Alabama Sports Hall of Fame to Honor Eddie Conyers with Frank “Pig” House Award

Alabama Sports Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday morning that popular Crimson Tide football contributor and practice official Eddie Conyers will be recognized as the 2022 Frank “Pig” House Award recipient at the 54th Annual Induction Banquet and Ceremony on May 7, 2022.

The Frank “Pig” House Award is given to someone who has performed outstanding service to sports in Alabama, and whom the Board of Directors feels worthy of special recognition. The award is named after the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s first Chairman of the Board who was instrumental in the founding of the Hall of Fame.

Eddie Conyers is being honored for his nearly 60 years of service to University of Alabama athletic department.

Born in Montgomery, he and his family eventually moved to Tuscaloosa where he graduated from high school in 1946. After two years of service in the U.S. Navy, he attended the University of Alabama. He was called back into service during the Korean War and served an additional two years.

In 1954, he graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. in Commerce and went to work for Allen and Jemison Company in Tuscaloosa, where he worked for 26 years.

In 1962, Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant hired Conyers as a football practice official and he has served in that position ever since. At age 93, he has worked with 12 national champion teams and many hall of fame inductees, including Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Nick Saban.

Conyers joins a distinguished list of others who have been honored by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame as Frank “Pig” House Award recipients. They are: Sammy Dunn (2004), Avalee Willoughby (2007), Buddy Anderson (2014), Emanuel “Tubb” Bell IV (2017), Don Hawkins (2020), and Reeves Sims (2021).

The Hall of Fame's board of directors also announced that Mark McCarter will be recognized as the 2022 Mel Allen Media Award recipient.

The Mel Allen Media Award was created to honor media members in the State of Alabama who have made a lifetime contribution to sports through their work as a media member. The award is named after the 1974 ASHOF Inductee Mel Allen, of Birmingham, who was known as the “Voice of the New York Yankees” for two decades.

Mark McCarter began his career in journalism at The Chattanooga News-Free Press in 1971 before spending over 20 years writing for newspapers in Alabama, first as sports editor of The Anniston Star and then 17 years as a columnist at The Huntsville Times.

A four-time Alabama Sports Writer of the Year, he has also been honored as Best Sports Columnist by the Associated Press Sports Editor with three other years as a finalist. His contributions to the sports community include serving as an ASHOF Selection Committee member since 2009, Heisman Trust chairman for Alabama for 12 years, committee member for 15 years for the John Stallworth Foundation Golf Tournament, and past president and more than 20 years as officer or board member of the Alabama Sports Writers Association.

McCarter is an author of three books, and his work has been published in Sports Illustrated, Fortune, The Sporting News, Baseball America, Sport Magazine, USA Today and numerous other publications.

He has covered ten Final Fours, numerous college football national championships and bowl games, five Super Bowls, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 17 Daytona 500s and more than 60 NASCAR Cup races at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway. He still contributes to publications in Alabama and has a continuing involvement in sports through his new role as Assistant Athletic Director for External Operations at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

McCarter joins a distinguished list of others who have been honored by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame as Mel Allen Media Award recipients. They are: John Pruett (2014), George Smith (2014), Tom Roberts (2015), Ron Ingram (2017), Cecil Hurt (2019), Paul Finebaum (2020), and Rubin Grant (2021).