Pursell didn’t hesitate.

“I said, ‘I sure do.'”

Now, that 116-year-old pool table is the star attraction at Old Tom’s Pub in The Inn at Pursell Farms, the luxury hotel that opened in March 2018 at the pastoral, 3,200-acre resort on the Pursell family spread in rural Talladega County, about 10 miles from Nabors’ old hometown of Sylacauga.

“We wanted to celebrate (Nabors’) life, being that he’s the most famous guy to ever come out of these parts,” Pursell says.

Framed photographs of some of Nabors’ celebrity pals — from Burnett and Ball to Crosby and Sinatra — hang on the wall next to the table, along with an inscription that reads, in gold letters, “Jim Nabors’ Famous Pool Table: From Hollywood to Pursell Farms.”

“People use this pool table all the time,” Pursell says. “A lot of (the appeal) is just the story of knowing who has actually played a game on that pool table.

“It’s available for everybody, and that’s very much what Jim Nabors would have wanted,” Pursell adds. “Because he was never too big for anybody and always had time for everybody.”

A 70-YEAR FRIENDSHIP

But this is not just about a pool table.

It is also the story of a 70-year friendship that began when a couple of guys from Talladega County met by chance in high school.

On a Friday night in 1947, Jimmy Pursell was a star running back for the Talladega Tigers, who were playing their county rivals, the Sylacauga Aggies. Talladega hadn’t lost a game in more than two seasons.

Pursell suffered a broken leg during the game, and he had to be carted off the field and taken to a nearby hospital. The Aggies went on to upset the Tigers 21-14, ending Talladega’s 21-game winning streak.

The next day, Jim Nabors, a student at Sylacauga High School, rounded up some of his fellow students and went to visit Pursell in the hospital.

“This whole group of kids goes up to the hospital to give well wishes to Jimmy Pursell,” David Pursell says. “And Jim Nabors was the main one who kind of put that deal together.

“He did not know my father at all. He had never met him. He just went over as an act of goodwill to cheer up the fallen soldier from the competitive school.”

Jimmy Pursell and Jim Nabors quickly became good friends, and even though they lived in separate towns and went different directions in college — Pursell to Auburn University and Nabors to the University of Alabama — they remained close.