Above: Thom Gossom Jr. left the football field and became successful as an actor, author and in business. (contributed)

Thom Gossom Jr. has tackled a lot of things in six decades.

The Birmingham native and graduate of John Carroll Catholic High School is a trailblazer, the first African-American athlete to graduate from Auburn University. He also briefly played professional football.

Thom Gossom will read from his new book at Alabama School of Fine Arts. (contributed)

He’s a successful businessman, offering public relations services through his Best Gurl Entertainment.

He’s an actor, with memorable TV roles (“In the Heat of the Night,” “NYPD Blue,”  “Miss Evers’ Boys”), film roles (“Fight Club”) and stage roles (“Speak of Me as I Am”).

He’s a playwright and an author. His memoir is titled “Walk-On: My Reluctant Journey to Immigration.”

But until the release of “A Slice of Life” – which he’ll read from at an event at the Alabama School of Fine Arts on Friday – the 63-year-old hadn’t written fiction.

Well, actually he had. Some of the short stories in the collection date back decades.

“Some of these I had sketched out earlier,” Gossom says by phone from Auburn, where he is chair of the university’s foundation board and works with the president’s office on special projects. “’Cold Hard Grits’ I wrote probably in the ’80s, and I embellished it and changed it as time went on. ‘College Boy,’ I wrote that one maybe in the late ’80s or ’90s.”

“A Slice of Life” is one of three books of short stories Gossom has planned. It will be followed by “Another Slice of Life” and “The Rest of the Pie.”

“This first book coincides with the early part of my life, including some integration issues,” says Gossom, who appeared in “Breaking the Huddle,” an HBO documentary about the integration of Southern football. The second and third books will loosely follow Gossom’s path, from Birmingham to Auburn to Los Angeles to Florida.

“I’ve worked in about 13 different states and all across Canada,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot and try to put it into my characters.”

Gossom, who says he writes about “ordinary people involved in extraordinary circumstances,” believes all of his hyphenates – actor-writer-businessman – are related.

“As I’ve evolved and gotten to know myself more, whether I’m writing or acting or solving a client’s communications issue, I’m always telling a story,” he says.

One of Thom Gossom Jr.’s film roles is in “Jeepers Creepers 2.” (contributed)

Though he and his wife, Joyce, are based in northwest Florida, Gossom is often back in Alabama, and he’s trying to take advantage of Atlanta’s burgeoning TV and movie industry, too. He just finished filming four episodes of “Containment,” a new CW show planned for a March or April premiere. In it, he’s the father of the lead character.

“He has a lot of anger right beneath the surface so he’s a fun guy to play,” says Gossom, who estimates he has appeared in about 90 episodes of TV. In recent years, including on the TV series “Reckless,” that has often meant wielding a gavel.

“When you’re younger, there are plenty of opportunities,” he says, laughing. “As you get older, though, they have to figure out what to do with you. From about 50 on, especially for males, you’re not old enough to play the typical grandpa, so a lot of guys in my category all start getting cast as judges.”

If those roles don’t come, however, there’s plenty more to keep Gossom busy, including readings such as the one he’ll do at ASFA on Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. He’ll be appearing with Randall Horton, a poet and professor of creative writing at the University of New Haven. Horton is also from Birmingham.

“When I graduated from Auburn and was in between trying to play professional football, I was hired at Parker High School as a substitute teacher and B-team football coach,” Gossom says. “He was one of my players.”

Which adds one more title to the athlete and author and actor and businessman.

“Sometimes, he’ll call me Coach,” Gossom says.