Crimson Tide football history

Crimson what?

In the program's earlier days, the Tide was called the varsity or the Crimson White, after the school's colors. The Tide's first nickname was the 'The Thin Red Line.' The name was used until 1906, and then the era of 'The Crimson Tide' began.

The name was supposedly first used by Hugh Roberts, the former editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald. He used the term when describing an Alabama-Auburn game played in Birmingham in 1907, which was the last match-up between the teams until 1948.

The game was played in a sea of mud and Auburn was the favorite to win. Bama held Auburn to a 6-6 tie and later gained the name 'Crimson Tide.' The tradition of the name, 'Crimson Tide' was probably popularized by former Birmingham News editor, Zipp Newman.

Source: University of Alabama

In addition to the 12 "recognized" national championships owned by Alabama, the Official NCAA Football Records Book recognizes Alabama as producing national champions in 1945, 1962, 1966, 1975 and 1977. In 1945, the 10-0 Tide was recognized as champions with Army by the National Championship Foundation. The 1962 Crimson Tide, 10-1, was chosen by Billingsley and Sagarin, while the 1966 team, 11-0, was selected by Berryman. The 11-1 Tide team in 1975, along with Ohio State, was selected by Matthews. In 1977, Football Research picked Alabama, 11-1, and Notre Dame as co-national champions.

The tale goes back to the Tide's 1930 season when the Tide had an impressive 10-0 record and shut out eight opponents and allowed only 13 points all season while scoring 217points themselves record under Coach Wallace Wade.

Atlanta Journal sports writer Everett Strupper wrote about the Alabama-Mississippi game that he had witnessed four day earlier in Tuscaloosa. "That Alabama team of 1930 is a typical Wade machine, powerful, big, tough, fast and 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 the 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."

Across the country, the Alabama linemen became known as the "Red Elephants."

The Million Dollar Band began life in 1914 as a fourteen-member unit under Dr. Gustav Wittig, who led the group for 3 years. It became a military band in 1917 and was led by students until 1927, when Captain H. H. Turner assumed command. Captain Turner was succeeded in 1935 by Colonel Carleton K. Butler, who carried the band to national prominence.

The name "Million Dollar Band" was bestowed in 1922 by W. C. "Champ" Pickens, an Alabama alumnus. Accounts of how the name evolved vary. In the 1948 Alabama football media guide, it was 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 band's fund raising prowess, Pickens called it the "Million Dollar Band." During that same Georgia Tech game in 1922 (won 33-7 by the Tech Yellow Jackets), 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."