Maurita, you would have loved this. So would have Luke and Cecil.
On death and Alabama basketball
Twenty-one years ago, I became friends with Maurita Smith, who at time attended Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, the same school in which my high school classmate Tammara Jones attended.
We didn’t become friends in the traditional way, for those wondering. It was through the wonders of a website called Black Planet, which was Myspace and Twitter before those two entities became part of our lexicon.
The only thing we had in common, was our Zodiac sign.
She was a Millington Central graduate, I was a Whitehaven graduate.
She rooted for the Red Sox, I rooted for the Cardinals.
She rooted for the Crimson Tide, I rooted for LSU.
In the first six years of our friendship, my favorite teams had the upper hand in championships, with the Cardinals winning a World Series in 2006, LSU football winning a pair of national titles in football and an additional one in baseball for the Tigers as well as a Super Bowl for the Colts.
The only titles her teams had were the Red Sox’s World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, the former being at the expense of the Cardinals.
After 2009, which is when Nick Saban’s dynasty kicked into high gear in Tuscaloosa, Maurita was rubbing in the national championships and of course, victories over LSU in my face, most notably the 2012 game in which TJ Fucking Yeldon happened.
By then, Maurita was happily married and a proud mother while yours truly was living in New Orleans.
When Nick Saban retired in January, I messaged her about how she was holding up after the news.
“It’s like an end of an era,” she told me.
I didn’t think that would be the last time we would talk.
Three weeks later, Maurita would be taken from us all too soon.
The day I found out she died, I basically walked around in a daze. It was akin to having water in your ear after a swim and you’re trying to get it out. I didn’t want to believe it.
I still don’t.
When I got word that my photo was in a magazine in Japan, I sent her a message about it.
Heck, I even wrote on her Facebook wall about it.
The same could be said about the people that knew Luke Ratliff, or Fluff as he was better known.
Aside from Hunter Johnson, who I’ve known for years, Ratliff lived and died with Alabama basketball, so much so that he made the trip to Indiana to see them in the NCAA Tournament in 2021.
Tragically, after the Crimson Tide lost to UCLA in the round of 16, Ratliff would fall victim to complications from COVID-19.
Then, months later, Cecil Hurt, one of the true legends of Southern sports journalism, would die at the all-too early age of 62 after a lengthy illness.
Those three people were on my mind Thursday night as Alabama clinched their second regional final appearance in school history, by virtue of a victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels.
“Alabama is one win away, friend,” I wrote on Maurita’s wall Thursday night.
On Friday, I told Hunter Johnson Luke and Cecil would have loved this team.
“Just think of the words he would have typed,” I said of Cecil, “Or how crazy Luke would have gone for these guys.”
As an LSU fan, I’m obligated to hate the Crimson Tide.
But I can’t bring myself to do it today.
Somewhere, Maurita, Fluff, and even Cecil understands this.