A meeting of Lions
Foley High School legend Ken Stabler and current quarterback Roosevelt Byrd meet for the first time
By Derek Belt
Mobile Press-Register
Oct. 3, 2006
FOLEY, ALA. — On this afternoon, it wasn’t about records or numbers. It was about Foley High School’s past and present—two No. 12s, meeting for the first time on their own home turf.
It was about camaraderie and togetherness. It was about football, then and now.
Current Foley quarterback Roosevelt Byrd and Ken “Snake” Stabler, who held that position from 1961 to 1963, tossed a few spirals back and forth on the freshly chalked field at Ivan Jones Stadium, then talked football in the very same locker room that Stabler once used.
“It all started right here,” Stabler said as Byrd cradled the old pro’s 1965 national championship ring and 1977 Super Bowl ring. A member of the University of Alabama’s title team in ’65, Stabler guided the Oakland Raiders to a resounding 32-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.
Byrd and Stabler both see football as a means to make it big, but each has traveled a remarkably different path.
Print Condition 