The same tears, thoughts of why this happened, and overall grief that the residents of Los Angeles (California) are feeling over Kobe Bryant, supporters of Alabama football endured it two decades ago on this date.
He never got the chance to know his father, so Crimson Tide fans looked to him as their son.
Derrick Thomas lost his father, Robert James Thomas, to a mission in the Vietnam War.
A native of Miami, Fla., Thomas’ father was an Air Force Captain and B-52 pilot. For most sons in a single-parent home, the mothers do a wonderful yet they long to be with their fathers.