Steve Wright was a championship-winning football player, and he even looked the part. He was chosen as the model for the sculpture for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Wright died June 1 at age 82 in a care facility in his longtime adoptive home of Augusta, Georgia.
Wright had played on national championship teams at both the college and NFL levels. He was an offensive tackle on Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant’s very first national championship team at Alabama in 1961. He also played tackle for the Green Bay Packers on their two early Super Bowl championship teams, Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II.
The 1960s were a heady time for Steve Wright, winning at the highest level of both college and NFL football. After that, it was a winding-down period as he finished out his playing career with stints at the New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Chicago Bears, and St. Louis Cardinals.
Wright, of Louisville, Kentucky, played high school under Dude Hennessy, a former Bryant player and future Bryant assistant. That connection led him to Tuscaloosa in 1961.
Wright played tackle for Bryant and the Crimson Tide from 1961 to 1963. He was selected by the Packers in the fifth round of the 1964 NFL Draft.
Wright was the only player to play on championship teams for legendary head coaches, Bryant of Alabama and Vince Lombardi of the Packers. He takes with him many stories of the coaching legends with whom he is now reunited. He also takes with him a grim reminder of his football career – two prosthetic knees.
After Wright was selected as the model for the statuary of the Payton Award, the famed artist Daniel Bennett Schwartz decided to do something very different. He sculpted Wright as a gladiator with a cape draped across his shoulders.
Wright reacted over the years to being the sculpture model with humility and humor.
He said, “I’m the poster boy for being in the right place at the right time.” Or did he say, “…the Wright place at the Wright time?”
Arrangements will be announced.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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