SEC Storied

When Alabama's Sarah Patterson and Georgia's Suzanne Yoculan arrived on their respective campuses, both programs were on the verge of folding. The Crimson Tide and the Gym Dogs were having little success, and Patterson and Yoculan were brought in to help salvage what was left. What no one could have guessed at the time is that not only would the two programs become the best in the nation, but the coaches would become pioneers and mavericks of the sport forever. In the 25 years that Yoculan and Patterson coached against each other, they filled arenas with passionate fans while winning a combined 21 SEC Championships and 14 NCAA titles.

What do Ashley Judd, Darius Rucker, James Carville and Governor Rick Perry have in common? Well, they live and die with the fortunes of their respective SEC schools. In "The Stars Are Aligned," 14 famous figures-each representing a different college in the Southeastern Conference-spill their emotions and explain why they'll never forget where they came from. Among the other celebrities featured are Charlie Daniels, Amy Robach, Jonathan Papelbon, Melissa Joan Hart, Emmitt Smith, Shepard Smith and Ralphie May.

It started with the unheralded arrival of a wisecracking heavyweight basketball player named Charles Barkley. Then came the recruitment of multi-sports legend Bo Jackson, a victory in itself since he might have gone to Alabama. When Frank Thomas wasn't drafted by a major league baseball team, he decided to cast his fate with Auburn... as a football player. Told through an unforgettable reunion of the famed trio at the 2013 Iron Bowl, here's the real story of how these future Hall of Famers turned the orange and blue of Tiger athletics into gold.

On October 28, 1989, Ole Miss defensive back Chucky Mullins hit Vanderbilt running back Brad Gaines in the back and separated him from the ball. While Gaines was uninjured, Mullins suffered a broken neck on the play, leaving him a quadriplegic. But in that heartbreaking moment, a friendship was born that lasted another two years, until Mullins died of a blood clot in a Memphis hospital room, with Gaines at his side. "It's Time" chronicles the inspirational journeys of these two men brought together by tragedy.

The SEC is in Steve Spurrier's blood. He grew up in Tennessee as a fan of the Volunteers. He won the Heisman Trophy as the quarterback for the University of Florida, and then came back to coach the Gators to a national championship. Now he coaches the University of South Carolina, the team that produced the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL draft, Jadeveon Clowney. Co-executive produced by Kenny Chesney and Shaun Silva, "The Believer" reveals the essence of the most competitive man in the most competitive football conference in the nation.

"Shaq & Dale," narrated by Louisiana native and music superstar Tim McGraw, follows former basketball great Shaquille O'Neal as he returns to LSU to visit with Dale Brown, the coach who helped make it all possible. The relationship between these two men goes back to the time when Shaq was 13 and living on an army base in Germany when he asked the coach for some exercise tips. Since that day, O'Neal has received at least one letter or email from Brown every week-and a lot more of them during their three years together in Baton Rouge. Back then, they might have seemed very different, but they forged a deep friendship that they cherish to this day.

When Rick Pitino was hired to coach the Kentucky basketball team in 1989, the once-proud program was reeling from NCAA probation and the loss of scholarships. He needed to shake things up and give the players who stayed a fresh perspective. To help achieve this, in 1990 he hired Bernadette Locke, only the second female assistant coach in Division I men's basketball history. A former star point guard with the University of Georgia, Locke brought knowledge, spirit and academic discipline to the Wildcats. In two years, Kentucky basketball returned to prominence and, though still undermanned by the loss of scholarships, the Wildcats made it all the way to the Elite 8 in 1992. As Pitino and her fellow assistants Billy Donovan and Tubby Smith attest, Coach Bernie made a difference.

Before the basketball world came to know him as "The Human Highlight Film," a teenage Dominique Wilkins quickly became the toast of his new hometown of Washington, North Carolina. The 6'8" basketball star led the Pam Pack to 56 straight victories and two state titles. But when he chose the University of Georgia over local ACC schools, the cheers turned to jeers and resentment twisted the high school highlights into a lowlight. That betrayal left 'Nique distrustful of fans until a community of support in Georgia convinced him otherwise and paved the way for his return home.

