Marlin “Scooter” Dyess, the undersized halfback who flourished in the first seasons of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Alabama tenure, has died at 88. He passed peacefully at Baptist South Medical Center in Montgomery with his family at his side.
Born Nov. 5, 1937, and raised on a small farm in Coffee County near Elba, Dyess first signed with the Crimson Tide during the struggling J.B. “Ears” Whitworth years.
Bryant arrived as head coach before Dyess’s junior season and immediately took note of the 5-foot-7 player who weighed less than 150 pounds. According to later accounts of that first Bryant year, the coach looked at the crew-cut youngster and asked what the hell he was, the water boy.
Bryant soon changed his mind. Dyess led Alabama in receptions in each of his final two seasons while also contributing as a runner and return specialist and running track in the spring. After a long punt return against Tulane, Bryant slapped him on the backside and told him that was how it was done. Until that moment the coach had never called him Scooter. Bryant later told him football came easy for him.
Dyess’s signature moment arrived in the 1959 Iron Bowl. He scored on a 38-yard touchdown catch from Bobby Skelton that helped Alabama shut out Auburn 10-0, the Tide’s first win over its arch-rival since 1953. The team finished 7-2-2 and lost the Liberty Bowl to Penn State 7-0, the first of 25 consecutive bowl appearances that would not end until 1984.
After completing a mechanical engineering degree in the spring of 1960, Dyess worked briefly for an engineering firm and later owned a sporting goods store before moving into the steel business in the late 1970s. He eventually founded Scooter Dyess & Associates, brokering construction-grade steel. He also served nearly a decade in the Alabama Air National Guard and was deployed to Germany during the second Berlin Crisis.
He stayed closely tied to the university and his community, serving on boards that included the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the American Heart Association, and the Governor’s Physical Fitness Commission.
He was president of the University of Alabama National A Club and a board member of the Alabama Red Elephant Club. In 2012 he received the Paul W. Bryant Alumni Athlete Award, given to former players who distinguished themselves after leaving campus through character, professional success, and service.
Dyess and Lela Ann, his high school sweetheart, were married 66 years. He is survived by their daughter Lori Ann Shamblin, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and his brother Tom.
A member of First Baptist Church of Montgomery for nearly 60 years, he served as a deacon since 1975 and directed a men’s Sunday school class for a quarter century.
His longtime pastor, Jay Wolf, remembered him as one of the finest, most joyful and faithful men he had ever known, a man whose sincere smile and encouragement filled rooms.
A celebration of life will be held Thursday at Montgomery First Baptist Church, with visitation at 10:30 a.m. and the service at 11:30 a.m. Burial will follow at Greenwood Cemetery.
The family asks that memorial gifts be directed to the church.
