2025 INDUCTEE – David Elwell
By Bruce McLellan
The Decatur Daily
In a nearly 20-year career writing sports for The Decatur Daily that was split between 1981-1989 and 2013-2023, Elwell chronicled the sports scene in Morgan, Lawrence and Limestone counties with stories on high school champions, college champions and even Super Bowl champions. It was a suggestion by Elwell in a 1988 story that sparked the idea of a Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame. The idea has carried over to many other counties across the state and beyond. Elwell’s contributions to the Hall of Fame include many of the profiles that have honored the over 250 inductees.
During a 44-year newspaper career, David Elwell interviewed legendary sports figures like Paul “Bear” Bryant, Charles Barkley and Decatur High’s H.L. “Shorty” Ogle.
He covered Austin High when it advanced to the state championship football game in 1983, and more than 30 years later he wrote about Black Bears teams that made deep playoff runs three straight years from 2015-17.
Along the way, he played a pivotal role in founding and sustaining the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame.
Elwell was sports editor of The Decatur Daily in 1988 when he read a story in the Mobile Press-Register newspaper about that city’s Sports Hall of Fame.
“I kind of said, ‘Well, we ought to have one up here.’ So I wrote a column about it,” Elwell said.
Phil Garrison read the column and liked the idea. He was board president in Decatur for what is now the Boys and Girls Club of North Alabama.
“We were looking for a fundraiser that would give back to the community too,” Garrison said. “That just seemed like a good thing, to start the Sports Hall of Fame.”
Garrison met with Elwell and A.D. Ashcraft, Boys and Girls Club director at the time. They moved forward with the Hall idea and recruited volunteers to form a board.
By 1989, the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame was ready to welcome its first eight members. The induction ceremony was planned for June with guest speaker, Bobby Bowden, then Florida State’s football coach.
Organizers sold all the tickets to the inaugural ceremony, but Elwell said there was some worry about how many people would actually attend. On the night of the ceremony, as the time approached for the doors to open at what is now the DoubleTree by Hilton, Elwell went outside the banquet room.
“The lobby was just packed. People everywhere,” Elwell recalled. “Phil was just stunned. It went well. Everybody had a great time, and it’s just gone on from there.
“I never would have dreamed how big it has become and how it has given the Boys and Girls Club over half a million dollars, which is pretty good for a group of volunteers.”
Helping with the Hall of Fame was just one of the highlights in Elwell’s career.
As a member of The Daily’s sports staff, Elwell covered Bryant’s final game as Alabama’s football coach, a 21-15 victory over Illinois on Dec. 29, 1982.
Just four weeks later, Bryant died. The Daily sent a sports writer and news reporter to Tuscaloosa to cover the outpouring of respect. Elwell stayed behind to help oversee the coverage.
“That Wednesday night (that Bryant died) I didn’t go home. I stayed in the office trying to figure out how we were going to cover one of the state’s biggest sports stories ever. … The whole paper became a special section.”
Bryant wasn’t the only larger-than-life figure Elwell encountered. He covered Barkley playing basketball for Auburn in 1984 and remembers the future NBA star being more than happy after a game to give each reporter a separate interview.
“He would tell a different version of the same story,” Elwell said. “It was so funny.”
Elwell interviewed Bo Jackson at the University of Alabama before he became a household name at Auburn. Jackson was playing in the North-South All-Star game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Jackson stayed in a campus dorm with the rest of the All-Stars. Elwell found Jackson’s dorm room crowded with at least a dozen all-star players. He introduced himself and asked which one was Jackson.
“He said, ‘I’m Bo,’ and he just cleared the room out. He made everybody leave. I had a one-on-one with him. He had a New York Yankees cap on and he was so nice. Answered all the questions. He was impressive.”
