In the past few decades a lot of tickets have passed through Tommy Ford’s hands.
He’s worked with athletics at the University of Alabama for almost 30 years, and almost all of that has been in ticketing.
And even before that, he’d been an Alabama fan.
So it might be surprising to learn that the one ticket that stands out, the one stub he cares about the most and keeps for sentimental reasons, isn’t from an Alabama game.
‘For Pete’s Sake’
It’s from a movie he saw in December 1968.
“It was called ‘For Pete’s Sake’ and it was a Billy Graham movie,” Ford said.
“I’d just turned 13 when our youth group went to see it. Although I’d grown up literally in church, I wasn’t saved until I walked down the aisle at that movie.”
His family took him to their Methodist church in Gadsden every time the doors were open, he said — “I’d never missed a Sunday School class, Boy Scout meeting or youth retreat.”
But it was that movie that touched his soul and made him realize what he’d been hearing about all his life.
Old ticket stub
“I still have the ticket stub, and I have shown it a couple of times when I’ve given my testimony,” he said.
From that night on, Ford’s faith was “very important” to him, and he stayed involved in his church.
Then after he moved to Tuscaloosa, enrolled in the University of Alabama (UA) and got married to Robin — who grew up at East Gadsden Baptist Church, Gadsden — he became actively involved in First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, teaching Sunday School, serving as a deacon and leading a men’s small group.
But something else happened during that time too, something that would become a major outlet for him to share his faith.
Sports writing
As a student Ford decided to approach the sports editor of the campus newspaper, The Crimson White, on behalf of some friends who were on the university’s swim team.
“Our swim team was world class and I didn’t think they were getting enough coverage,” Ford said.
But instead of offering to do more, the sports editor turned it back on him.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you do something?’ and so I met with the swim coach, learned about the sport and became a sports writer for the newspaper.”
The next year, he became the sports editor.
And that laid the groundwork for a hobby that would become a passion later for Ford, now assistant athletics director at UA.
As his career as a ticketing manager and head of Tide Pride developed, he started writing books on the side — nine, to be exact.
“All of the books I’ve done are totally as a hobby, sort of a labor of love. And all of them have something to do with Alabama,” he said. “Writing has been fun and covering Alabama has been quite a thrill for me with all that’s happened in the past 10 years or so.”
He’s written books on topics from Bear Bryant’s leadership to the Alabama-Auburn rivalry to the deadly tornado that struck Tuscaloosa in 2011.
That book, “A Season to Remember: Faith in the Midst of the Storm,” was published by B&H Publishing Group and was co-authored by Carson Tinker, the football team’s long snapper whose girlfriend, Ashley Harrison, was killed in the storm.
Blessed in work
The book told the story of Tinker’s faith and how it never wavered despite his major personal loss.
Ford’s latest book, “Alabama’s Crimson Mission,” was released in June and tells the story of how an early-season loss to the University of Mississippi in Oxford inspired the team to fight to win the national championship in 2015.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t thank the Lord for the blessings that He’s given me, for the opportunities I’ve had in my job at the university and how He’s blessed me in my writing,” he said. “It’s been a fun time.”
Share with others: