As far as I can tell, I was born a fan of the University of Alabama football team, I can not remember there being any hint of anything different or any doubt, I was just an Alabama fan and that was that!
My Dad was never really a sports fan at all, I don't ever remember him taking much time to just relax and watch a ballgame of any kind on television. But during football season you could count on yours truly watching any televised Alabama game because if I had anything to say about it that would certainly be what our old B&W TV was tuned to. And since I spent most of my time outdoors either working or playing or in my room reading, when I did want to watch something on the TV my Mom would usually give me the priority. Of course, Dad could override that process if there was work to be done or something that he wanted to watch coming on, like the news. But since he worked three jobs for most of my youthful life he never really had time for such trivialities.
During the halftime of a ballgame, I would run outside with my hand-me-down wore out football and throw passes to myself. I would try to mimic the plays that I had seen my team run, and I would roll the ball across the ground as if a fumble had occurred and then pounce on it. As a kid the only sport that I really deeply cared about was football and my dream was to grow up big and tall so that I could one day play for Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Alas as I grew I stopped going up at six feet, which could have worked if I had filled out. But a typical Alabama football player needed to be six feet plus, and he needed to weight 185 lbs. or more. My Senior year in High School I weighed in at the beginning of football season at a paltry 135 lbs. My Head Coach felt so bad about it that he added 10 lbs to my total weight when he turned in my paperwork for eligibility, I think that he was being optimistic that I would grow at least another 10 lbs. worth before the season actually started.
There was something about my lack of size, speed, and skill that kept Coach Bryant from offering me a scholarship to play football at the University of Alabama after graduation from high school, although I'm sure that he really wanted to. Had I just got a job and messed around the area for a little while I might have eventually been able to walk on and play for the Bear with one of my high school teammates. Some kids are late bloomers you know, that very next year I could have filled in and developed all of those skills that were missing the year before. I'm not sure about that speed thing though, I did earn the name slo-mo for a little while after high school so speed might still have been a hard problem to overcome. ;)
It was not until I was a teenager that I finally was able to attend my first live Alabama football game. I was invited to accompany one of my best friends to a game with his parents. My friend's Mother was a Psychology teacher at the University and his Father was either an Alumni or had also been a teacher at the University, I don't remember now. Anyway, they were able to get extra tickets, something that my family couldn't afford, and they were generous enough to invite me to join them. I was so excited, it was 1975 and Alabama had not lost a regular season football game in two years! The only thing that had marred the Tides record during that time was two controversial losses to Notre Dame in the season finally bowl games. At least the outcome of those games was controversial here in Alabama where the school's fans believed that if our team lost it was because someone cheated. ;)
For me to get to see the mighty Crimson Tide roll over and crush the lowly Missouri Tigers football team was the chance of a lifetime and I couldn't wait to get to Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. I wanted to find out what a real football stadium looked like and find out for myself if the noise from thousands of cheering fans was as loud as I had been told. Needless to say, when the game got underway I was screaming and cheering my team on as hard as I could, kill those tigers I yelled over and over! I was a tiny speck in the crowd but I was sure the "Bear" could hear me down on the field and that he was smiling to himself.
But that day just didn't go as planned, nothing went right for Alabama and the Missouri Tigers it seemed could do no wrong. In the first seven minutes, Missouri had already taken the lead and they simply dominated my nearly unbeatable favorite team in all the world. The Tide went down to defeat in the first game of the season on National Television in front of a stunned and no longer loud crowd. The final score was Missouri 20 - Alabama 7, which in those days was considered a very good thumping by a team that was a considerable underdog coming in. Here are Bear Bryants words to the media after the game.
"They kicked the hell out of us. What more can I say?"
"I think we were pretty fortunate not to be beaten worse. They beat us worse than the score indicates."
"All in all, it was a good old sound country beating."
He had a lot more similar things to say to the fans later on his weekly television show, Coach Bryant's attitude and words have helped me thru the years and even to this day, I learned how a man should accept defeat with poise and grace even if his guts have been ripped out and he is miserable and sick in his soul.
This is one reason why I'm an Alabama fan, that team and all of the Alabama teams that I have ever seen over the years, do not get down on themselves after a loss. They don't start backbiting, pointing fingers or blaming each other when they are suffering. Coach Bryant rightfully praised Missouri, all of their players and their Head Coach Al Onofrio. Then he took full responsibility and blame for the loss and assured the fans that he and the team would work even harder in the days ahead. That they did, for after that dreadful loss Alabama won eleven straight games including a victory over perennial power Penn State in the Sugar Bowl to finish out the season. That is Alabama football and that is why I'm a fan.
Here is a link to a write up about that 1975 Missouri win over Alabama from the perspective of a Missouri fan. If you would like to find out how the rest of the Tigers season went after their history-making win over Alabama you can read about that also there. I took a several of the facts that I posted on my blog from this awesome article.
Mizzou's Greatest, #45: Missouri 20, Alabama 7 (1975)
There are a lot of other reasons that I could cite in this blog for why the University of Alabama is my favorite team, but the blog would just grow and grow and you would get mighty weary of reading. I do want to tell you that even though my Dad was not much of a sports fan, he was in fact, a big University of Alabama football fan and he always wanted them to win in the worst sort of way. This confused me at first so one day I asked him about it, the answer was nothing short of a typical Southerner's pride in his State. You see in the Southern United States we grew up as citizens of the States that we were born in, and our Nation State was simply a member of the United States of America. To my Dad, the University of Alabama was representing our State before the rest of the Nation, much like the European Countries are for soccer games. Dad then was an Alabama Crimson Tide fan simply because they bore the State name and thus were our representatives and ambassadors in the world of American Football.
The Alabama Crimson Tide is my favorite team for many, many reasons and so for me, it will always be "Roll Tide Roll!"
Thank's for reading!
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