It’s easy for Elwell to select his favorite Alabama-Auburn football game. It came in 1985. Auburn led 23-22 in the final minute at Legion Field. Elwell had gone down from the press box to the field to prepare to interview players afterward. He was standing in an end zone as Alabama put together a desperation drive that put Van Tiffin in position to attempt a 52-yard field goal with six seconds left.
“I’m in the end zone behind him,” Elwell said. “He kicks it and it’s like the ball just goes up into the dark. You can’t tell how far it’s going. And then when it’s good, the whole place just exploded.”
Alabama won 25-23.
Elwell’s career also allowed him to cover high school coaches and athletes in North Alabama. One of those was Austin football coach Tom Calvin.
In 1981, Austin was in the middle of a nine-game losing streak when Elwell wrote in The Daily that the team might not win a game, prompting a response from Calvin.
“He called me up complaining and said don’t you be negative about it. We’re going to win one before it’s over. And they beat Decatur 7-0.”
That game was the first that Elwell covered between the rivals, and he went to Ogle Stadium with low expectations because Decatur also had struggled, with only three wins.
“So I walk in that place and it’s full. I couldn’t believe it. Then the teams came out. It was like being at a big college game. And for a 7-0 game, it had a whole bunch of back and forth that made it really exciting.”
Elwell said the victory in that game spurred Austin to 10 wins the next season and a march to the state championship game in 1983. A torrential rain right before the game at Legion Field doomed Austin against Murphy.
“Their offense was running the ball and speed, and that just negated the speed and they ended up losing (7-0).”
Elwell said he’s grateful he also had a chance to cover Austin basketball coach Joe Jones and to cover Earl Morris, who was in the midst of a basketball coaching career that included stops at Decatur and Brewer.
And then there was Ogle, namesake of Decatur High’s football stadium who won 209 games from 1933-63. When Elwell arrived at The Decatur Daily in 1981, Ogle had been retired for nearly two decades.
Elwell interviewed Ogle several times at his home, where college coaching greats like Bryant and Auburn’s Ralph “Shug” Jordan had come on recruiting trips.
“I remember the first time I walked in, his wife (Marguerite) was there,” Elwell said. “She said, ‘You can sit in this chair over here. This is where Coach Bryant and Coach Jordan sat when they came to visit Coach Ogle.’”
Late in Ogle’s life, his former players planned to honor him during a meeting of the then Decatur Quarterback Club. Woody Hayes was the guest speaker and Elwell interviewed the Ohio State coaching legend beforehand.
“He said, ‘They’re telling me there’s going to be this retired coach that’s supposed to be out there tonight. What can you tell me about him?’ It was Coach Ogle. … I just told him what I knew about all the years he’d coached and how much he meant to so many people and the community.”
Hayes paid tribute to Ogle in his own special way during his speech.
“He talked about how important high school coaches are and what impact they can have on lives. All this stuff he was saying just matched Ogle to the T. All these former players who were old themselves, a lot of them, you could just see tears running down their cheeks. It was just so emotional.”
Elwell worked under Executive Editor Tom Wright at The Daily in the 1980s and said he learned a lot from him, especially about organization. Shortly after the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame began, Wright let Elwell move from covering sports to become The Daily’s weekend editor. That gave him a more regular work schedule to spend time with his wife, Kay, and their two sons, Jason and Kevin.
In 1990, Elwell began working at The Huntsville Times and stayed there 24 years. But he continued to live in Decatur and kept in touch with local sports as his sons participated.
In 2013, he returned to The Daily to cover sports and rejoined the board of the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame. He stayed at The Daily until retiring in 2023 and remains on the Sports Hall of Fame board. He said he’s proud that the Hall has added female members as the pool of potential selections has expanded with the growth of women’s sports.
Garrison, still a Hall board member, said it wouldn’t have started without the support of Elwell and The Daily.
“David, he’s very deserving of being in the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame,” Garrison said.
Elwell said he’s humbled by the honor.
“I’ve always thought of it as an honor for special people. It feels pretty special to be included in that group.”
