The Riverwalk Market in Tuscaloosa was awash in Crimson and White earlier this week. Fans of the Alabama football team showed up for a pre-season prep rally to rev up the fan base as the season opener against East Carolina draws near. One mainstay of these Crimson Tide events is a student chosen to wear a familiar costume. APR student reporter Alex Shoenfeld has more on Alabama’s Big Al, and the big impact he has during good times and the one that was more challenging...
For fans of the Crimson Tide, Big Al is everywhere. He shows up at football and basketball games, and then there are community events like this one. The student inside the Big Al costume hams it up with the public and poses for photos. The atmosphere is usually upbeat, but not always.
“Going through chemo (therapy) is a very difficult time,” recalled Rebecca Todd Minder. She was talking about her mother who was dealing with cancer in Tuscaloosa.
“It's hard sitting there for just hours taking your treatment, and you're freezing cold, and you're just ready to go home, and it kind of wears you out and it drains you. So, it was a very difficult, challenging time,” she said.
Minder recalls one day that went a little easier
“And there was one time before the holidays that Big Al came to visit all the patients there, and she was so elated,” she said. “I had never seen her so excited. I promise you, it seemed like she was meeting Elvis Presley.”
“I guess I would say that the thing that kind of shocked me the most is how much Big Al does,” said Reed Fowler.He a student at the University of Alabama. But, he doesn't wear the Big Al costume, but he's the mascot's handler.
“There'll be like state texting pep rally kickoff assemblies at these elementary schools, and they are just every year. They are my favorite thing to help Big Al at because the kids are always in the good mood. They're always getting hype, and it's just always so much fun to engage with the kids.”
Fowler is one of a crew of UA students who get Big Al from place to place and make the visits all work. He's done this his entire time at UA, and to hear him talk about it, it doesn't get old.
“Our main job, a lot of it is you know getting him where he needs to go, letting him know where he needs to go, coordinating all the schedule. He almost always has at least one or two appearances every single day,” said Fowler.
Fowler says Big Al's calendar stays busy year-round.
“He also does a lot of on-campus appearances for like clubs and things, and other administrative groups and community appearances for charities and businesses in the community, as well as I'm sure most people have seen him taking grad pictures or birthday parties and weddings,” he said.
Game days may be what most people associate with Big Al, but the preparation starts long before kickoff. On Saturdays, the team helps coordinate appearances around campus, prepares Big Al for pregame activities, and keeps everything moving on schedule before the mascot takes the field.
“Really, preparation starts the week leading up to the game, or even beyond that,” Fowler said. “Because if you've ever seen Big Al in one of his wacky costumes or things like that on the sidelines, in the second quarter, that stuff that they have to carry-that's another one of their jobs-is making all those props and costumes for him.”
“Alabama was such an important role in my mom's life too,” said Rebecca Todd Minder. We met her at the start of our story. Her mother was being treated for stage four lung cancer when Big Al made one of his trademark community visits.
“She worked at the University of Alabama Press, and then she worked for the Small Business Development Center, and so she just loved being part of this institution. So she was a huge, huge Alabama fan,” said Minder.
What might have seemed like a simple visit created an unforgettable memory,
“And you know it's sad to be someone there watching the patient go through that process (chemotherapy,) but when Big Al came in, it really did flip a switch. And you know, with his jovial personality and always just so happy and coming and giving people hugs, and it really did light up her day, and you could tell how thrilled she was. Her face just illuminated, and it was just a really poignant moment and a beautiful thing to experience.”
Something as small as a mascot coming in to a cancer treatment center and making people's days much brighter for Minder and her family, that moment became even more meaningful in the weeks that followed.
“The crazy thing is that she passed away about a month later, and I just know that her last few weeks were very challenging, but she did have that great moment of joy, and that makes us,” she recalled.
