EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.

The Goode family of Town Creek was, well, good to Alabama football in the 1980s and 90s.

Brothers Chris, Kerry, Pierre and Clyde all played for the Crimson Tide between 1983 and 1991. Cousin Antonio Langham — who spent much of his childhood living in the Goode home — was an All-America cornerback at Alabama in the early 1990s.

Kerry, a 6-foot, 190-pound speedster, might have been the most-talented of the bunch. He was SEC Freshman of the Year in 1983, when he rushed for 693 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per attempt while sharing carries with fellow running backs Ricky Moore and Linnie Patrick and quarterback Walter Lewis.

Though he’d run for 125 yards against Auburn and 143 against Tennessee in 1983, it was the 1984 season-opener vs. Boston College that was Goode’s true coming-out party. He totaled a then school-record 297 all-purpose yards in that game, with three touchdowns — a 25-yard run, an 18-yard reception and a 99-kickoff return to start the second half.

Here’s video of Goode’s kickoff return, with ABC’s Keith Jackson on the call:

Birmingham News sports editor Alf Van Hoose, who had covered the Crimson Tide since the 1940s, wrote that Goode was “probably the finest runner Alabama ever had.”

But the glory was fleeting.

Goode went down with a knee injury on Legion Field’s unforgiving artificial turf with 7:03 left in the third quarter. Alabama led 31-21 at the time; it would lose 38-31 after an epic second-half comeback by the Eagles behind quarterback Doug Flutie, the eventual Heisman Trophy winner.

Early reports indicated that Goode had a “bruised” right knee, but the injury ended up being far worse than that. He had multiple torn ligaments, and ended up needing three rounds of surgery.

Goode missed the remainder of the 1984 season, during which Alabama finished 5-6, its first losing record since 1957 (AKA, the year before Paul “Bear” Bryant arrived as coach). He played in only two games in 1985 (re-injuring his knee in practice the week after the season-opener), but made it back to play in 10 games in 1986 and 11 in 1987 despite obviously diminished skill.

Running back Bobby Humphrey had established himself as Alabama’s star offensive attraction by that time, so Goode was reduced to being a role player. Coach Ray Perkins asked him to play fullback so that he could get on the field more, and Goode was by all accounts a solid one.

As a testament to his character, Goode was elected as one of Alabama’s permanent team captains at the end of his senior season. His hand and cleat prints are memorialized in the concrete next to Denny Chimes.

Had he not been injured, it might have been Goode — and not Humphrey — who finished his career as Alabama’s all-time leading rusher in the late 1980s. And it might have been Kerry Goode — and not Mark Ingram — who was the first Crimson Tide player to win the Heisman Trophy.

Perkins had moved on to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 1986 season, but drafted Goode in the seventh round in 1988. He played in 14 games for the Bucs that season, then in one for the Miami Dolphins the following year before being released.

A once-promising football career was over at age 24.

It turned out, however, that knee injuries would not be the greatest challenge of Kerry Goode’s life. In 2015 at age 50, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS is a devastating disease, a progressive and incurable neurodegenerative condition that robs a person of all his physical abilities while leaving his mind sharp. Goode is confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak louder than a whisper; he requires around-the-clock care from his wife, Tanja.

(Goode’s battle with ALS was chronicled in intimate — and heartbreaking — detail in this 2024 story by Chase Goodbread of the Tuscaloosa News. If you haven’t read it, you should take the time to do so.)

Goode has survived nearly 11 years with ALS, nearly three times longer than the average patient. Of his struggle, he says, “I’m placing God on my side, and I’m in it to win it.”

Kerry’s ALS diagnosis has not been the only health crisis for the Goode family. Youngest brother Clyde died at age 43 after battling leukemia; Chris — who played several years in the NFL as a defensive back — is a prostate cancer survivor.

The Goode Foundation was formed shortly after Kerry’s diagnosis, with the goal of finding a cure for ALS. Among their annual events are a charity golf tournament and barbecue tailgate each summer.

Through it all, Kerry Goode has proven that he’s the ultimate survivor, more than once.

Coming Sunday, our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 83, when one Alabama coach tried to make a clean break from the past.