Vince Brown remembers flying into Birmingham and grabbing a quick taxi ride over to Legion Field. It was Nov. 15, 1980 and it was the Californian's first time in Alabama.

As a track and field recruit, Brown originally wasn't interested in moving to this foreign land. He was a West Coast guy all the way. Yet, there was something about that football coach in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama lost to Notre Dame that Saturday evening, but a seed was planted under the lights on the west side of Birmingham.

It's a story that parallels the path his son is taking more than three decades later.

Both involve legendary coaches, leaving southern California for cultural opposite central Alabama and the confidence that requires.

Vince Brown, then an aspiring coach met Bear Bryant and the thought of sharing a space with him was enough to move across the country.

Now, 38 years later, Round II. Tommy Brown was one of the nation's top offensive linemen in the 2018 class when he committed to Alabama last July. Before playing a down of football, the 6-foot-7 tackle told people he wanted to play for the Tide.

He'll enroll this summer.

None of it would've happened if his dad hadn't ignored his initial doubts about coming to Tuscaloosa.Once on campus, he saw the shot put ring was in the shadow of Bryant's famous tower.

"I just ate it up being there during spring football," Vince Brown said.

He graduated in 1982 and moved home to Orange County.

By 2010, he was a well-known high school baseball coach with a hulking 9-year old in Tommy. His alma mater was playing in the nearby Rose Bowl against Texas in the BCS title game, so he drove over to Pasadena with his young son. Dad's Alabama letterman jacket was that night's wardrobe of choice.

It was Tommy's Legion Field moment.

"We parked up above the bowl in somebody's front yard," Tommy Brown said. "We were walking down and somebody says 'Roll Tide' to my dad. I was like 'What's going on?'"

They don't speak in such code there.

"I had to explain everything," dad recalled. "That was the start of his love for Alabama."

Father and son watched the Tide win a historic championship on a big screen in the parking lot since they couldn't score a ticket.

Tommy Brown's football debut was still a few years off, though.

He was always huge -- 6-feet tall as a sixth grader huge. Weight limits set by the local youth leagues were always well outside of his reality. He could've played up an age group, but his parents opted against it.

Instead, it was baseball, soccer, water polo and lacrosse for the large young athlete. Lacrosse was his favorite of the bunch. Vince Brown said it was a good outlet for his son to "take out his aggressions."

"I could hit somebody and not get in trouble," Tommy Brown said. "It helped me a lot."

By ninth grade, he hit the football field for the first time. He stood 6-feet, 6-inches and was approaching 300 pounds. That was enough for a mutual friend to invite Tommy Brown to a UCLA practice to meet the coaches before playing a single game.

Vince Brown remembers the first game his son played. He faced a local powerhouse and it didn't necessarily go well for the rookie tackle still finding his football legs. The first offer came from Missouri after his sophomore year and it wasn't long before Alabama came calling.

A trip to Alabama's camp came in the summer of 2016. Tommy Brown sat down in Nick Saban's office, the button was pushed and the door closed. The assortment of championship jewelry was on the table separating the massive lineman from the coach.

"It was intimidating to say the least," Tommy Brown said.

That was different from dad's encounter with Bryant, who was about the same age Saban was when Tommy sat in his office.

"I was pretty cocky," Vince Brown said, "so I rarely got nervous."

Dad also didn't get a healthy diet of Bryant video clips on multiple media platforms like his son got with Saban.

"Guys are even bigger than life," Vince Brown said. "I can see why Tommy would be extremely nervous meeting Coach Saban for the first time."

The anxiety soon wore off. Tommy Brown said the business-like Saban dropped his guard during a Sunday brunch during an official visit last fall.

"He's really funny with his dry sense of humor," Tommy Brown said. "The best is when he cracks a joke and he gives that little smile like he knows it's funny and he's waiting for you to laugh. It's funny."

After arriving at Alabama in 1981, Vince Brown said he ran into Bryant a handful of times in the halls. He described the experience as being in awe of the aging icon.

He got to know assistant coaches like Ken Donahue who tried to convince him to play football. Five knee surgeries in three high school seasons was enough for Vince Brown to give up the game his son would grow to dominate.

Tommy Brown has some of that swagger his dad brought to Tuscaloosa back in the early days of the Reagan administration. He's trying to break the Mater Dei school shot put record his father still holds before coming to Tuscaloosa.

He'll find an offensive line flush with talent and more on the way. Two reserve veterans -- Dallas Warmack and Brandon Kennedy -- have already transferred since spring practice ended.

"I feel confident in being able to contribute," Tommy Brown said. "This year, if I come in and I work hard, I feel like I can earn the backup spot or you never know what happens with injuries or anything. I might be able to get in there and start a few games, which would be a dream."

He's in the weight room with a full understanding of what's to come with summer conditioning once he arrives in Tuscaloosa.

"I'm prepared to die for a little bit and have Coach Cochran bring me back to life a whole new beast," Tommy Brown said. "I know it's going to be difficult but I'm excited to go out there and work my ass off until I'm at my top performance."

That whole dynamic was in play when the Brown family sat down to watch Alabama play Georgia in its fifth national title game since nine-year old Tommy got his first taste in the Rose Bowl parking lot.

Vince Brown told his anxious son the summer would be hell if Alabama couldn't complete the comeback on Georgia that January night.

Of course, his future teammates delivered. The lineman Tommy Brown connected with the most on visits, Alex Leatherwood, came off the bench for a quietly crucial job at left tackle following Jonah Williams' injury.

Soon, he'll join his teammates on the same ground his dad took his track and field career in what probably felt like a risky move in the early 1980s.

Those wheels would have never been greased without that trip to Birmingham to see Bryant lose his fourth game in four tries against Notre Dame.

That 26-23 Tide win over Georgia made it a little more real for the second-generation Alabama athlete. It came exactly eight years and one day after Tommy Brown learned the meaning of Roll Tide in Pasadena.

"It was amazing sitting there watching that game knowing I'm going to be wearing that jersey next year," Tommy Brown said. "I'll be in that crimson on that field. It's going to be amazing."

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.