SEC Storied

Produced in conjunction with NASCAR Media Group, Herschel explores how Herschel Walker’s career in the SEC was legendary, but his journey off the field was filled with struggle, pain, and ultimately, redemption. Growing up in rural Georgia, Walker was relentlessly bullied for being overweight and having a severe stutter. He turned those taunts into motivation, transforming himself into a superior athlete. Unable to afford weight training equipment, Walker self-trained by doing 5,000 pushups and sit-ups every day after school, racing oncoming locomotive trains and running barefoot in 100-degree heat while pulling a 50-pound tire. He would become a star running back in high school and shatter state records. At Georgia, Walker led the school to its only undisputed national championship, was a three-time All-American and winner of the 1982 Heisman Trophy. He is considered one of the SEC’s and college football’s greatest players ever.

Directed by Jeff Cvitkovic Narrated by Luke Perry Two decades ago, the SEC decided to expand to 12 schools and host a conference championship game for the first time in college football history. Many thought that this would jeopardize national title aspirations for the schools involved. The additional game was scheduled at the end of the regular season, pitting the league’s two division champions against one other. It was a risk, as the inaugural game in 1992 indicated. Undefeated Alabama normally would have gone straight to a matchup with Miami in the Sugar Bowl with the national championship on the line, but instead was forced to play Steve Spurrier’s Florida squad first for the SEC title. Alabama was on a 21-game winning streak, but the last school to beat the Crimson Tide was Florida, 35-0, just one year earlier. In the fourth quarter of the ’92 title game, it looked like Florida would march to victory once again.

In the early 1990’s, Arkansas enjoyed unprecedented attention and success. Former Governor Bill Clinton was sworn in as President of the United States while the University of Arkansas became one of the top men’s college basketball programs in America. The man behind the Razorbacks’ rise to prominence was head coach Nolan Richardson and his “40 minutes of hell” playing style – turn up the pressure for an entire game and the opponent will eventually break down. It was an approach that embodied Richardson’s personality. Growing up in El Paso, Texas, the coach endured segregation that he carried with him into adulthood. When Richardson became a coach after his playing days at Texas Western University, he looked for players who could execute his intense full court system. After a successful run at Tulsa, in 1985 Richardson became the first African-American head coach in the Southwest Conference when he took over the Arkansas men’s team.

Lolo Jones began chasing her dream in high school. After years of living in poverty and an unstable home life she was determined to be the first in her family to go to college. Constantly looking to improve, Lolo earned a scholarship from the famed Louisiana State University Track and Field program and fought to become the best, among the best. With the help of coach Dennis Shaver, Lolo became one of the most dominant athletes in the history of the LSU Women’s Track and Field dynasty, winning three NCAA Titles and 11 All-American honors, most notably in the hurdles. After failing to qualifying for the 2004 Olympics, Lolo turned again to Shaver for inspiration to continue fighting for her dream. After four years of intense training, Lolo found herself right where she wanted to be—on the 2008 US Olympic team and favored to win gold in the 100 Meter Hurdles.

As the first African American center at the University of Alabama, and one of the school’s first black players, Croom earned All-American honors, won three SEC championships and displayed the “can-do” attitude first instilled by his father, Rev. Sylvester Croom Sr. After playing for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and then coaching under him for a decade, Croom moved on to the NFL as an assistant coach for 17 years before emerging as a leading candidate for what he considered to be the ultimate position—head coach at Alabama. Though it appeared in the spring of 2003 that Croom was on the verge of being named Alabama’s next head coach, it was Mike Shula who ended up getting the job. But the following year, Croom was named head coach at another SEC school, Mississippi State University, making him the first African American head football coach in the history of the conference as well as leaving him with the formidable task of rebuilding a football program facing NCAA sanctions.

