Richmond Flowers grew up in a household of high expectations. His father was an Alabama state senator and later the Attorney General.

As a child, Flowers was flat-footed, asthmatic and anemic. But he would later become arguably the greatest "prep track and field athlete" to hail from the state.

While in high school, Flowers set the national high school record for the high hurdles in 13.5, tied the national low hurdle record of 18.2 and set the world record for a high school athlete running the college hurdles in 13.8. In the 1964 Alabama State Track Championships, he finished first in five events with five state records.

Flowers ended his high school career with eight gold medals, two silver medals, five state records, two national records and one world record. Even today, 40 years later, his performance has not been approached.

In 1965, with over 100 scholarship offers, Flowers elected to leave Alabama and go to the University of Tennessee where he would later become one of the most successful two sport athletes to compete in the SEC. In football, he was the leading pass receiver in Tennessee history (105 catches for 1,215 yards in 3 years), a record that stood for many years.

He was a football All-American playing for Tennessee on an SEC Championship Team. As a Volunteer, Flowers played in a Gator Bowl, Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. In track, he was a four-time track and field All-American, an NCAA High Hurdle Champion and NCAA record holder in two events.

In 1968, with sights set on the Mexico Olympic games, Flowers had become the number one hurdler in the world and was favored to win the gold. That year, he was just .10 second off the world 60 yard high hurdle record, becoming Tennessee's first NCAA Track Champion. Flowers defeated the world record holder, Earl McCullough, and finished first seven times in eight major meets. He also defeated Willie Davenport, the eventual 1968 Olympic Gold medallist, on Davenport's own home track, and then repeated the defeat the following day on Flowers' home track. Named the number one high hurdler in the world, Flowers' dream of winning the Olympic title ended on June 2, 1968, with a season ending hamstring injury.

After college, Flowers was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the NFL draft. In 1970, he was a member of the Cowboy's Super Bowl V Team.

After he was traded to the New York Giants where he became the starting strong safety, Flowers became the first active NFL player to join the WFL in 1974.

Flowers' seven-year professional career ended in 1975 due to injury.

In 1998, Flowers was named one of the 12 Living Legends of SEC Football, representing the University of Tennessee.

In March of 2002, Flowers was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.