The Most Important Events to Affect Bama Football The Last 26 Years

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When Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant died in January 1983, it was not only the death of an icon, but the death of an era in Alabama football too. For almost 30 years, this man and his program dominated college football. But since his death, Alabama football has gone through several changes; some good and some bad, but all have affect the program one way or another.

The hiring of Ray Perkins-Coach Bryant’s retirement and his death a month later shocked everyone, but in the most surprising turn of events, Bryant picked Ray Perkins to succeed him. Perkins was the head coach of the New York Giants at the time. Though Perkins struggled his first year as Alabama head coach, he had a pretty decent career and kept the ship floating most of the time he was there.

The Emergence of Auburn Football-Why is this important? Because most of time Auburn football was not even a blip on the radar and not even close to the achievements of Alabama until former Bryant assistant Pat Dye came along. Dye not only evened the score, but for a time in the 1980’s helped the Tigers move ahead of Bama in the state. Because of Dye they landed eventual Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, moved the traditional Alabama/Auburn game in 1989 to the Auburn campus for the first time ever and most importantly the Tigers became a national powerhouse.

The Hiring of Gene Stallings-When Alabama fans heard that former St. Louis Cardinals head coach Gene Stallings would take over as coach after Bill Curry left, there were a lot of snickers from Auburn fans and worry among the Bama fan base. There were reasons to be worried. Stallings didn’t have a stellar career as the Cardinals head coach, so there was no reason to believe that he would fair much better with the Crimson Tide. Stallings had a rocky beginning too at Bama, but after his first year in 1990, two years later he went on to lead the Crimson Tide’s to its only national championship since the death of Bryant.

Probation-If you wonder why the Alabama football has not been a constant winner since Bryant’s death, this maybe the number one reason: Probation. Bama has been hit three times in the last several years with some form of probation. Probation nearly crippled the program. Most experts said the second probation was the closes thing to the death penalty levied against a program since SMU had to disband its football program because of probation back in the 1980’s.

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