After 30 Years, Starr Returning To Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Three decades after he left Alabama to pursue stardom in the NFL, Bart Starr decided it was time to come back home.
Starr, who has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., is building a home in Birmingham and plans to make the move in a few months so he can be closer to his family and new business interests.
``Scottsdale is a wonderful city, but whenever we flew back there, our granddaughters would ask when we planned to come home. No longer will we have to say goodbye to them,'' Starr told the Birmingham Post-Herald.
Starr, 56, has joined a real-estate development firm as board chairman. The company, which hired his son Bart Starr Jr. last year, has been renamed Starr Sanders Properties.
The elder Starr also will serve as a director of a Birmingham advertising firm in which he long has had an investment.
``Cherry (Starr's wife) and I were sweethearts at Sidney Lanier High in Montgomery, and my mother still lives there. In addition, our son, his wife and their three daughters moved to Birmingham last summer,'' he said.
Starr moved to Arizona from Green Bay, Wis., six years ago to join a group seeking an expansion NFL franchise for Phoenix. However, the St. Louis Cardinals scuttled those plans when they transferred there two years ago.
In the 1950s - prior to the arrival of Bear Bryant - Starr was a quarterback at Alabama. He played well enough to be drafted by the Green Bay Packers, who soon blossomed into a league power with Starr calling the signals.
He was the most valuable player at the first two Super Bowls and still holds the NFL record for the most passes without an interception - 294.
After 16 years playing with the Packers, Starr worked in television and also coached the NFL team for several seasons.
Starr, who today golfs, skies, hunts and plays tennis, said he will have no position with Alabama football, ``but I will help any way I can. . . . I'll be their biggest fan.''
He praised new Alabama Coach Gene Stallings, calling him a ``quality man.''