HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Billy Neighbors, a star lineman on coach Bear Bryant's first national championship team at Alabama and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 72.
Jerry Carriger of Laughlin Service Funeral Home says Neighbors died Monday afternoon at Huntsville Hospital. A cause of death was not immediately known.
Neighbors, who was born in Tuscaloosa, was an All-American in 1961 for the Crimson Tide, playing both offense and defense. He anchored a defense that allowed a total of 25 points and posted six shutouts in 11 games that season.
``Billy meant so much to Alabama football over the decades,'' Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore, who was a teammate of Neighbors, said in a statement. ``He was one of our first great players under Coach Bryant, and he had become a tremendous friend to me and everyone in the Alabama family.''
He went on to an eight-year professional career with the Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.
``Billy was easy to like. It was always easy to talk with Billy,'' Moore said. ``We spoke three or four times a week for as far back as I can remember. I have lost a great friend and Alabama certainly lost a legend. It's just a tremendous loss.''
Both of his sons, Wes and Keith, played for the Crimson Tide.
