Woodrow Lowe, a three-time All-America linebacker at Alabama in the 1970s who later played 11 seasons in the NFL, has died after a lengthy illness. He was 71.
Lowe spent many years in coaching at the high school, college and professional levels before moving into retirement in Collierville, Tenn. He died Thursday morning, his brother, Phenix City mayor Eddie Lowe, confirmed to AL.com.
“Woodrow was a great older brother,” Eddie Lowe, six years younger than Woodrow, told AL.com. “He pushed me, not just in football, but in life. He was pushed himself, and he passed that down to me. He was a good person, a very good person. He loved people and gave of himself his entire life. He lived a good life.”
A standout at Central-Phenix City High School (where he was president of his senior class), Woodrow Lowe signed with Alabama as part of the Paul “Bear” Bryant’s 1972 recruiting class. That was the first year freshmen were allowed to play on the varsity in college football, and Lowe soon became a starter for a team that went 10-2 and won the SEC championship.
Lowe took his play to another level as a sophomore in 1973, totaling a school record 134 tackles as the Crimson Tide again won the SEC and claimed a share of the national championship. That season, he was selected first-team All-SEC and first-team All-American for the first of three consecutive years.
Lowe repeated his All-American and All-SEC honors in both 1974 and 1975, as Alabama went a combined 22-2 and won the conference championship for the fourth and fifth consecutive seasons. His 315 career tackles were a school record at the time, and still rank fourth in program history.
Listed at 6-foot-2, 205 pounds during his Alabama days, Lowe’s stellar linebacker play drew comparisons to another all-time Crimson Tide great from a decade before, Lee Roy Jordan.
“It’s amazing the way he gets through a mess to make a tackle,” Bryant told the Miami Herald in 1973. “… Woodrow has more ability at linebacker than anyone who’s been around here since Lee Roy, and he’s bigger and faster than Lee Roy.”
Lowe remains one of two Alabama players selected as a first-team All-American three times. Fellow linebacker Cornelius Bennett, who achieved the feat from 1984-86, is the other.
Lowe was also among the first generation of African-American football stars at Alabama, which had integrated its team in 1971. He started a Central-Phenix City pipeline to Tuscaloosa that included Billy Jackson, Jeremiah Castille, Eddie Lowe, Marco Battle and Vantreise Davis over the next 20 years.
Alabama won the SEC championship every year of Lowe’s career. The Crimson Tide teams he played on went a combined 43-5, with only one loss in SEC play (against Auburn his freshman year).
“At Alabama, we had great expectations,” Lowe told AL.com in a 2015 interview. “It was never, ever about me. It was always about the team, the program and the organization. The thing that I thrive off even today was we were a team. Your teammates knew the expectations.”
After playing in the 1976 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Lowe was selected in the fifth round of the NFL draft by San Diego. He played his entire 11-year career with the Chargers, and started 151 of a possible 168 games.
Lowe was particular adept as a pass defender, intercepting six passes at Alabama and 21 more in the NFL — four of which he returned for touchdowns. He was selected to the Chargers’ 40th and 50th anniversary all-time teams.
“I didn’t make a lot of money, not like they do now in the NFL,” Lowe said in 2015. “It wasn’t as spectacular as it is as far as the money and the media and the coverage that it gets now. The main thing is it’s still football. It’s about teamwork. Football really is the greatest game that I know of because it takes teamwork.”
After his retirement as a player at the end of the 1986 season, Lowe moved into coaching. He spent six years on staff with the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, then returned to the high school level as an assistant at Central-Phenix City.
After helping the Red Devils win the 1993 state championship, Lowe spent a total of nine seasons as head coach at Selma, Smiths Station and Central-Phenix City. His career record as a high school coach was 55-42, with a state semifinals berth with Central in 2011.
Woodrow Lowe served as head coach for the 2013 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic in Montgomery. He died Thursday at age 71. (AL.com file photo by Julie Bennett)AL.COM
Ron Ingram, spokesman for the Alabama High School Athletic Association and previously a long-time sportswriter for the Birmingham News, released the following statement to AL.com.
“Woodrow Lowe is one of the state of Alabama’s most treasured student-athletes,” Ingram wrote. “I was fortunate to get to know Woodrow at several levels — as a friend and fellow student at the University of Alabama, as a much-admired college and professional football player, and later in his life I was able to watch him first-hand as a high school coach who had the ability to get the most out of his players while also teaching them to have the utmost respect for the coaches, the fellow players … and most importantly, for the game.
“He changed wide-eyed boys into strong, successful men at every stop along the way — teaching them there is no shortcut to success, but working hard can move mountains. Our thoughts go out to his family, his former players, and teammates. I feel confident his legacy of tenacity and kindness will be a legacy for all of us to continue learning from for many years to come.”
Lowe also spent time on the coaching staff at UAB, and was an assistant at Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham. His son, Woodrow Jr., followed him into coaching, and is currently head coach and athletics director at North Side High School in Jackson, Tenn.
Lowe’s grandson, Woodrow III (known as Trey), played quarterback at West Virginia, Southern Miss and Liberty, finishing his career in 2023. He is now receivers coach at Campbell University in North Carolina.
Lowe was inducted in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009. He is also a member of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.
A memorial service for Woodrow Lowe is being planned to take place in Phenix City, Eddie Lowe told AL.com. However, arrangements were still being finalized as of Thursday morning.
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