The best team never to win the College World Series? It might have been the 1985 Mississippi State Bulldogs, who produced four Major League Baseball All-Stars. Two of them, Bobby Thigpen and Jeff Brantley, became Relievers of the Year, while the other two, Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro, formed the imposing one-two hitting punch known as "Thunder and Lightning." The brash and bold Clark was born in New Orleans, the son of a pool hustler, while the soft-spoken and shy Palmeiro was a son of Cuban immigrants who did his talking at the plate. As teammates at Mississippi State, they nearly propelled the Bulldogs to a College World Series title. Thirty years later, director Rory Karpf revisits those fabled Bulldogs, tracks the complicated relationship between Clark and Palmeiro, and brings closure to men who should be remembered for what they did, and not for what they didn't do.

Danny Wuerffel was on top of the world at the end of the 1996 college football season. The University of Florida quarterback had just won the Heisman Trophy and led the Gators to a National Championship. But drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the spring of 1997, he struggled to attain the same kind of success in the NFL. It was in that first year as a pro that he began volunteering in New Orleans' Desire neighborhood, one of the poorest locales in the country. After Hurricane Katrina devastated his Desire Street Academy in late August 2005, Wuerffel took the lead in tracking down his students, established a new location for the school in Florida, and expanded his outreach to help several more communities in the southeastern United States. He continued his efforts while battling a life-threatening illness. Now, ten years removed from the costliest natural disaster in American history, Wuerffel returns to New Orleans to dedicate the rebuilding of the Desire Community Square and further the cause he joined two decades ago.

On April 23, 2013, the oaks at Toomer's Corner had to be removed. More than two years earlier, those trees at Auburn University's historic landmark had been poisoned, casting a dark shadow over the school. Meanwhile, the Auburn football team went from National Champions in 2010 to the bottom of the SEC by 2012. Head coach Gene Chizik was fired and replaced by Gus Malzahn, the offensive coordinator of that national title team. Expectations were bleak entering the 2013 season, as Malzahn inherited a team coming off its worst season in 60 years. What followed was one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in college football history - a year of implausible finishes, cinematic heroics, games for the ages...and, eventually, the symbolic return of those mighty oaks.

When the name "Bo" is uttered in SEC circles, images of Bo Jackson's domination at Auburn quickly come to mind. But there is another Bo who is likely far less familiar to SEC followers. That would be Robert "Bo" Rein, whose pedigree could be traced to stints under Woody Hayes, Lou Holtz, and Frank Broyles. A former baseball and football standout at Ohio State, Rein was building a reputation as an innovator who inspired those around him. He became the youngest head coach in major college football when he took over at NC State at the age of 30. He brought the Wolfpack national rankings, bowl wins and an ACC title. At the end of the 1979 season, LSU hired Rein, hoping that his youthful energy could revitalize its program. But the unthinkable happened. Returning from a recruiting trip on January 10, 1980, the small plane in which he was flying crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 1,000 miles off course. That tragedy devastated his family and friends and left so many others wondering, "What might have been?"

When Michael Sam announced on February 9, 2014 that he was gay, he became football's first openly gay active player. For most, the revelation was a surprise. For his teammates in Columbia, Missouri, it was not news. In the Tigers football family, Michael had found acceptance. The extraordinary bond Sam forged with wide receiver L'Damian Washington and defensive tackle Marvin Foster was bigger than football - they became brothers. That brotherhood helped bring the Tigers together on the field in 2013 and fueled the 12-2 SEC East Championship season.

Life was never easy for Derrick Thomas. At the age of 5, his father, an Air Force pilot, was lost in Vietnam during a flying mission. As an adolescent growing up in a rough Miami neighborhood, Thomas ran afoul of the law and found himself in front of a judge who would give him a second chance. He turned his life around, became a star on the gridiron and attracted the attention of the University of Alabama, where he established himself as arguably the greatest pass rusher in college football history. He went on to an outstanding career as a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs, and in 1993, he was named the NFL's Man of the Year for his charitable contributions to the community. But at the age of 33, he was paralyzed in a car accident and died shortly thereafter, leaving behind a towering legacy that would put him in both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. He also had a son he never knew, Matt Naylor, who narrates this moving testament of discovery.