News Staff Report
Former University of Alabama offensive coordinator and receivers coach Woodrow “Woody” McCorvey is one of eight individuals selected for induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
McCorvey, who has since 2008 served as associate athletics director for football administration at Clemson University, was born in Grove Hill but moved to Atmore with his family at age 5 when his father, Woodrow McCorvey Sr., was hired as principal, teacher and coach at Escambia County Training School.
The new hall-of-famer said strong support from his family was the driving force to his success. He also noted that the players he has coached and worked with were a collective key.
“It’s very humbling,” McCorvey told reporters. “For me, it’s very special for having grown up in that state. To be a part of a special recognition like being in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, it took a lot of people with me, going back to my mom (Dorothy, who still lives in Atmore) and my dad, the support of my family — my wife, my son Marlon, my daughter-in-law Brooke, my grandson Beau — but on top of that, the players. That’s why I got into this business. This recognition is really for them because I’m standing on those guys.”
The new HOF selectee played quarterback at Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) from 1968 to 1971 before starting a coaching career that culminated in his current position. McCorvey coached for six years (1972-77) at J.M. Tate High School in Cantonment, Fla., before being hired in 1978 as an assistant coach at North Carolina Central.
In 1996 he became the first person of African American descent to serve as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. He was UA’s receivers coach under Gene Stallings and has also held positions at Alabama A&M, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Tennessee during his 26-years-plus Division I coaching career.
He was selected as winner of the 2015 AFCA Outstanding Achievement Award for his contributions to college football, and in 2010 was inducted into the Atmore Hall of Fame.
Among those McCorvey will join in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame is Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who was inducted as part of the Class of 2018.
McCorvey, who met the Clemson coach when Swinney was a wide receiver at Alabama, has been part of five national championship teams, and teams on which he has coached or otherwise been associated with have played in 31 bowl games.
Swinney, whose Coach of the Year speech last year dealt almost exclusively with his relationship to McCorvey, said his assistant and former coach was deserving of such recognition.
“I’m just so excited for Coach McCorvey,” Swinney said. “He’s so deserving of this honor. He’s in the Atmore Hall of Fame, and now to know that he’s going into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, I just think it’s something that’s so deserving. There’s nobody more deserving than Coach McCorvey. I’m super-proud, super-happy, and I can’t wait to be a part of the celebration”
The induction ceremony for the Hall’s 52nd class is scheduled for May 2, 2020 at Birmingham Ballroom in the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.