Yet, despite the unofficial status as the Crimson Tide's mascot, the elephant was very much part of the school's football traditions by the 1940s. It was the first time that I had seen it and the size of the entire eleven nearly knocked me cold, men that I had seen play last year looking like they had nearly doubled in size. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity. Following the October 4 game against Ole Miss, Atlanta Journal sports writer and Hall of Fame former Georgia Tech back Everett Strupper wrote: Īt the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. When the 1930 team returned to the Rose Bowl, the company furnished leather suitcases, paid for by the Alumni Association, to each team member. When the football team arrived in Pasadena, the reporters greeting them, including syndicated columnist Grantland Rice, associated their large size with the elephants on their luggage. The company's trademark, displayed on the tags, was a red elephant standing on a trunk. Rosenberger, whose son was a student at the university, outfitted the undefeated 1926 team with "good luck" luggage tags for the trip to the 1927 Rose Bowl. The earliest account attributes the Rosenberger's Birmingham Trunk Company for the elephant association. There are two stories, perhaps both true, about how Alabama's football squad became associated with the elephant, both dating to the coaching tenure of Wallace Wade (1923–1930).
The headline for the article was "Crimson Tied", referring to the 6–6 tie Alabama had with Auburn, who had been heavily favored before the game. The game was played in a sea of red mud which stained the Alabama white jerseys crimson. Hugh Roberts, former sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, is credited with coining the phrase "Crimson Tide" in an article describing the 1907 Iron Bowl played in Birmingham with Auburn a heavy favorite to win. The first nickname popular with the media was the "Thin Red Line", which was used until 1906. On January 1, 1926, in the Rose Bowl, Alabama came from behind to upset the University of Washington 20-19.Įarly newspaper accounts of the university's football squad simply referred to them as the "varsity" or the "Crimson White". The following season Wallace Wade became head coach and in 1925 led the Crimson Tide to its first undefeated and untied season and its first trip to Pasadena, California, with a Rose Bowl invitation. The 1918 season was canceled on account of World War I but the game was resumed the following year.Īlabama first gained national recognition for football in 1922 when it defeated the University of Pennsylvania 9-7 in Philadelphia. Student opposition to the ruling forced trustees to lift the travel ban and football was resumed in 1899. The following season only one game was played and in 1898 football was abandoned at Alabama. In 1896 the university's board of trustees passed a rule forbidding athletic teams from traveling off-campus. This field goal was a collegiate record at the time. That Saturday, November 12, Alabama played the Birmingham Athletic Club, losing 5-4 when Ross, of B.A.C., kicked a 65-yard field goal. Alabama defeated a team composed mostly of high schoolers 56-0. Little of Livingston, Alabama, who had been a student at Andover, Massachusetts and "went to the University for the game."Īlabama's first football game was played in Birmingham on Friday afternoon, November 11, 1892, at the old Lakeview Park. This article describes several of these traditions.įootball Beginnings of football at Alabama Īccording to a Novemarticle in The Crimson White, football was first introduced at the University of Alabama in 1892 by W.G. The University of Alabama is a school with many traditions.
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