“We call him Sticks. He went to UConn. That was my superhero.”

[UConnSportsGuy]

I attended the Papa John's Bowl way back when in Birmingham. I remember being impressed by the large drafts for short money. During one of my visits to the stand, the softspoken young woman pouring the beer whispered to me she was rooting for UConn. "Really, why?" "I'm a friend of Stanley" "Awesome! He's great!" We were both smiling when I left.

Similar story. I too was at that Papa John's bowl back in the day, and we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a quick dinner the next night on our way out of Alabama. Our server saw us all decked out in our UConn gear and said that his cousin went to UConn and he had became a UConn fan too and left it at that. The dude looked exactly like Sticks and was a complete mini-me version of him, so I asked and he confirmed he was Sticks' cousin and grew up with him. Just like Sticks, he seemed like such a humble and good dude. I probably set the chain record for % tip on my bill when I left.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I spent some time in Birmingham, AL when Sticks played at UConn. I was working on training local PD in certain areas. I had the PD SGT who was in charge of security for Robinson’s HS games in one of my classes and he told me a few great stories about Robinson in HS and even before, he was destined to be a star from a young age. He (Sticks) was a local legend that much was for sure.

The locals really did not like him leaving AL and signing with UConn, but it did not diminish how highly thought of he was in the local community.