100 Years Ago Today Alabama’s Rose Bowl Win Changed History
"Remember the Rose Bowl we'll win then" is more than just a line in the University of Alabama's fight song. It is a result of the Crimson Tide making history 100 years ago today. A century ago, Alabama won its first ever Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, its first national championship and it put southern college football on the national map. As irony, or history would have it, Bama is back in the Tournament of Roses today, and another national title is at stake.
In 1926 college football was dominated by teams from the northeast, midwest and a few west coast schools. College squads in the south pretty much stuck to scheduling other southern teams, did not travel to media centers and were considered inferior by the rest of the nation.
But something happened that day near the San Gabriel Mountains that changed that mindset at the end of the 1925 season. Tulane had turned down a Rose Bowl bid, so the Crimson Tide, 9-and-0 under the legendary Wallace Wade, received an invitation to play in what has now become known as "The Granddaddy of them all." It was the bowl game that annually garnered national attention.
The Tide's opponent was to be the powerhouse Washington Huskies who were 10-0-1 and considered a cinch to embarrasses the hillbillies from the south. But the Tide had other ideas.
The Bama team was led by Johnny Mack Brown who went on to Hollywood westerns stardom, and eventual Hall of Fame QB/FB Pooley Hubert.
Initially it looked like Alabama was intimidated by its surroundings and was going to prove the pundits right. The Huskies took a two-touchdown lead into the locker-room at halftime. But with the second half kickoff, history was about to be writ in "crimson flame".
Alabama stormed back, scoring three touchdowns in the third quarter and edged Washington 20-19. The difference in the game being that the Huskies missed every extra point try after their three touchdowns while Alabama only shanked one.
College football history had been made in what became known as, "The Game That Changed the South." For the first time sportswriters from newspapers across the country were forced to give grudging recognition that southern football had come of age.
Alabama was invited back to Pasadena the next year to play Stanford and again was part of history when NBC Radio chose the famous Graham McNamee to do play-by-play on the first coast-to-coast network broadcast.
The Crimson Tide's charter train home made numerous stops on the way back to Tuscaloosa to be greeted by fans celebrating their upset win and a huge crowd turned out at the Tuscaloosa Southside Rail Depot to welcome their hero's home.
The Alabama Crimson Tide was firmly entrenched in college football lore 100 years ago today.
We offer this encouragement when Alabama and Indiana kickoff at the Rose Bowl this afternoon, " Hit your stride, You’re Dixie’s football pride, Crimson Tide,"
More From Tuscaloosa Thread
