Alabama Crimson Tide History

How the Crimson Tide Got its Name

In early newspaper accounts of Alabama football, the team was simply listed as the "varsity" or the "Crimson White" after the school colors.

The first nickname to become popular and used by headline writers was the "Thin Red Line." The nickname was used until 1906.

The name "Crimson Tide" is supposed to have first been used by Hugh Roberts, former sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald. He used "Crimson Tide" in describing an Alabama-Auburn game played in Birmingham in 1907, the last football contest between the two schools until 1948 when the series was resumed. The game was played in a sea of mud and Auburn was a heavy favorite to win.

But, evidently, the "Thin Red Line" played a great game in the red mud and held Auburn to a 6-6 tie, thus gaining the name "Crimson Tide." Zipp Newman, former sports editor of the Birmingham News, probably popularized the name more than any other writer.

The Elephant Story

The story of how Alabama became associated with the "elephant" goes back to the 1930 season when Coach Wallace Wade had assembled a great football team.

On October 8, 1930, sports writer Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal wrote a story of the Alabama-Mississippi game he had witnessed in Tuscaloosa four days earlier. Strupper wrote, "That Alabama team of 1930 is a typical Wade machine, powerful, big, tough, fast, aggressive, well-schooled in fundamentals, and the best blocking team for this early in the season that I have ever seen. When those big brutes hit you I mean you go down and stay down, often for an additional two minutes.

"Coach Wade started his second team that was plenty big and they went right to their knitting scoring a touchdown in the first quarter against one of the best fighting small lines that I have seen. For Ole Miss was truly battling the big boys for every inch of ground.

"At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity.

"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."

Strupper and other writers continued to refer to the Alabama linemen as "Red Elephants," the color referring to the crimson jerseys.

The 1930 team posted an overall 10-0 record. It shut out eight opponents and allowed only 13 points all season while scoring 217. The "Red Elephants" rolled over Washington State 24-0 in the Rose Bowl and were declared National Champions.

Football's Origin at Alabama

Alabama's first game was played in Birmingham on Friday afternoon, Nov. 11, 1892, at the old Lakeview Park. Opposition was furnished by a picked team from Professor Taylor's school and Birmingham high schools, with Alabama winning, 56-0. Early teams were a bit tougher than current squads, it seems, as the following afternoon Alabama played the Birmingham Athletic Club, losing 5-4 when Ross, of B.A.C., kicked a 65-yard field goal. Impossible though it may seem, this field goal was listed as a collegiate record at one time and Birmingham papers of the day featured its distance in writeups of the game.

The gridiron sport rapidly caught the students' fancy and the game became a favorite with University athletes. In 1896 the University's board of trustees passed a rule forbidding athletic teams from traveling off the campus. The following season only one game was played and in 1898 football was abandoned at Alabama. Student opposition to the ruling was so strong that the trustees lifeted the travel ban and football was resumed in 1899, to continue without interruption until the first World War forced cancellation of the 1918 games.

Alabama first gained national recognition in 1922 when the University of Pennsylvania was defeated, 9-7, in Philadelphia. 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 Rose Bowl invitation. On Jan. 1, 1926, an unheralded, underrated team from Tuscaloosa came from behind to upset Washington, 20-19, in the Rose Bowl and established a precedent of colorful play that Crimson Tide teams have continued to uphold.

Million Dollar Band

The University of Alabama "Million Dollar Band" is an exciting part of the Crimson Tide spirit and tradition. Comprised of over 330 students with various majors and interests, the band is the largest single organization on campus. Participation in the Marching Band enables members to continue their involvement in a quality musical program while socializing and traveling with a large cross-section of students.

The Nationally recognized "Million Dollar Band" is widely known for its colorful half-time presentations and has appeared on national television more often than any other college band. Sports Illustrated magazine has listed the "Million Dollar Band" as one of the top three college bands in the nation. In addition, the 1992 September issue of Southern Living magazine selected the "Million Dollar Band" as one of the top 10 most outstanding bands in the South.

The "Million Dollar Band" began as a military band in 1914. In twenty years it grew to become the marching unit for halftime presentations under the "Father of the Million Dollar Band", Colonel Carleton K. Butler. Today, the "Million Dollar Band" is one of the finest and most famous college marching units in the country.

How did we get such a high price?

The name "Million Dollar Band" was bestowed upon us in 1922 by W. C. "Champ" Pickens, an Alabama alumnus and football manager in 1896. Accounts of how the name evolved vary. In the 1948 Alabama football media guide, it is described this way:

At the time the band was named (1922), it was having a hard struggle. The only way they could get to Georgia Tech for a game was by soliciting funds from the merchants. They usually had to ride all night in a day coach, and we thought it was swell when we finally got a tourist sleeper and put two to a lower and two to an upper berth." Thus, because of the fund raising prowess, Pickens called the group the "Million Dollar Band.

During that particular Georgia Tech game, won by the Yellow Jackets 33-7, an Atlanta sportswriter commented to Pickens, "You don't have much of a team, what do you have at Alabama?" Pickens replied, "A Million Dollar Band."