THE STORIED RIDE OF THE CRIMSON TIDE
Prologue
Over eighty years ago, something unexpected happened for the Crimson Tide, resulting in what is considered the most significant game ever played in the history of Southern football. This game ushered in, with mixed southern emotions, the beginning of the south’s movement into the cultural and economic thinking of industrial America.
The University of Alabama faithful believe they hold the most storied “Rise to Tradition” in American football history and older fans know why this claim is made. But there may be many younger Bama fans who know very little about these events. And nationwide,the percentage who may be aware of them, must, at best, be minimal.
But before getting into this game, for a better understanding of the climate of the times in which this game took place, it’s best to take a look back into how our nation developed, long before American football was ever played. I believe the following remark from the beginning of “Gone With The Wind” is the best point to start.
“There was a land of Cavaliers and cotton fields called the old South. Here in this pretty world, gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their ladies fair, of master and of slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered…A Civilization gone with the wind.”
To more clearly understand the climate of these times, “Gone With The Wind” was in no way typical of how the ancestors of today’s African Americans lived, but I’d consider their life style of wealthy Southerners a good example. The early South’s history, with a primarily Anglo-Saxon population, even more deeply “refined” English social structure.
The South became a nation unto itself. Those on wealthy plantations were the South’s highest class and socialized with no others. The middle to lower class primarily lived in urban areas, except for the sharecroppers, who were only able to live day by day. These “Knights and their ladies fair” had no inkling they would soon be chivalry’s last stand.
The statement by the character Rhett Butler was dead on: “Gentlemen, there’s not a cannon factory in the whole South. The Yankees are better equipped than we. They’ve got factories, shipyards, coal mines…and a fleet to bottle up our harbors and starve us to death. All we’ve got is cotton, and slaves…and arrogance.”
Had wealthy southerners kept paying for Caucasian indentured servants, slavery would have never existed. Indentured servants had varying time limits on how long they worked for someone. Being white, escape was also easier. But slaves were “owned” for life, with their black skin, unfortunately, making escape next to impossible.
The South was primarily agricultural and the North primarily industrial. Had both of these economies only had indentured servants, it would have greatly reduced the possibility of a Civil War. But even had slavery not been an issue, many historians still believe the South would have eventually, and peacefully, become an independent nation.
But the wealthy plantation slave owners wanted a war. These “Southern Gentlemen”, skilled with their weapons, “knew” they were far better fighters than the men up North. Wealthy plantation owners also knew that Southern men, whether they owned slaves or not, would fight to preserve white supremacy and that, personally, Northern men had little reason to fight. .
Southerners simply assumed that they could quickly do enough damage to the Union for them to eventually say “Enough of this, we can live without them, let them leave the Union.” which is all the South wanted. Since most able bodied Southerners joined in the fighting, they believed this war would be over in less than a year.
The Union advantages stated by Rhett Butler were dismissed. Arrogance ruled all of their thinking. While after Gettysburg, most Southerners realized “Victory” was not probable, they continued fighting until Sherman released his troops and told them to live off the land. This was, in many ways, the beginning of Reconstruction.
Lincoln saw the defeated Confederacy as the “Bloody and Beaten South” and, as gently as possible, was going to bring them back into the Union. But others soon had the opportunity of punishing the “Rebellious South.” The ten years of Reconstruction by the Union’s troops left deep bitter feelings that, unfortunately, are still held by some today.
Born 70 years after the war was over, I recall those who were two generations older, still holding bitter feelings against “The Yankees.” Southerners even considered everyone that did not live in the States of the former Confederacy as “Yankees.” Never mind many of them lived in States that played no part in the Civil War. They were still “Yankees.”
Growing up, I heard about a few bitter feelings expressed by those who were children during the Reconstruction. Because of what the war in so many ways had destroyed, especially their financial securities, it took many years for the South, overall, to again reach a decent standard of living.
Despite the rise of an intolerant religious atmosphere, a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the 1925 “Monkey Trial” and the still held hostility to their terms of surrender, Southern modernizers slowly moved the South closer to the mainstream fundamentals of the cultural and economical standards of the upper East Coast, out of which Southern football emerged.
Tuscaloosa, the state capital prior to Montgomery, was chosen as the site for The University of Alabama. But a still “Frontier Alabama” lacked the culture to adequately prepare students. After its 1831 opening, behavior soon became a major problem. Riots and gunfights were not uncommon, with few students graduating in those early years.
With 5000 volumes, Alabama did have one of the largest university libraries, but severe discipline problems remained. The university president finally requested and received financial approval to solve this problem. In 1860, the university became a military school, with many of the graduating cadets serving as officers in the Civil War.
Several months before Sherman’s March to the Sea, Union troops burned down most of the campus. Four buildings survived, and two of them were the President's Mansion built in 1841 and the Gorgas House built in 1829,the oldest building on campus.
But after its rebuilding, the University of Alabama campus is now considered by many as one of the nation’s most beautiful.
Each new Southern generation wanted to find some way of demonstrating there was something they could better accomplish, always feeling “second” to those of the old Union. While my parent’s generation was no longer bitter, they still deeply resented the “Yankees” up north, considering those with a southern drawl, as lower class “Hillbillies.”
