Report: Bart Starr was brutal victim of hazing at Alabama
For decades it was told and believed Bart Starr had his college football career at Alabama taken off course due to a back injury suffered during a punting exercise, but now the explanation for the back injury is changing. Cherry Starr, the wife of Bart Starr, told Al.com her husband was hazed during a traditional initiation event for Alabama’s A-Club for varsity lettermen in 1954.
“He was hospitalized at one point in traction,” Cherry said. “That was in the days when they were initiated into the A-Club, and they had severe beatings and paddling. From all the members of the A-Club, they lined up with a big paddle with holes drilled in it, and it actually injured his back.”
Cherry says her husband chose not to discuss the hazing ritual for years because he feared it would “make him look bad.” Cherry claims her husband’s back was never right again following that hazing ritual and is to blame for disqualifying Starr from military service and lingered into his professional career with the Green Bay Packers.
“But his back was never right after that,” Cherry Starr said. “It was horrible. It was not a football injury. It was an injury sustained from hazing. His whole back all the way up to his rib cage looked like a piece of raw meat. The bruising went all the way up his back. It was red and black and awful looking. It was so brutal.”
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/02/29/bart-starr-was-brutal-victim-of-hazing-at-alabama/?cid=eref:nbcnews:text