« Previous | Main | Next »

The Greatest Rivalry of All

November 19, 2008 12:49 PM

I was going to write about this really interesting case Orin Kerr came across the other day on whether X-Ray body scans violate the 4th Amendment. Apparently, a woman visiting her husband in a detention facility was subject to the scans, and she realized (belatedly) that the guards had basically been seeing her naked every time. Check it out here.

But Orin has the issue well covered, so to speak, as is typical for him. So that gives me a chance to talk about what really is the only thing I am thinking about these days, and that is, of course, Alabama football.

(You may have noticed that the other day, when I turned a blog about Scalia’s deer hunting out in Lubbock into a stream-of-consciousness post about the Crimson Tide and our next big game.)

The Big Game I’m talking about is, of course, the most intense rivalry in all of sports: Alabama-Auburn. And yes. I AM counting Yankees-Sox, Skins-Cowboys, UNC-Duke, Bears-Packers, Cubs-Cards, Ohio State-Michigan, Ali-Frazier, Russell-Chamberlain, Nicklaus-Palmer, and, even, Alydar-Affirmed.

All of you people who want to argue this should just show up next Saturday in Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl.

Here’s the thing: In Alabama, you don’t have professional sports to rally around. The Titans are too close to the Vols (who we loathe). The Falcons are never worth the effort; same goes for the Saints. I always liked the Jets, myself (for obvious reasons). Some of us endured Bobby Cox to cheer for the Braves, but none of us really pulled for the Hawks. And the New Orleans Jazz went off to Utah, where, inexplicably, they are still called the Jazz.

Nope, in the great state of Alabama, there’s either Alabama (THE University) or Auburn. You grow up hating one and loving the other. My Uncle Tony rebelled as a teenager and went to Auburn—he was forced to move to Dallas, and we still hold it against him.

You suffer 364 days a year if you lose. You don’t even have to go to school there for your loyalty to run deep: When I was a kid, the president of the Cullman County Alabama Alumni Association never set foot on campus except for Saturdays in the fall.

I could talk for hours about “The Run in the Mud” or “The Kick.” (I have tried to block out “Punt Bama Punt.”) But today, with the game on the horizon next Saturday---and Auburn headed to T-Town to try to knock off my #1 Crimson Tide (2:30 CST kickoff on CBS)--I’m going to tell you a little bit about Jim Fennel.

Jim Fennel loved Auburn. He loved Auburn so much he just could not bear the thought of the Tide going to the Plains for the first time ever (the series had historically been played at "neutral" Legion Field in Birmingham) and winning on the Tigers' home turf. Of course, the Tide should have won that game--Alabama was undefeated, ranked #2 and in the hunt for the 1989 National Championship.

(FYI: Number of Alabama National Championships: 12. Number of Auburn National Championships: 1.)

Fennel decided Auburn needed some inspiration, so he sat down and wrote a letter about World War II. He described serving in a tank unit under Gen. George S. Patton, and he wrote vividly about how some of his unit was captured by the Germans after a fierce battle. Forced to march through a captured town, Fennel said the men in his unit “decided to show the Germans what they were made of.”

With all those Germans standing beside the road, Fennel and the other captured Americans began marching in swift double-time. That got the enemy’s attention, Fennel wrote, and the Germans all saluted them as they went by.

Fennel sent that letter to Pat Dye, who read it to his team on the eve of the Alabama game. He had described his war experiences so vividly that Dye and the coaches cried, as did some of the players. They were inspired.

Here’s how Jay Coulter describes what happened next, on trackemtigers.com:

“I remember it like it was yesterday. I was a junior at Auburn and doing a live radio broadcast for WEGL on top of an RV. Tiger Walk was unlike anything I'd even seen before or since. The look on the players and fans eyes as the team made its way to the stadium, you just knew Auburn was going to win. I honestly don't believe the Soviet Union could have kept Auburn out of the end zone on that day.”

Alabama sure didn’t. Those Auburn players were so inspired they beat a superior Alabama team 30-20.

Fennel got his due credit. It became a big story. Those Auburn fans loved Jim Fennel, local hero, who not only whipped the Germans, but helped beat the Tide. But then someone happened to point out that Jim Fennel was, oh, 5 or 6 years old during World War II. He made it all up.

It came too late for the Tide. We sunk to #7 and lost to Miami in the Sugar Bowl. We avenged the Miami loss three years later in New Orleans, when we crushed the #1 Canes and a confused Gino Torretta, 34-13. (I have a large framed photograph of George Teague’s takeaway from Lamar Thomas on the wall of my office. It makes me very happy.)

But that 1989 Auburn game still hurts. Here’s Coulter again: “Auburn prevailed and a permanent shift of football power took place in the state that still stands today.”

OK, that’s a little excessive—we did beat them good in the early 1990s. We were National Champs in 1992. (Did I mention this statistic: Alabama National Championships, 12: Auburn, 1?) But it’s a sad fact of life (and a reflection on some of the sorry coaches we hired since we outrageously let Gene Stallings go) that Auburn has beaten us six years straight.

Just ask Tommy Tuberville, who likes to hold up his fingers on the sidelines reflecting the number of Auburn wins—a nice touch, mocking a bunch of teenagers on the field like that.

Next Saturday. The Greatest Rivalry of All. In Tuscaloosa. Where, it pains me to write, we have yet to beat Auburn. It’s our moment. "Permanent shift of power?" Please. Nick Saban is inspirational enough he won’t need a fable to rally the team. We’re in the thick of the hunt for the national title. We could be the first team in SEC history to go 12-0 in the regular season. We can’t bear 364 days of defeat.

And Tuberville can’t count to seven, anyway.

Roll Tide Roll.

And yes, being a deeply superstitious Alabama fan, I am knocking on wood. Got that Uncle Tony?

November 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/433071/35954322

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Greatest Rivalry of All:

User Comments

Posted by: War Eagle Fan | Nov 19, 2008 1:09:07 PM

Posted by: Boring | Nov 19, 2008 6:15:46 PM

Posted by: Tom Carr | Nov 19, 2008 9:26:55 PM

Posted by: Logan Young's Ghost | Nov 19, 2008 9:46:07 PM

Posted by: TEX | Nov 19, 2008 10:14:15 PM

Posted by: Bamm3r | Nov 24, 2008 11:15:44 AM

Posted by: Robert | Nov 25, 2008 8:54:07 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: