Alabama Pitts getting out of prison - likely with his weird mom (NBC Sports).
Who is Alabama Pitts? How does he bring Sing Sing Prison and the National Football League together? Read below about this infamous player for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1935.
Why Alabama Pitts?
Alabama earned his nickname to distinguish him from his father, Edwin Pitts Sr., who was born in Georgia. This was a confusing choice for a few reasons: the senior/junior distinction in their names and the fact that Edwin Sr. would die five months after his son’s birth.
Either way, the nickname would stick even after Edwin Collins Pitts Jr. moved away from his home state, Alabama. His mother, Erma, would remarry and give Pitts a sister before divorcing her second husband. The three would then move to Illinois.
In a twist as confusing as any other in Alabama’s story, he went to high school in New Orleans in 1924 and got a track medal. He then went into the US Navy at just 15 years old, served for three years, and was stationed in China. I’m sure that sort of trauma as a child would set Pitts up for mental health success in his adult life.
At 19, Edwin was arrested for robbing a New York City grocery store at gunpoint with an accomplice, James Murphy. The two netted $76, which in modern times would be equivalent to just over $1,000. Pitts was tied to five prior robberies and was sentenced to eight to 16 years at Sing Sing.
At the sentencing, the judge told Erma Pitts that her unpredictable tendencies likely contributed to Edwin’s life of crime. She was a little eccentric, allegedly. Erma suggested that James Murphy planted the gun on her son. How… delusional.
Sing Sing All About It
Alabama Pitts entered Sing Sing at an ideal time; the warden had reformed the prison by adding extracurriculars like sports. Pitts would take advantage of the athletic offerings by becoming a triple star behind bars, playing basketball, baseball, and football.
While in prison, Alabama would play for the facilities team, the Black Sheep, with a legit coach. There was an entire 12-game season where the Black Sheep would play against police teams and others. The team would win 10 out of 12 games in 1934.
Edwin Jr.’s contributions would not go unnoticed by the rest of the sports world; he would actually try out for multiple professional sports teams while in the slammer, sign with a baseball team in 1935, and be released from prison prematurely so he could play.
Alabama Pitts Is The… Pits
As the story goes in The Pro Football Chronicle, baseball didn’t want ex-cons. It’s a good thing football did, because Pitts would get a position on the gridiron. Early professional football didn’t exactly take off with the American people, and the NFL found itself competing against baseball and college football. As a result, they would do a lot to draw attention to the league.
The Philadelphia Eagles offered Pitts a $150/game deal for four regular-season NFL games and three exhibitions. Edwin would play and he would suck; he was slow and couldn’t run the ball but apparently had a little more promise as a defensive back. The media would hype him up to be the next “Red Grange,” but despite the support, he just wasn’t that good.
Philadelphia was willing to hold onto Alabama; he would just get $50 a game, a far more reasonable salary for the day for a player particularly of his talent level. Pitts wasn’t having it and moved on from the NFL.
Life After Lock-up And Football Leagues
However, Edwin wouldn’t limit himself to just one sport. For instance he would play for other professional football leagues in 1935 and 1936. Pitts would also create his own traveling basketball team that he played on for the 1935–1936 and 1936–1937 seasons. In 1936, Alabama would also start playing for different baseball teams in a myriad of leagues up until 1941, off and on.
Although it wasn’t unusual to juggle multiple jobs and sports obligations at this time in football history, it sure seems like Edwin was overachieving in this area. In addition to sports, he would also work at a textile mill from 1937 to 1938. The sports champion would also coach baseball for a high school team in 1940.
Likewise off the field, things were exciting as usual for Pitts. First, he would get married at some point, divorce her in April of 1937, and marry his second wife in December of 1937. He would have one daughter. The names of all these women were not included—how unusual for “his”tory.
The End of Edwin Alabama Pitts
Alabama would die on June 7th, 1941, in Valdese, North Carolina, after being fatally stabbed in a tavern. As the story goes, a quite drunk Edwin was trying to steal a dance with a woman who was already paired with a man, and it went downhill fast. Initially, the stabber was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10–15 years, but was later pardoned by the governor. Apparently, Pitts was being quite aggressive, and the stabbing could be seen as self-defense.
Edwin would die at age 31. His funeral was the day after his death and was attended by roughly 5,000 people. He was missed. Alabama Pitt’s life was chaotic from the start and ended much the same way. May he rest in peace.
For more similarly chaotic and depressing historical articles, look at my other writing here.
