Every week, Cliff Furr is Talking Ball, Y’all with a new weekly column that’s presented by our partners at Toyota of Brookhaven.

My son Graham and I were walking out of the auditorium at Brookhaven High recently. We’d just watched my daughter and her friends in the homecoming production.

He looks towards the framed, signed San Diego Chargers jersey that sits beside the entrance of the main building at BHS.

“What’s that all about,” he points towards it.

We’ve never talked about Lance Alworth, I ask.

Surely, we have, with the two of us talking about sports 24/7, I think to myself.

“I don’t think so,” he answers.

That makes me remember back to where I found Bambi, when I was around the age he is now.

I was in the library of Brookhaven Academy, and the school had gotten a coffee table sized book commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the NFL.

It had really cool artwork and awesome writing as it was a production of the league office. The writing was done by Peter King and some of the other top reporters in the league at the time.

A large section of the book was dedicated to giving one page of tribute each to the 75 greatest NFL players of all time.

I decided I’d read all of them, from Reggie “The Minister of Defense” White to Lou “The Toe” Groza.

When I got to the wide receivers section, I laid my eyes on a painting of a an old school dude, from a cool time in pro football history.

Lance Alworth was known as “Bambi” because he ran like a deer. His career of big catches made him the forefather of star receivers. His Chargers teams were part of an upstart league known as the American Football League.

The AFL was founded in 1959 and featured a more pleasing offensive style, thanks to players like “Bambi.”

He personified west-coast cool, even though he grew up in Mississippi and played college ball in Arkansas.

He is the first member of the NFL Hall of Fame to have played a majority of his career in the AFL. He’s considered an icon of 1960s football.

That’s what I learned from reading that page and then anything I could get my hands on that was written about Alworth.

I was already aware of Bambi before that day, as I was first introduced to him by Tom Goetz, The Czar of Southwest Mississippi sports writing. I just wasn’t fully aware of Alworth’s greatness until seeing him in that book.

Tom would write about guys like Ralph “Catfish” Smith and Alworth playing for legendary Brookhaven High football teams in the late 1950s.

I’d go on to read the stories of why Alworth didn’t play for the powerful Ole Miss Rebels of the day under legendary coach Johnny Vaught, having signed first with the Rebs but then choosing Arkansas as Vaught had a policy at the time forbidding football players to be married, something Alworth did for the first time while still in high school.

I’d also learn how Alworth hadn’t been back in recent memory. His life was planted in southern Califronia.

When you saw him on segments run by ESPN Classics, created by NFL Films, he’d always look so cool, so tan in his post-retirement days.

As a teen, I’d spotted a tiny side street of Highway 51, down from the old Nation’s dealership, named Lance Alworth Street.

While speaking to the local Servitium Club not too long ago, Seth Rushing asked me if I knew about any kind of marker dedicated to Bambi.

I told him about the framed jersey at Brookhaven High and mentioned the street.

That’s why I was so surprised that my son hadn’t heard of Bambi before seeing his jersey hanging up in the school, as I felt like it was ground we’d covered before.

It felt like a real dad-fail on my part.

It was also a reminder of how important it is for us to pass down shared history.

The display in the front of the school says it was provided by the Peavey family. I’m sure that Tristan Peavey, who’s younger than me, knows all about Bambi and his exploits at BHS and in the AFL/NFL.

Yet, when Tristan is the age that his grandfather is now, will those stories and recollections still be passed down?

Sometimes I ask myself if I’m being too nostalgic by constantly looking to the past for things to write and talk about when it comes to sports.

Thinking about Alworth this weekend was a great reminder to me of why I’m passionate about not only spotlighting the accomplishments of our current student-athletes in Southwest Mississippi, but also remembering the greats of the past.

It was also a reminder to keep learning, as I picked up some information on Bambi this weekend that I did not know previously.

Alworth was a half back at the University of Arkansas in college. When he got to San Diego, he was injured and barely played as a rookie. Reading about how the doctors and trainers dealt with his injury, it’s amazing he ever played again at all, much less well enough to be an NFL Hall of Famer.

After nine years in San Diego, Alworth was traded to Dallas in 1971.

In Super Bowl VI, played in New Orleans at the old Tulane Stadium, he caught a touchdown pass from Roger Staubach in a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins.

Staubach, himself a NFL Hall of Famer, also threw a touchdown pass to Mike Ditka in that game.

Alworth would call that scoring catch and another one to convert a third and long in the Super Bowl the two biggest catches of his career.

A couple days after seeing the jersey at the school, my son went to the crusade that was being held on King Field.

“I saw a Lance Alworth jersey last night,” he told me on the way to school the next day.

I instantly knew that he was talking about my man Nathan Case, who has a sweet Alworth jersey that he’s been known to rock.

That felt like a win. Maybe G didn’t know who Bambi was until now, but maybe he’ll pass that knowledge down to others later, reminding them that you can start in Southwest Mississippi and end up in the NFL Hall of Fame as one of the 75 Greatest Players of All Time.

And just to make sure I don’t forget myself, I spent $16 dollars ordering a pristine copy of a coffee table book I first picked up in 1997.