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Dabo Swinney's life of family pain, poverty and love of Alabama

PELHAM, Ala. -- Carol McIntosh still remembers what she noticed when she cradled her third son for the first time in a hospital bed more than 46 years ago.

"He was holding his hands up in fists," McIntosh said. "I knew he was going to be a fighter."

Indeed, William Christopher Swinney came into the world with a resolute spirit on Nov. 20, 1969, and he has been fighting for his family and those people closest to him ever since.

Of course, Swinney's first day on Earth might have been one of the few times anyone close to him actually called him by his birth name.