Original Southern football was primarily sectional, with “Dixie” repeatedly played during their games. Southern universities soon began realizing how important having a competitive football team would be for their university. Playing teams outside the South was the only way for young men to legitimately do battle with the descendants of those who had defeated their ancestors.
While possibly not the first university president to realize the importance of having a great football team, University of Alabama President Dr. George H. Denny was definitely the first in getting this accomplished. Denny Chimes on the Quadrangle, directly between the President’s mansion and Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, is a very fitting tribute.
When Southern teams started playing Northern teams, however badly they may have been beaten, they were welcomed home as if they had won. Their classmates wanted to show them how proud they were of their going to the North to “Fight the Yankees.” Out of my parents’ generation, good southern football finally emerged.
After Southern schools started playing a few games outside the South, they invited Northern schools to come to the South to play them. But Northern schools infrequently came to the South, knowing they could never bring any of their black players.
No university can ever claim being the model for the emergence of good Southern football teams, as was Alabama. But for many years, many SEC schools felt they were never given appropriate credit for the quality of football they played, which is what I believe, after their recognition, gave birth to the SEC being considered as arrogant.
In returning from Pasadena, Alabama emerged well beyond that of a just being a Southern football power. In much the same way the SEC today feels more like “family” than any other conference, the University of Alabama was soon recognized and honored by the entire South as what was both good and decent about the South.
A quote about Alabama from “Y’all Magazine” a few years ago:
“WINNING IS ONE THING. DOING SO WITH PRIDE, ELEGANCE AND CHARISMA IS SOMETHING ELSE. IT'S SOMETHING WONDERFUL, SOMETHING EPIC, SOMETHING AMIABLE. IT'S SOMETHING ALABAMA".
Along with the campus of the University of Alabama being recognized as one of the nation’s most architecturally beautiful, for the South in particular, it has the definite distinction of being known as the university that became the role model for Southern schools building outstanding football teams.
In the recent past, 75% of UA students listed football as their primary reason for enrolling. In the telecasting of our recent 2009 A Day Game, it was said “At some places they play football, at Alabama, we live it.”
Having been the role model for southern schools building great football teams, I now toss out another idea in which we could become a role model. Apparently back to the quality of football playing we have experienced during most of our history, I now consider it time for us to begin working on becoming another role model for the South, in becoming known by our opponents as a very welcoming host, to whomever we are playing.
Our Oklahoma guests here in 2003, told the people in Norman how well they were treated. I hope there can eventually be a welcoming tent that our guests can easily see, a place where we have the opportunity of sincerely welcoming them, with the understanding that arrogant or obnoxious behavior, by anyone, will not be permitted. When needed, this kind of behavior can be released during the games.
To whatever degree Alabama fans are arrogant, or are free of arrogance, this never plays any part in how well the Tide plays, wherever they may be playing. But more of us choosing not to be arrogant can begin the return back to our past history of being courteous to our guests, and as the role model for other SEC schools to follow.
Since Alabama’s 1979 National Championship, counting the 9 games forfeited in the 1993 season and playing under the severe NCAA sanctions that followed, Alabama still had ten seasons with 10 wins, which includes the 1992 National Championship.
Following the greatest winning percentage the Crimson Tide has ever experienced while under the Bear, for Tide fans, these 30 years have been a long wait to return back to the elite of college football. But let’s just try to be thankful for the resilience we have always had and for the record of the past 30 years. How many universities would not consider this record quite an accomplishment?
Most Southerners just naturally talk to most anyone, expressing whatever they may be feeling. While the same kind of feelings may be felt in other conferences, they are less likely to openly express them. I would like to be made aware of just one good reason for our being arrogant and obnoxious to our guests about anything, before the game starts, and after it is over..
Yes, this was a long prologue. But I wanted everyone who has never spent enough time in the South, to realize the reasons behind the resentment the old South held. Even in our more recent past, many of us became very angry when the polls denied SEC schools a national championship, for as SECS fans saw it, it was only because we were Southern.
But whatever negative feelings anyone may have about Alabama and the SEC, I hope that what I have composed above, and will be completing just before the season begins, will help those outside the South better understand the events that brought about what many consider as our being the most arrogant and obnoxious conference in the nation.
As I finish composing the storied tradition of the Crimson Tide, as I tried to do above, I will do my best to stay only with what actually happened and what was said, with no personal feelings of mine thrown in.
I hope that many of you may be able to begin not seeing the vast majority of the fans of the SEC as arrogant and obnoxious. I also hope that the many of us who are part of the SEC, who are not obnoxious and arrogant, will begin thinking of ways we can play a part in toning down the behavior of those who, out of their insecurities, choose to be this way.
Before the SEC Championship game is played, instead of asking people to vote on which SEC school they consider the most arrogant and obnoxious (LSU, FLA and AL were in almost a dead heat for this “Honor” last year), I’ll ask which ones are the most welcoming. For all of you involved with the SEC, I hope this is an incentive to become more welcoming to your guests.
Next Week: Chapter One - The Beginnings of American Football
While I will read every reply, since I'll be composing a new serial each week, right up to the start of the season, and depending on how many replies I may get, I doubt I will have the time to reply to everyone. After the season starts, I will have more time to reply, especially to those of any college who are interested in seeing their quests are made to feel welcome.
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