Katie Britt revealed in her newly released memoir how a 2002 autographed Alabama Crimson Tide football, thought to have been destroyed in the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak, was discovered on display at the Bryant Museum.

Alabama’s first woman elected U.S. senator, and wife of former Alabama lineman Wesley Britt, shared the unlikely journey of the prized possession in “God Calls Us To Do Hard Things: Lessons from the Alabama Wiregrass.”

In 2011, Katie Britt was a wife and mother of two balancing her personal life with the challenges of law school when the deadly EF4 hit Tuscaloosa.

In the aftermath, she explained, her possessions were found miles away. Lost were her law school notes, books and work.

“A photo of me as a teenager and two friends whom I danced with was found in Rainbow City, Alabama – more than 100 miles from Tuscaloosa,” she writes. Only through the magic of social media was the photo connected back to Katie Britt.

It was one of a few “surreal” moments during the devastating time.

She writes her family checkbook was found by a “good Samaritan” counties away “halfway across the state” and was mailed back to her with a $20 bill and a sympathetic note.

Wesley Britt bobbleheads, from his playing days, were found for blocks.

It was his football, though, that magically appeared in the Bryant Museum.

Wesley Britt was at the museum for a 2012 function and came across an April 27 exhibit containing his football. He asked the museum director for details. It was found in a driveway, miles from the Britt house.

Wesley Britt told the Bryant Museum in 2018 the ball traveled 10 miles in the air.

“Even more incredibly, it was found by the late, legendary Tuscaloosa sportswriter, Cecil Hurt,” she writes. “Cecil had no way at the time to know who the ball belonged to, so he donated it to the museum for the exhibit.”

The museum offered to return the ball, but Wesley Britt instead wanted the ball to be a part of the exhibit where it remained for years. As of today, the ball is back with the Britts.

The ball, signed by the likes of Tyler Watts, Andrew Zow and Kenny King, celebrates a season in which the Tide finished 10–3 (6–2 in the SEC) and finished atop the SEC West.

However, the team was ineligible to compete in postseason, including the 2002 SEC Championship Game, due to a two-year postseason ban.

Katie Britt’s book, “God Calls Us To Do Hard Things: Lessons from the Alabama Wiregrass,” is available at Amazon.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.