Agreed Harp - as someone that has been a die-hard Bama basketball fan since with Wimp Sanderson days, it was easy to see that Cecil more than any other journalist I ever followed, really cared a lot about Bama basketball and his columns were always spot on.
In recent years, I think Cecil stood out to me in three distinct ways:
1) After any major loss (football or basketball), he always had a perspective and ability to articulate the big picture better than anyone else, by far. That includes the bigshots on ESPN. I think Kirk Herbstreit is fantastic at what he does, but Cecil Hurt had some wisdom that even Herbstreit hasn't grown into just yet. Simply put, Cecil was at the height of the sports media profession and should be in every journalism Hall of Fame that exists.
2) About a decade ago for some reason, my life took me to Big 10 country. Anytime things haven't gone exactly right for Bama or the SEC, I could always look up Cecil's columns and thoughts for solace. He always gave credit where credit was due, but I also appreciated his loyalty to Alabama and the passion of all SEC teams.
3) At some point following Cecil's twitter posts, I realized how sharp his wit was, and it was common that during a game where I was going nuts, I could read his tweets to gain a bit of perspective and/or just laugh.
He will be missed! I've seen some people suggest the Bryant-Denny Pressbox should be named after him and agree that would be fitting.
