He was one of the few remaining ties to Coach Paul Bear Bryant’s 1958 return to The University of Alabama — the “turnaround team.”
Marlin Dyess has died in Montgomery at age 88 of kidney failure and congestive heart failure.
His exploits at Denny Stadium and Legion Field earned him the name “the Little Scooter.” It stuck with him for life.
Dyess himself tells the story behind the nickname that stuck: “I returned a punt against Tulane, and when I came out, Coach Bryant hit me on the butt and said, ‘That’s how you do it, Scooter. He had never called me Scooter until then, and my teammates felt it was kind of cute, I guess. Now, if somebody calls me Marlin, they ask, ‘Is that the same as Scooter?’ Yeah, I’m afraid that’s me.”
Two Alabama legends earned nicknames that stuck – Bear Bryant and Scooter Dyess.
Dyess had been a key part of Elba High School’s undefeated and state championship teams in the 1950s. He married his high school sweetheart, who’s still alive today. He was awarded a last-minute scholarship to Alabama and became a major part of Coach Bryant’s first two years back in Tuscaloosa.
The Little Scooter was five foot six and weighed 150 pounds, soaking wet, which he often was, given Bryant’s rugged practices.
For the rest of his long life, Dyess remained a living symbol of the early Bryant era. Bama and Bryant were famous for winning with small, fast players. Extremely fast. Dyess clocked in with a 9.8-second hundred-yard dash.
This was in the early Bryant era before he discovered that big, fast players could beat small, fast players. Bryant’s first two years – 1958 and 1959 – were the Scooter Dyess years. They laid the foundation for Bama’s return to national prominence and national championships of the 1960s and beyond. Dyess was named the permanent captain of the 1959 team, his senior year.
Dyess was named MVP of the 1959 Alabama-Auburn game (only later called the Iron Bowl) after he scored the game’s only touchdown, catching a 39-yard pass from quarterback Bobby Skelton. Bama won 10-0.
He experienced Coach Bryant’s famous rugged practices, which followed the pattern of Bryant’s infamous “Junction Boys” practices at Texas A&M.
He experienced Coach Bryant’s infamous motivational speech prior to the 1959 Auburn game. It was Bryant’s second season at Alabama, and his team was the underdog going into the final regular season game against archrival Auburn.
No recording exists of that Bryant talk, but here is the Scooter Dyess version:
He began talking in somber tones about the players’ families. He reminded them that their fathers, “who have worked so hard they probably had wrinkled hands” would be at the game, and their mamas who had raised and nurtured them, would be there also watching. Their grandparents “who are getting up in age might be there as well.” Then he cast his eyes toward the ground and wrung his hands, saying, “Now I just want us to stop and think about our families, and all they mean to us, and what you mean to them.”
Then Bryant let fly with: “Now can you honestly tell me that you are going to go out there on Saturday, and let those country son-of-a-(guns) beat you in front of all those fine people that have meant so much to you all their lives?”
Dyess remembers, “I had never heard a talk like that. You couldn’t help but be motivated.”
And it worked. Dyess scored the only touchdown in the game, and the Crimson Tide broke a string of losses to Auburn.
At Bryant’s insistence, Dyess earned an engineering degree. He had a successful career in sporting goods, engineering, and aluminum sales.
Arrangements will be announced.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler is a freelance writer about the colorful and positive in Alabama — her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
