Alabama and Auburn: Why the Rivalry Exists, Part 1

This is the first installment of a three part series on the Alabama-Auburn Football rivalry

How does a rivalry get started? What fuels the fires for such intense hatred for a kindred competitor and why not forget about the game once the final seconds tick from the clock?

These are questions that should have answers, but there isn't one answer that brings clarity to the rivalry that exists between The University of Alabama and Auburn University.

From the first game played between these cross-state institutions in 1893, through a 41 year hiatus in the competition, the rivalry still seems to increase in intensity from year to year.

The Early Years

The first season of football at the University of Alabama was played in 1892, a season that happen thanks to Willilam G. Little, a native of Livingston, Alabama. Little had attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

Phillips Academy was and still is an educational boarding school for grades 9-12. It is the oldest incorporated Academy in the Unites States.

His love for the game as a student gave him the passion to develop a team at his home state University upon enrollment. The first team was really established as a Club Team, not a true representative of the University. Little became the first team captain.

E.B Beaumont is credited as becoming the first head coach. The inaugural season started in November of 1892 and the final game of the season was played in February of 1893. Beaumont only coached for the first year.

The first game in Alabama was played against a group of Birmingham high school students. Considering Little was a freshman and the majority of his teammates and friends were freshman, this is not an unusual beginning to a fledgling sports program. They blasted the youthful Birmingham squad 56-0.

The following two games were played against the more mature Birmingham Athletic Club. The final game of the season was a competition between the two state schools, the first of many to come.

One of the many glorious and fulfilling facts of this rivalry is that the programs initiated with symmetry. While Little and Beaumont were getting things started in Tuscaloosa, George Petrie had a similar idea for the students at Auburn. Petrie was a graduate of the University of Virginia, and came to Auburn as an educator.

Petrie formed a team of students and choose the colors burnt orange and blue in honor of his heritage with the University of Virginia. Petrie is also notable for becoming the first Alabamian to earn a PhD degree, an honor he received in 1890 from John Hopkins University for his work in "history, political economy and jurisprudence."

Mr. Petrie served as the teams first coach and organized the first season schedule. They played three games in their first season, the most notable was game one against the University of Georgia, played in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. Auburn won the contest 10-0.

On February 22, 1893, Beaumont took his inaugural team into the game against Auburn with a record of 2-1. Auburn entered the contest with an overall record of 1-2, suffering losses at the hands of Duke & North Carolina following the victory against UGA.

For Auburn, this was the beginning of a new season, for Alabama, the completion of season one.

The first Auburn-Alabama Game

The first game between the two schools was played at Lakeview Baseball Park, in Birmingham. It was considered a home game for Alabama. Approximately 2,000 spectators showed up to watch the contest.

The first game between Auburn and Alabama was not coached by Petrie, he had relinquished coaching responsibilities to D.M. Balliet. The game ended without controversy. Auburn was the better team on that day, besting the Alabama Football Club by a score of 32-22.

Beaumont's first season as head coach for Alabama ended with a record of 2-2. Eli Abbott, a former player, became coach of the Crimson and White.

Auburn's Balliet moved on to become the coach at Purdue University. He was replaced by. G. H. Harvey.

Harvey coached four games for Auburn, that was the extent of his career. With Harvey coaching the Auburn squad, playing the in-state game at Montgomery's Riverside Park. The orange and blue trounced the Alabama Football Club 40-16.

Tensions began to build, as the states fans took interest. The first game was played in front of a crowd of around 2,000 people, and both teams played respectably at the Birmingham venue. In year two, Auburn was clearly a better team on game day and the crowd of better than 5,000 took that memory back to the small towns across the state.

Petrie, as an athlete and educator at the Polytechical School, took sports more seriously than the staff and boosters in Tuscaloosa. He had been at Virginia and Hopkins as a student and played against other schools in the east. Football was catching on across the landscape. It was a tough game, requiring discipline and skill that had to be developed.

Word spread of the dominance displayed by the Alabama Polytechnical College over the State University in the second meeting on the gridiron. Football was a brutish game, one not for the faint of heart. It was definitely a game of toughness and endurance; cleverness had not yet worked it's way into the game plan by the late 1800's.

