A four-time All-American in track, NCAA high hurdle champion, NCAA record holder in two track events, six-time SEC champion who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated leaping hurdles, Richmond Flowers “also played a little football,” being named an All-American in his sophomore year (1966) as a wingback, playing on an SEC championship team, and becoming the leading pass receiver in Tennessee history (105 catches for 1,215 yards in three years). He played for Tennessee in the Gator, Orange, and Cotton Bowls, and in 1998 was named one of 12 Living Legends of SEC Football, representing Tennessee.
His father, Richmond Flowers Sr., had been elected Alabama State Attorney General in 1963 and had taken very unpopular stands advocating integration and racially balanced juries. Flowers Jr. remembered his house being pelted with eggs, middle-of-the-night hate calls, and a cross being burned on the family home’s lawn. Bear Bryant recruited him for Alabama, but Flowers picked Tennessee, he explained, as a place he could leave much of the hatred behind.
In 1968 he was a favorite to make the Olympic team until on June 2 he tore his hamstring while was running 60-yard sprints. He failed to make the team.
He earned the BS in business in 1969 and went on to play professional career with first the Dallas Cowboys and then the New York Giants. He was the first NFL player to play in the World Football League with the Shreveport Steamer. By 1975 he was no longer competing in sports, and by 1980 he had earned a law degree from the University of Alabama (he was not admitted to the UT Law School). Soon thereafter, he established himself as a presence with Refco, a financial services company based in New York, brokering commodities and futures.
In 1983, with the sudden decrease in the price of soybeans, he lost $10 million of his clients’ money, $2 million of his own money, and $1 million he did not have. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission conducted a lengthy investigation and reprimanded Flowers for exceeding trading limits and fined him $2,000. He moved to Dallas and became involved in various businesses but failed to make a success of them. He moved to Florida in 1987 and worked first as a commodities trader and then at selling nutritional products. In 1992, following Hurricane Andrew, he moved back to Birmingham and continued in the nutritional products business.