In high school Sam Bowie was considered a potential franchise player. Arguably the top recruit in a national class that included Ralph Sampson, James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas, the 7-foot-1 center out of Pennsylvania got off to a strong start at the University of Kentucky and as a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team. After Bowie resisted pressure to jump early to the NBA, he continued to raise his level of play as a sophomore. But in a game against Vanderbilt late in the regular season, he suffered what would later prove to be a stress fracture in his left leg. Soon plagued by a long recovery that forced him to sit out two consecutive seasons, he struggled to get healthy. Still, Bowie bounced back as a fifth-year senior in 1984 and helped lead Kentucky to the Final Four.

A father-and-son story written into the pages of football folklore, it can be argued that no family has had more influence on a sport than the Mannings. Archie – the patriarch – a star quarterback at the University of Mississippi and then with the New Orleans Saints, followed by oldest son Cooper, whose football dreams were cut short by a spinal condition, then sons Peyton and Eli – both of them quarterbacks, All-SEC, number one draft picks, back-to-back Super Bowl champions and MVPs. Narrated by actor John Goodman, The Book of Manning features revealing interviews with Archie, Olivia, Cooper, Peyton and Eli Manning along with other family members, friends, former teammates and coaches as well as never-before-seen photos and home movie footage of Archie and his sons. Through it all, director Rory Karpf explores how a tragedy shaped the course of not only Archie’s life, but his family’s as well.

The story of gymnastics coaches Sarah Patterson and Suzanne Yoculan, and how they brought the programs of Alabama and Georgia respectively to whole new heights.

14 famous figures, one from each of the SEC schools, open up about the time they spent and the memories they made at their respective schools.

The story of how Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley and Frank Thomas changed the face of Auburn's athletic program.

Steve Spurrier reflects back on his time as the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner as quarterback of the University of Florida and discusses how that journey impacted his coaching career ever since.

On October 28, 1989, Ole Miss defensive back Chucky Mullins hit Vanderbilt running back Brad Gaines in the back. While Gaines was uninjured, Mullins suffered a broken neck on the play, leaving him a quadriplegic.

An in-depth look at the relationship between Shaquille O'Neal and his basketball coach at LSU, Dale Brown.

Examining Rick Pitino's journey as the coach of Kentucky basketball team and how he turned the program around with the help of his new assistant coach, Bernadette Locke.

A look back at basketball star Dominique Wilkins, his dominance at Washington High School and his surprising decision to join the University of Georgia - a choice that left his home town stunned.

The story of the 1985 Misissippi State Bulldogs baseball team, focusing on the complicated relationship between two key players Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro who became known as 'Thunder and Lightning'.

Danny Wuerffel was on top of the world at the end of the 1996 college football season. The University of Florida quarterback had just won the Heisman Trophy and led the Gators to a national championship. But drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the spring of 1997, he struggled to attain the same kind of success in the NFL. It was in that first year as a pro that he began volunteering in New Orleans' Desire neighborhood, one of the poorest locales in the country.

The story of the 2013 Auburn Tigers football team. Expectations were at an all-time low entering the season, but what followed was a year of implausible finishes, cinematic heroics, and a turnaround for the ages.

Profiling former Missouri Tigers basketball coach Norm Stewart. Stewart's days playing for Missouri through his time as a coach and his battle with cancer are discussed in this epic story.

Ruthie Bolton - Olympic gold medalist, former Auburn Tigers basketball player and a victim of domestic violence - shares her powerful story. She has become an activist for women across the world.

This film looks at Warren Morris' walk-off home run to win the 1996 College World Series for the LSU Tigers. Morris is the only man to ever hit a walk-off homer to end the College World Series.

The 2006 and 2007 Florida Gators men's basketball teams are profiled, who won back-to-back National Championships, led by Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey, and head coach Billy Donovan.

Before Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson teamed up as owner and head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, they were key players on Arkansas' unbeaten national champions in 1964. This documentary examines how their time at Arkansas shaped their futures.

This documentary features former Ole Miss basketball star Johnny Neumann. It examines his decision to leave college early, his professional basketball career and ultimately his return to complete the college degree he once disdained.

A look back at the career of South Carolina's only Heisman Trophy winner, George Rogers.

This film explores the story of Charles Martin Newton's influence on the basketball world; a career spanning seven decades as an innovator and an advocate for the advancement of African-Americans in athletics.