In year three, Alabama agreed to meet in Montgomery for the contest once again, despite having played in Montgomery the year before. The third game was highly anticipated. Still coached by Abbott, Alabama opened the 1894 season with a 0-6 loss to Ole Miss, and followed up with convincing wins against Tulane and Sewanee.

In the win against Sewanee, the Alabama squad posted 24 points, the highest total against another college or City Club in their three year history. The Sewanee Tigers were a team known for their toughness and competitiveness. Much has been written about the early years of football at Sewanee, much that is worth the time reading on another day.

Auburn, coached by F.M. Hall, opened the 1894 season with a close loss to Vanderbilt by a score of 6-9. In game two, they completely trounced Georgia Tech 94-0 then lost another close game in a defensive struggle against UGA, by a final score of 8-10.

The win against Georgia Tech combined with the memory of the 40-16 trouncing the year before had fans in the state siding with the Auburn squad, expecting a victory by the team in Orange and Blue.

On November 29, the day after thanksgiving in 1894, the underdog Crimson and White cadets surprised the states onlookers with an 18-0 victory over Auburn Blue and Orange. F. M. Hall never coached again for the Auburn team. In fact, a search of his name suggests he never coached again, period.

Petrie replaced Hall by an up and coming football coach from Oberlin College, a man by the name of John Heisman.

Heisman brought order and toughness to the team on the plains. He immediately entered them into the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the precursor to the SEC. Alabama entered the conference the same year.

Heisman coached at Auburn University from 1895 to 1899. He established a winning record of 12-4-2 in the five years he spent as head coach. During his first year, Heisman settled an immediate score for the Auburn fan base by playing the Crimson and White team on the Quad. The Blue and Orange totally dominated the Crimson Cadets, winning by a score of 48-0.

It was a devastating, punishing home loss for Alabama, a team that finished 0-4 on the season. 

Football was clearly gaining the reputation of a dangerous, even deadly sport. Some college programs refused to start up a club. The professional leagues were developing alongside the college leagues, particularly around the east coast.

In an effort by the trustees to kill the prospering popularity of the sport, the University banned Alabama athletic teams from traveling off campus to play games. They not only sited the dangers of the sport, but the financial burden of traveling and boarding for the athletes.

Remember, in these times, there were no automobiles of any kind. Travel was by horseback, coach, buggy, train or simply walking. Hotels typically cost two or three dollars per night. And this was still the reconstruction period in the south. There wasn't much money to go around.

In 1896, Alabama played three games, and all competitions took place on the Quad because of the travel ban.

In 1897, the Tide played a single game on the Quad against the Tuscaloosa Athletic Club. In 1898, the Club held together but could not schedule a game because opposition teams could not be guaranteed reciprocity by the Alabama squad in the following year.

The Alabama program was ready to fold. A public outcry finally forced the Trustee's to relent from their onerous position, and the Alabama Club traveled twice in 1899. Winning at home against the Tuscaloosa Athletic Club and Montgomery Athletic Club got the team off to a 2-0 start and then they hit the road.

On November 24th, the team took the road for the first time in three years to play Ole Miss in Jackson.

Victory against the Mississippi Club came by way of a safety in the final quarter. The fatigued team had no chance to recover, playing the next game on the very next day in New Orleans, against the New Orleans Athletic Club. Alabama lost that game 0-21, ending the season 3-1.

Meanwhile, John Heisman was establishing a winning tradition and had developed a program to be feared by any team taking the field. In his five years at Auburn, his teams averaged better than 24 points per game while allowing an average of less than six by the opponent.

Heisman's first Auburn team in 1895 lost to Vanderbilt by a score of 6-9. They finished the season with victories over Alabama and Georgia.

Losses by Auburn in Heisman's tenure were rare, came against quality teams and the scores were very close. Heisman left Auburn in 1899 to coach the Clemson Tigers.

Heisman was a journeyman, spending the majority of his coaching career at Georgia Tech, establishing a record of 102-29-7 while coaching the Yellow Jackets. He finished his coaching career at Rice, in 1927, with an overall record of 186-70-18, in 37 seasons as head coach.

In Heisman's final season as head coach for the Alabama Polytechnical College Football Club, his team ended the season with a record of 3-1-1. The three victories were by very large margins, defeating Georgia Tech 63-0, The Montgomery Athletic Club 41-0 and Clemson 34-0. The tie came against Georgia, battling to a 0-0 tie at Piedmont Park, in Atlanta.

