The Greatest Story Ever Told

SPOILED by success, Tide fans grumbled openly about the 1929 team's disappointing 6-3 record. Angered by the Monday-morning quarterbacking and rumors that his days as coach were numbered, Wade announced that 1930 would be his final year in Tuscaloosa. It was some swan song: After crushing Howard 43-0 in the opener, 'Bama scored 64 points against Ole Miss. During the drubbing, an Atlanta sportswriter heard a fan yell that 'Bama had "the horses." When he heard another fan shout back, "Those aren't horses, they're elephants!" the Tide had a new mascot. Wade's Dumbos scored 271 points to their foe's 13 and--behind the running, passing and kicking of John (Hurri) Cain--capped a 10-0 season by stomping Washington State 24-0 in the Rose Bowl. So confident was Wade of victory that he started his second team. Popular crooner Rudy Vallee dedicated the tune Football Freddie to tackle Fred Sington, who made All-America and Phi Beta Kappa:

Football Freddie, rugged and tan,
Football Freddie, collegiate man.

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WADE'S successor, Frank Thomas, was nearly as successful. During his 16 seasons as coach, the former Notre Dame quarterback and roommate of Irish immortal George Gipp compiled a 115-24-7 mark and made three Rose Bowls, winning twice. Among his most luminous stars were quarterback Dixie Howell, receivers Don Hutson and Bear Bryant, and guard Arthur (Tarzan) White, whose biggest fame came as the world's heavyweight wrestling champ. The '34 team was inarguably Thomas's best. At a time when scoring was scanty, the Tide averaged 31.6 points a game to its opponents' 4.5. Before a sellout crowd of 84,484, it steamrollered Stanford 29-13 in the Rose Bowl. Howell threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to Hutson but is best remembered for thumbing his nose at Stanford defensive back Buck Van Dellen while sprinting 67 yards into the end zone. Howell insisted he had only been waving. Only his mom believed him.

PROVERBS

THOMAS retired after the 1946 campaign and named longtime assistant Harold (Red) Drew as his heir. But it wasn't long before the public started doubting Thomas. In '51 the Tide had its first losing season since '03; three years later it had its second. That was evidently one too many for the school administration, which shifted Drew from football to track. "They said my football team was too slow," he cracked. "So they made me track coach."

The most enduring image from the final days of the B.B. era comes out of the '54 Cotton Bowl, which Alabama lost to Rice 28-6. With Rice ahead 7-6, Owls halfback Dicky Moegle scampered down the sideline, outrunning every Tide defender on his way to a certain 95-yard touchdown. Suddenly, Alabama fullback Tommy Lewis, who was watching from the sideline, leaped onto the field and tackled him. "I guess I'm just too full of 'Bama," Lewis more or less explained.

Amen.