At age 11, promising Houston golfer Stacy Lewis was diagnosed with scoliosis, and spent seven years in a back brace, taking it off only to play golf. Then, she faced surgery that would likely end her career-after earning a scholarship to Arkansas. While the school honored the scholarship, she arrived in Fayetteville only able to swing a putter-but went on to become an SEC and NCAA individual champion, and still later one of the LPGA's top players. In 2017, a week after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on her hometown, she broke a long tournament drought

Maybe the most important decision Fran Tarkenton ever made was in 1957, when as a high school senior leading Athens High School to the Georgia state championship, he went with his heart and chose to go to the University of Georgia over Georgia Tech and Auburn. The rest is football history. Directed by Jay Jackson and Ryan Kelly of NFL Films, "Scramblin' Fran" tells the story of the quarterback's unlikely rise at Georgia, highlighted by a memorable SEC title in 1959. The film traces his steps toward a long, successful pro career that saw him go from an unconventional,

"The Sweat Solution" explores the inception of the original Gatorade formula set against the 1965 and 1966 seasons of the Florida Gators football team. Originally produced for the 50th anniversary of Gatorade's creation, the film revisits the stories of so many of those who were involved in testing the original formula, including Dr. Robert Cade's wife, co-inventor Dana Shires, players Steve Spurrier, Larry Smith, Jim Yarbrough, coach Ray Graves and others.

In the annals of sports writing, there is no more hallowed figure than Vanderbilt graduate Grantland Rice. By his own estimate, over his half-century career, Rice wrote more than 22,000 columns, 7,000 sets of verse, and over a thousand magazine articles. Rice was friendly with Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Christy Mathewson, Babe Didrikson, and Bobby Jones, and with his pen, maintained a ruling perch across the sports world for the first half of the twentieth century.

In the early 1980's, Auburn University boasted three superstar athletes who would become among the most famous names in the history of their sports. There was Charles Barkley, there was Bo Jackson, and then, there was Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV. And the story of what Rowdy overcame during his time at Auburn, and in the years to follow, speaks to what he learned there and how the school, and its legendary coach Richard Quick, impacted the life of an Olympic champion.

Rudy Macklin's jersey is hanging from the rafters at LSU's Pete Maravich Assembly Center, and for good reason: Macklin is the school's all-time leading rebounder and second-leading scorer. Macklin led the Tigers to the 1981 Final Four in Philadelphia, where an injured finger hampered him in a semifinal loss to Indiana. Back then, the NCAA Tournament included a third-place game, and that's where the trouble started for Macklin. Just before the consolation game against Virginia, President Ronald Reagan was shot, and after the loss, Macklin was asked if the news might have affected the team. His widely-reported response-"He's no kin of mine"-was so blown out of proportion that he feared for his life. In "No Kin to Me," Macklin talks about the fight to restore his honor.

Chronicling late-'60s Florida wide receiver Carlos Alvarez, a Cuban immigrant who assimilated into what was an anti-Cuban American culture by excelling at football (172 catches, 19 TDs). In 2011, Alvarez entered into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The story of the Texas A&M "12th Man" kickoff coverage team made up entirely of walk-on players. Coming off a losing season in 1982 in his first year as Texas A&M's head football coach, Jackie Sherrill sought to light a fire under his team and connect to the passion of the student body.

The story of swimming sensation Dara Torres, who pushed boundaries for both her gender and age, breaking records and forging new paths for women.

An in-depth look at the Kentucky team that delivered the first NCAA championship for an integrated team in the school's renowned basketball history when it won the 1978 title.

The story of Vanderbilt University’s path to the 2007 NCAA Championship in women’s bowling, the school’s first national title in any sport.

The next documentary in the SEC Storied series is “Hold the Rope,” the story of legendary LSU baseball head coach Skip Bertman and his quest to turn the Bayou Bengals into a perennial power. The hour-long film debuts on Monday, May 24 at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

The story of Tamika Catchings and the 1997–98 Tennessee Lady Vols - unequivocally the best in the country at the time.