The only loss was to the 1899 Sewannee Tigers. This team is considered to be the greatest college team in the history of the game. Between the dates of October 21 and December 2, the Sewannee Tigers played twelve games, outscoring opponents 310-10 on the season. They won five games in six days, and every victory in that incredible season, save one, was by shutout.

The 10 points posted against the Sewanee Tigers were scored by the John Heisman led Auburn team, who battle the Sewannee Club to a final score of 11-10. It was the only matchup that was ever in doubt for the Club from Tennessee. The only opponent to have scored on them for an entire season. And the team that had won five games in six day had ten days to rest before the matchup with the Auburn Club. Auburn had developed into a program with skills and knowledge of the game.

Billy Watkins took over from John Heisman in 1900, leading Auburn to their first undefeated season at 4-0. His team outscored opponents 148-5. Those five points were scored by Alabama but all for naught. The final score of the game was 53-5, Auburn soundly defeated their in-state rival. It was the first game played between the two schools since the Auburn victory by the Heisman coached squad in 1895.

In 1901, the Watkins led Auburn team started the season with three losses. Meanwhile, Alabama had defeated Ole Miss 41-0 to open the season and played to a 0-0 tie with a tough Georgia squad. Game three was a matchup that Alabama expected to win at home and regain respect for the lopsided loss from the year prior.

Auburn gather themselves for the road trip, and left for Tuscaloosa with victory on their mind. They accomplished their goal that day, defeating the Crimson Cadets 17-0. It was a turning point for both teams. Auburn went on to finish their season without another defeat while Alabama didn't win again in 1901. Having said this, remember in the early days a season consisted of four or five games, max.

The game played on the Quad in 1901 was the last Alabama "home" game played on campus against the in-state rivals until the Y2K Iron Bowl held in Tuscaloosa. Games that followed, between 1902 and 1904 were played in Birmingham's West End Park and Montgomery's Riverside Park.

Following 1901, the Alabama Football Club began scheduling a few more games each season. Moreover, games were regularly scheduled between October and December. There were rarely "bye-weeks" and at times games were played with short intervals between contests, often as few as five days rest between games.

Road trips were sometimes exactly that. Traveling to two or three venues prior to returning home.

By 1905, games were regularly scheduled to be played on the Quad and at the Birmingham Fairgrounds, both venues were considered the home fields for the Alabama team. The Quad was certainly large enough for games, but the crowds continued to grow in size and the fairground site had a larger capacity for spectators.

Auburn also used the Birmingham Fairgrounds and West End Park as a home fields for games of high interest, such as contests with Sewanee, Nashville Athletic Club and Alabama. But they also scheduled games at The Auburn Athletic Field and in Montgomery Baseball Park.

Jack Leavenworth was head coach for the Alabama team in 1905, and "Iron Mike" Donahue coached the Auburn team.

It was Donahue's second season as a head coach, graduating from Yale in 1903, he immediately signed on to become head coach for Auburn. Donahue's first team in 1904 was a perfect 6-0, with wins over Florida (44-0), Clemson (coached by Heisman), Nashville, Georgia Tech, Alabama (29-5) and Georgia.

The teams met for competition on November 18, 1905. It was the first to be played between the two teams on the Birmingham Fairgrounds, later becoming the site for Legion Field. More than 4,000 spectators showed up to witness the contest. Alabama won the game 30-0 and followed up with a 10-0 victory in 1906 against the Donahue coached Auburn team.

In 1907, Donahue went on sabbatical, leaving the team in the hands of Willis Keinholtz. Keinholtz guided his team to a 6-1 record leading up to the game against Alabama, with five shut-out wins over Maryville, Samford, Gordon, Georgia Tech and Clemson.

His team was averaging 32 points per game, the largest margin of victory was 63-0 over Mercer. Their only loss was a 6-12 defeat in Birmingham to a very tough Sewanee Tiger team that finished the season 8-1.

Meanwhile, Alabama played to a 4-3 record up to the game against Auburn. Wins and losses that season were by large margins; this Alabama team was very unpredictable. Alabama matched Auburn head to head, they played to a 6-6 tie, the only tie in the history of the series.