Don Salls obit

Don Salls, World War II veteran & former Alabama football player, dies at 101

 

He was not on the list.

Don Salls, a World War II veteran, former Alabama football player and longtime coach and teacher at Jacksonville State, died Saturday. He was 101.

Salls’ death was confirmed to AL.com by Ken Gaddy, executive director of the Paul W. Bryant Museum. Salls’ stepdaughter, Tracy Gatewood, announced his death via social media late Saturday.

Born June 24, 1919, in Trenton, N.J., and raised in White Plains, N.Y., Salls played fullback and linebacker at Alabama from 1939-42. Weighing just 169 pounds, he was a member of the Crimson Tide’s 1941 national championship team, and was a captain of its 1942 Orange Bowl-winning squad.

“I was just a little guy, but I was fast,” Salls told AL.com’s Michelle Matthews in 2019. “I loved to tackle. I loved to hit. I love football.”

Salls then served in the Army during World War II, receiving a Purple Heart after being shot during combat in France. After the war, he returned to the state of Alabama and obtained master’s and doctoral degrees in education, coaching football at Jacksonville State from 1946-64.

Salls went 95-57-11 at JSU, winning three conference championships. After leaving coaching, he taught in the school’s education department until 1981.

Jacksonville State named its Salls Hall athletic dormitory in his honor in 1966. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

“We are saddened to learn of the passing of Coach Don Salls,” JSU athletics director Greg Seitz said. “He built a winning football tradition at Jacksonville State right after he earned a Purple Heart serving our country in World War II. We are still reaping the benefits and successes of the foundation and culture that he established for our football program almost 75 years ago. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Diane, his children and the rest of his family.”

Salls stayed in shape until late in his life, developing exercise programs and writing a book in 1995 about the importance of remaining active. He turned 100 in 2019, and was honored with a special birthday celebration at the Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa and formally recognized as Alabama’s oldest living letterman.

Salls spent his later years living in a veterans home in Bay Minette. In 2019, David Roberts, the home’s activities director, called Salls “just a really amazing guy.”

“He’s one of our most active residents, constantly involved in everything we do,” Roberts said. “He’s a ray of sunshine of a person.”

Salls had four children with his first wife, Margaret, who died several years ago. He was married to his second wife, Diane, for nearly 35 years.