Auburn icon James Owens’ lasting legacy remembered

Many of the men who went to battle with James Owens will say their final farewell Saturday to a pioneer remembered for his quiet dignity.

Owens passed away last week at the age of 64.

The former Auburn fullback known for breaking the color barrier as the Tigers’ first black scholarship player will be laid to rest at Garden Hills Cemetery in Opelika.

The trailblazer

The close-knit class of 1972 was a brotherhood bound together through the grueling trails coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan’s staff put them through.

For better or worse, Owens’ color meant little to his teammates.

The fullback was admired for his work ethic and accepted in the huddle as just another member of the team.

“We were in a bubble,” former Auburn fullback Rusty Fuller said. “When you are 18 years old and playing college football, you aren’t as socially conscious. We accepted him and just thought everyone else did.”

The inclusive attitude in Auburn’s locker room didn’t always extend outside those walls.

Owens dealt with discrimination, but rarely spoke a word of it. It wasn’t until years later his teammates came to grips with how different Owens’ collegiate experience was from the rest of the group.

Once the pads came off, his teammates would scatter. Some would go to fraternity parties while others might go bowling or catch a movie, but a Saturday night following an Auburn game for Owens was typically a lonely affair.

“I don’t think we lost a home game his senior year in 1972, and we would all go out to parties,” former Auburn quarterback Randy Walls said. “We didn’t know James didn’t have anywhere to go. He would go up to the television room in Sewell Hall and watch TV by himself. When he told me that, I pictured him up in that room by himself and I cried.”

There were uglier incidents for Owens — being kicked out of a barbershop, restaurants refusing service — that illustrated his daily struggles, but he rarely spoke about them during his playing days.

It wasn’t until decades later many of his teammates realized the adversity he faced.

“I wonder why we were such dumba----,” Fuller said with a sigh. “I guess we were too wrapped up in everything else.”

Walls chokes up thinking about the team isolating Owens through their own youthful ignorance.

“I would have been proud to walk through any door with him,” Walls said. “He never said a word, never said a word.”

The football player

Owens became an unlikely focal point for Auburn’s offense during the Tigers’ 1972 season.

After losing quarterback Pat Sullivan and wide receiver Terry Beasley to graduation, the coaching staff made a decision to install a new Power I offense during Owens’ senior year. Owens was the power part of the equation.

“The fullback was expected to lead the way for the tailback, who carried about 30 to 35 times a game,” Fuller said. “We were expected to block a guy bigger than us every play. James would take a pounding every week. He was as tough as nails.”

Walls still remembers the sounds he heard in the backfield when Owens would collide with a linebacker or defensive lineman after a 10-yard head start.

“There was a wreck on every play,” Walls said. “Even if I had my back turned, I could hear the lick. James might not have won every battle but won the war every game.”

The lead up to the season was just as brutal for Owens as the team learned the offense during a spring camp they all described as brutal and unforgiving.

Former offensive lineman Mac Lorendo recalled the first-team offense lining up against the first-team defense for an hour straight — full contact, no breaks. The coaching staff believed Auburn’s success hinged on toughening the team up.

“We had two very good seasons with Sullivan and Beasley and the team revolved around them,” former defensive back Johnny Simmons said. “Our senior year in ’72 we didn’t have those big names and in spring training the coaches changed their philosophy. We went from being a finesse team to a team that played defense and ran the ball. They put us through a lot of physical and mental stress to make sure we were tough enough to handle the game plan.”

Fuller described the coaching staff’s approach in plainer terms.

“They were trying to kill us,” Fuller said with a chuckle. “The coaches didn’t really believe in substitutions. They would always say you can’t get in shape drinking water.”

With the way Auburn used its fullback, Owens took a beating every time he stepped on the field, whether it was against the opposing team or his own.

“We had scrimmages where we would run the same play 35 consecutive times. If he didn’t make his block, the play didn’t work,” Simmons said. “It’s not like it is today. It was mano a mano with him just running head first into the line.”

Simmons knows many fans will remember Owens for the fullback’s flashy 89-yard punt return as a sophomore against Florida, but when Simmons pictures Owens in an Auburn uniform, he flashes back to the season opener in ’72 at Mississippi State.

As an underdog against MSU for the first time in decades, Owens set the tone early by scoring what would be his only touchdown of the season on a run inside the 5-yard line. He broke multiple tackles on the play to give his team a lead.

“It’s hard to explain the feeling you get when you see someone that determined,” Simmons said. “He was going to fight to get into the end zone, and nobody was going to stop him. All you could do was have respect for him.”

The preacher

Owens second act eclipsed any of his accomplishments on the football field. The Fairfield (Alabama) native married his high school sweetheart, Gloria. The two had three children and three grandchildren with faith guiding their lives.

“They were a couple moving in the same direction,” Simmons said. “They approached life as a team.”

Owens became a minister at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church in Dadeville, Ala., where he preached for more than a decade.

Simmons reconnected with Owens when the two attended the funeral for former Auburn offensive lineman Jay Casey. In the years that followed, faith became the topic of many discussions between the two men.

“We were in Selma for the funeral, we talked at lunch and he just seemed totally at peace with himself,” Simmons said. “I don’t know many people like that. It was something I admired.”

When former Auburn defensive coordinator Paul Davis passed away in 2009, Owens was asked to give the eulogy. For many of his teammates, it was the first time they had seen Owens the pastor.

“It was the James we never knew,” said former Auburn defensive end Sammy Oates. “He actually sang. We never even knew he had a singing voice.”

Walls fondly recalls visiting Owens’ church in Dadeville, where the choir of 30 members sounded like 150.

“I was just moved by the whole thing,” Walls said. “He always preached positively, not a fire and brimstone kind of guy. James always believed that tomorrow was going to be a better day. He was just an inspirational guy.”

Owens’ positive spirit never wavered even as his health declined in recent years, battling heart failure, neuropathy and diabetes with the same inner strength his teammates witnessed at Auburn.

“He never complained,” Simmons said of Owens’ health issues. “It’s hard to explain, but I just think he knew where he was going.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Auburn icon James Owens’ lasting legacy remembered."