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Carlton Rice has always followed his father, W.A. Rice.
And for one more year, he is still following.
Today, the younger Rice will be on the sideline of the 85th Amazon Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola. It will be his 60th straight time at the game, carrying on the tradition his father began years before photographing the action and the pageantry when the Alabama A&M Bulldogs clash with the Alabama State Hornets.
The elder Rice, a 1947 A&M grad and former football player, was at 69 Classics, only missing 1955 event when he caught mumps after his daughter had it. That means he attended 61 straight.
Carlton Rice is just behind. Today, he will attend his 60th Classic in a row. This morning, he was frying fish and grilling chicken in Lot M, spaces 71 and 72. That’s the very spot where his father might have been found.
And the son wouldn’t miss this football festival.
“No way, because it’s a tradition,” Carlton said. “He (W.A.) always came. When I was born, we stayed at the house while my daddy and my brother went to the game. When I was 5, he figured I could go with him. I’ve been going every year since. My first year on the sidelines was when we moved to Huntsville in ’72.
“It’s like an annual family reunion,” he said. “I’m the only family member of my immediate (family) to attend. I lost my brother in ’22. He was in the Marching Maroon and White from ’72 to ’76. We all came down as a family from our different locales. I brought Dad the whole time, and when he died in ’18, he had gone to the one in ’17. We brought him. He wasn’t able to stay the whole time and my brother took him back. December of ’17, he fell and then got pneumonia, got ill, and then passed in June of ’18.”
W.A. Rice was an agriculture teacher in Monroe County before returning to his alma mater to be the coordinator of the Cooperative Extension Service. He was also the school photographer.
The father was inducted to the Alabama A&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. The son, who played tennis for the Maroon and White, joined him in 1997.
“I was a campus kid,” Carlton recalls. “We lived on campus. I knew everybody. All the students knew me and my dad with the camera. We did the yearbook from ’72 to when I graduated in ’83. One of those first years was when one of the coaches owned the bulldog. He let me handle that bulldog when I was a little boy up until he died.”
Carlton Rice eventually bought a bulldog of his own as an adult and has rekindled the tradition of having a bulldog back on the field.
“He’ll be on the field for the second time since way back when,” the school photographer said. “As long as I have health, I’ll be coming down here every year. I plan the next one the day after. We work smarter, not harder.”
