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Alabama
History and Stats
Why
'Crimson Tide'?
In
early newspaper accounts of Alabama football, the team was simply
listed as the "varsity" or the "Crimson White"
after the school colors.
The first nickname to become popular and used by headline writers
was the "Thin Red Line." The nickname was used until
1906.
The name "Crimson Tide" is supposed to have first
been used by Hugh Roberts, former sports editor of the Birmingham
Age-Herald. He used "Crimson Tide" in describing an
Alabama-Auburn game played in Birmingham in 1907, the last football
contest between the two schools until 1948 when the series was
resumed. The game was played in a sea of mud and Auburn was
a heavy favorite to win.
But, evidently, the "Thin Red Line" played a great
game in the red mud and held Auburn to a 6-6 tie, thus gaining
the name "Crimson Tide." Zipp Newman, former sports
editor of the Birmingham News, probably popularized the name
more than any other write
The
Elephant
The story of how Alabama became associated with the "elephant"
goes back to the 1930 season when Coach Wallace Wade had assembled
a great football team.
On
October 8, 1930, sports writer Everett Strupper of the Atlanta
Journal wrote a story of the Alabama-Mississippi game he had
witnessed in Tuscaloosa four days earlier. Strupper wrote, "That
Alabama team of 1930 is a typical Wade machine, powerful, big,
tough, fast, aggressive, well-schooled in fundamentals, and
the best blocking team for this early in the season that I have
ever seen. When those big brutes hit you I mean you go down
and stay down, often for an additional two minutes.
"Coach
Wade started his second team that was plenty big and they went
right to their knitting scoring a touchdown in the first quarter
against one of the best fighting small lines that I have seen.
For Ole Miss was truly battling the big boys for every inch
of ground.
"At
the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there
was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan
in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are
coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity.
"It
was the first time that I had seen it and the size of the entire
eleven nearly knocked me cold, men that I had seen play last
year looking like they had nearly doubled in size."
Strupper
and other writers continued to refer to the Alabama linemen
as "Red Elephants," the color referring to the crimson
jerseys.
The
1930 team posted an overall 10-0 record. It shut out eight opponents
and allowed only 13 points all season while scoring 217. The
"Red Elephants" rolled over Washington State 24-0
in the Rose Bowl and were declared National Champions.
| Coach |
Year |
Wins |
Losses |
| E.B. Beaumont |
1892 |
2 |
2 |
| Eli Abbott |
1893-96, 1902 |
10 |
15 |
| Allen McCants |
1897-1898 |
1 |
3 |
| W.A. Martin |
1899 |
3 |
1 |
| M. Griffin |
1900 |
2 |
3 |
| M.H Harvey |
1901 |
2 |
1 |
| W.B. Blount |
1903-1904 |
10 |
7 |
| Jack Leavenworth |
1905 |
6 |
4 |
| J.W. H. Pollard |
1906-1909 |
4 |
5 |
| Guy Lowman |
1910 |
4 |
4 |
| D.V. Graves |
1911-1914 |
21 |
12 |
| Thomas Kelly |
1915-1917 |
17 |
7 |
| Xen C. Scott |
1919-1922 |
29 |
9 |
| Wallace Wade |
1923-1930 |
61 |
13 |
| Frank
Thomas |
1931-1946 |
115 |
24 |
| H.D. Drew |
1947-1954 |
54 |
28 |
| J.B. Whitworth |
1955-1957 |
4 |
24 |
| Paul W. Bryant |
1958-1982 |
232 |
46 |
| Ray Perkins |
1983-1986 |
32 |
15 |
| Bill Curry |
1987-1989 |
26 |
10 |
| Gene Stallings |
1990-1996 |
62 |
25 |
| Mike Dubose |
1997-2000 |
24 |
23 |
| Dennis Franchione |
2001-2002 |
17 |
8 |
| Mike Shula |
2003-2006 |
26 |
23 |
| Nick Saban |
2007 |
3 |
0 |
Million Dollar Band: History
The Million Dollar Band began life in 1914 as a fourteen-member unit under Dr. Gustav Wittig, who led the group for 3 years. It became a military band in 1917 and was led by students until 1927, when Captain H. H. Turner assumed command. Captain Turner was succeeded in 1935 by Colonel Carleton K. Butler, who carried the band to national prominence.
The name "Million Dollar Band" was bestowed in 1922 by W. C. "Champ" Pickens, an Alabama alumnus. Accounts of how the name evolved vary. In the 1948 Alabama football media guide, it was described this way:
"At the time the band was named (1922), it was having a hard struggle. The only way they could get to Georgia Tech for a game was by soliciting funds from the merchants. They usually had to ride all night in a day coach, and we thought it was swell when we finally got a tourist sleeper and put two to a lower and two to an upper berth."
Thus, because of the band's fund raising prowess, Pickens called it the "Million Dollar Band." During that same Georgia Tech game in 1922 (won 33-7 by the Tech Yellow Jackets), an Atlanta sportswriter commented to Pickens, "You don't have much of a team; what do you have at Alabama?" Pickens replied, "A Million Dollar Band."
-
1914-17 Dr. Gustav Wittig
-
1917-27 (led by students)
-
1927-1934 Captain H. H. Turner
-
1935-1968 Colonel Carleton K. Butler
-
1969 Earl Dunn
-
1970-1983 Dr. James Ferguson
-
1984-2002 Kathryn Scott
-
2003-present Dr. Kenneth Ozzello
"Yea Alabama!" lyrics
Yea, Alabama! Drown 'em Tide!
Every 'Bama man's behind you,
Hit your stride.
Go teach the Bulldogs to behave,
Send the Yellow Jackets to a watery grave.
And if a man starts to weaken,
That's a shame!
For Bama's pluck and grit have
Writ her name in Crimson flame.
Fight on, fight on, fight on men!
Remember the Rose Bowl, we'll win then.
So roll on to victory,
Hit your stride,
You're Dixie's football pride,
Crimson Tide, Roll Tide, Roll Tide!!
Alma Mater
Alabama, listen, Mother,
To our vows of love,
To thyself and to each other,
Faithful friends we'll prove.
Faithful, loyal, firm and true,
Heart bound to heart will beat.
Year by year, the ages through
Until in Heaven we meet.
College days are swiftly fleeting,
Soon we'll leave their halls
Ne'er to join another meeting
'Neath their hallowed walls.
Faithful, loyal, firm and true
Heart bound to heart will beat
Year by year, the ages through
Until in Heaven we meet.
So, farewell, dear Alma Mater
May thy name, we pray,
Be rev'renced ever, pure and stainless
As it is today.
Faithful, loyal, firm and true
Heart bound to heart will beat
Year by year, the ages through
Until in Heaven we meet.
- Helen Vickers, 1908
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