Former Alabama Basketball Player, Assistant Coach, Tommy Suitts Passes Away

The player and coach under C.M. Newton became a head coach at Rice and Chicago State, and was a basketball ambassador throughout the state of Alabama.

Former Alabama basketball player and coach Tommy Suitts passed away last week. He was 74.

Suitts first played at Marion Institute, where he was valedictorian while majoring in math in 1967, before transferring to play for C.M. Newton with the Crimson Tide. 

During his senior season, he led the Crimson Tide in field-goal percentage and won the team's best defensive player award. At the conference level, Suitts was named to the SEC All-Academic Team. 

Suitts began his coaching career at Alabama, and the Crimson Tide won back-to-back SEC titles in 1974-75. 

A 1965 graduate of Coffee High School, he went on to be the head coach at Rice (1981-87) at the young age of 33, and Chicago State (1987-90), which was a new program that only had five scholarships. 

Among his other stops was as an assistant coach at North Alabama, when the Lions won the Division II national championship in 1979. 

His final coaching job brought him back to the state of Alabama, when Bevill State reintroduced athletics in 2016. During his final season, the Bears made it to the semifinal round of the ACCC Tournament. 

Suitts was named 2019-2020 ACCC North Division Coach of the Year.

When he retired from coaching in 2020, Suitts was quoted as saying: “I am not leaving Bevill for another job. I am leaving to become a full-time granddaddy to my five grandchildren. This has been a labor of love, and I will always be a Bear!”

Said Max Weaver, Dean of Student Success and Athletics: “It has been a joy and a privilege to work with Coach Suitts. His legacy as an ACCC Hall of Fame Coach and a renowned ambassador for the game is secure and unquestionable, but what I have always been even more impressed with is his concern for our student-athletes. His commitment to their success, on and off the court, has always been paramount. There have been many times that he has provided me with input and suggestions and his aim was not always related to winning games, rather he was focused on developing great young men and ensuring that that our players were on-course to achieve their maximum potential in life. Personally, I will miss interacting with him, but even more so, he will be missed in the halls of Bevill State Community College and by the game of basketball itself.” 

Suitts was inducted into the Lauderdale County Hall of Fame in 2013, and recently into the Alabama Community College Conference Hall of Fame..