Big Bubba

“Everything’s Bigger in Texas!” That saying held true when Charles “Bubba” Smith was born in a little town outside Beaumont and grew to be 6’8”, 300 pounds with the physique of a gladiator. BIG BUBBA contains the colorful, candid memoirs of Bubba Smith’s life, the life of a man who reached super-stardom as an NFL legend and then went on to enjoy a prolific career in commercials, TV, and movies -- most notably as the endearing giant of a police cadet, Moses Hightower, in the successful Police Academy movies. From humble beginnings, he grew up under the strict guidance of his football coach father and his loving mother, a woman who went from chopping cotton to earning a doctorate. BIG BUBBA runs the gamut of emotions from jaw-dropping shock to laugh-out-loud humor and heart-warming stories involving family, friends, and other players and actors. These memoirs, told in his later years, reveal stories and details Bubba had never before revealed, since he said he wanted to “Put it all out on Front Street,” one of Bubba’s favorite expressions. You might be shocked, you may laugh or cry, but you will certainly be entertained by these memories of a man who lived his life on a level above most of us. At a memorial to Bubba, Gene Washington, a fellow MSU teammate, quoted a line from a poem often read to them by their coach.”Be the best of whatever you are.” Gene then closed with, “Bubba was the best”.