AL HJR439

House Joint Resolution mourning the death of William Wesley "Billy" Neighbors, Sr., who died on April 30, 2012, at age 72.

Neighbors was born in Tuscaloosa on February 4, 1940, and served as Team Captain and All-American on the University of Alabama's 1961 National Championship team under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

He won the Jacobs Award as best blocker in the Southeastern Conference and was named Most Valuable Lineman in the 1961 Senior Bowl before playing eight years professional football for the Boston Patriots (1962-1965) and Miami Dolphins (1966-1969).

After his football career, he became a prominent stock broker and civic leader in Huntsville for over four decades; survived by his wife Susan Willa Kinzer Neighbors, three children, 10 grandchildren, and one sister.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003 and named to the Alabama Team of the Century in 1992; the resolution offers tribute to his life and sympathy to his family.