. But coaching this team and having God in my life has been the ultimate blessing for me,'" Maddox said.
"One thing about Donnie, he had the biggest heart of anybody you'd want to meet," said Gwen Humphrey. "He overcame a lot and part of that was putting energy to work for the positive and to help young men and young women make good decisions in their lives."
In 1992, while working at Westlawn Middle School, Humphrey was profiled in The Huntsville Times.
Said Humphrey in that story, "Everybody makes mistakes in life," Humphrey says. "You're not human if you don't make mistakes. The only perfect man to walk the earth, they killed Him. To me, the biggest aspect is learning from your mistakes."
« Last Edit: September 03, 2014, 07:38:58 AM by Saniflush »
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"Hey my friends are the ones that wanted to eat at that shitty hole in the wall that only served bread and wine. What kind of brick and mud business model is that. Stick to the cart if that's all you're going to serve. Then that dude came in with like 12 other people, and some of them weren't even wearing shoes, and the restaurant sat them right across from us. It was gross, and they were all stinky and dirty. Then dude starts talking about eating his body and drinking his blood...I almost lost it. That's the last supper I'll ever have there, and I hope he dies a horrible death."
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