Insanity from the Late 1980's
by outsidethesidelines on Jul 8, 2010 1:31 PM CDT
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I've been doing some browsing through news archives the past few weeks, in particular with a focus on the mid-to-late 1980's and the Bill Curry era, and I tell you it is just amazing the level of insanity that you come across. Sometimes you wonder where Alabama gets this reputation for being such a potentially deranged environment, and sometimes you think much of that is an unfounded stereotype. And then you run across things where it's suddenly perfectly clear as to why many assign Alabama that reputation.
For example, most people realize now that the Curry hiring was unpopular, but I do think it probably gets lost in time with regard to just how unpopular it really was. For example, several former Alabama players spoke out publicly against the hiring -- Lee Roy Jordan chief among them -- so much so, in fact, that university president Joab Thomas wrote a public letter to all former players explaining why he hired Curry. And the outrage had a more militant strand, too, as Thomas also reported receiving death threats over the hire. Now, admittedly, Thomas did not view them to be serious threats to his life, but even so no one ever questioned the fact that he actually received them.
And, of course, the craziness only ensued from there.
Fast forward to 1988, immediately after the homecoming loss to Ole Miss and the subsequent brick incident allegation (random side note: interestingly enough, many reports from the time refer to it being a rock, not a brick, thus making the story much more plausible). After that embarrassing loss, Tim Brando reported that Curry was on his way out at Alabama, and that the three early candidates for his replacement were Howard Schnellenberger, Danny Ford, and Jackie Sherrill. The rumor mill would not go away, and finally after a month of institutional silence the UA Board of Trustees passed on a resolution declaring that they intended to honor the remainder of Curry's contract.
After the 15-10 loss to Auburn later that year in the 1988 Iron Bowl, the rumor mill went nuts again. This time it was ESPN reporting that Curry would be forced out by prominent boosters and that Alabama would hire then-Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson as his replacement. For the following week, yet again, UA remained silent, neither officially denying the rumors or giving a vote of confidence to Curry. Finally, a week later, on the day of the Alabama v. Texas A&M game -- remember, that was the "Hurricane Bowl" that Curry himself effectively had postponed thanks to the threat of Hurricane Gilbert -- interim UA president Roger Sayers said that Curry would return for 1989. And, of course, the insanity continued the next year, where once again Sayers had to re-confirm that Curry's job was indeed safe after Steve Sloan resigned as athletics director in August of 1989.
And, naturally, the insanity prevailed all the way to the final days of the Curry era. The day after beating Southern Miss to move to 10-0 on the season, with the Iron Bowl the only remaining game on the 1989 schedule, Curry issued an official press release stating that several Alabama football players had received death threats via both telephone and mail. Only one problem... Curry never mentioned a single word of any of it beforehand to then athletics director Hootie Ingram. Needless to say, when Hootie found out about the death threats when the press release made its way to his desk, he almost exploded with rage.
And that's how those stereotypes get started, folks.
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That's a rogue's gallery
the three early candidates for his replacement were Howard Schnellenberger, Danny Ford, and Jackie Sherrill
You have to think Alabama would have been a more interesting place with those guys.
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 2:03 PM CDT reply actions
Jackie Sherrill is downright inspiring!
Since joining the Big Ten, Penn State has a record of 103-2 in games where they score 30 points or more. Of course, which college football team doesn't have a similar record.
poor guy...
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 4:02 PM CDT up reply actions
Hootie is a good guy
He goes to my parent’s church. He’s still doing fairly good from what I’ve heard.
Fumbles. It was always Fumbles
im a little confused
our current players on the 89 squad received death threats before the auburn game? even though they were 10-0. If that’s the case that is insanity, i’ve never heard that before, but that was before my time. good read btw
It's nigh impossible to prove a negative
but I say he’s a liar or, to be more charitable, Curry had a way of recalling events in their most sensational interpretation.
by TETRAGRAMMATON on Jul 8, 2010 2:24 PM CDT up reply actions
Never heard this myself...
and this was definately not before my time. Question who were the threats coming from??Auburn fans?
I remember it.
It was widely reported within the state the week before the game. However, as I remember (and someone else mentioned on this thread), the threats were directed towards Curry and, yes, the implication was that they were from Auburn fans. I don’t know how much play it got outside the state. It only added more crazy to the circus atmosphere that week with the Tide coming in undefeated to the first Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare.
I remember these times well.
I was a freshman at Alabama in 1989. Curry simply was not a good fit at Alabama. He could not beat Auburn.
We take this stuff way too seriously
And we’re not the only ones (looking at you, humans). When it comes to college football fans are downright nasty to one another. Rude. Hateful.
To be honest with you, it makes me wish some omnipotent being would come and stand between all sides, smack their squabbling hands away, shake a menacing finger, and cancel the stupid sport until everyone learns to watch it appropriately.
www.totteringworld.com
Then what would we do
without our Youtube jackassery and annual SEC football-related homicide?
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 3:06 PM CDT up reply actions
We could find a Vegan-friendly coffee shop
curl up on a couple of extra large bean bag chairs, sip Chai tea, eat churros, and listen to Joan Baez. At the end of the CD we could hit replay. Or we could just talk. Just enjoy the ambiance and talk.
www.totteringworld.com
by Bamagrad on Jul 8, 2010 3:22 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
You
shouldn’t drink coffee. The workers who pick the beans work under very harsh conditions. Jaun Valdez is just an actor… I know that now….
"A demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." -H. L. Mencken
That's horrible
No wonder Latin Americans hate us. I’m going to organize a boycott. Gonna go down to the local grocery store and give them hell, get in some people’s faces about this. Injustice like this is exactly why we need to turn our attention from football to civil rights’ violations around the world.
www.totteringworld.com
or you could drop out of MIT...
come down to some latin american country, join a leftist terrorist organization, get caught trying to bomb their congress, convicted and waste everyone’s time for twenty years claiming it’s a violation of your rights.
Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.
This
fan base is insane. I have come across far too many arrogant, hick bama fans that truly believe Bama will go undefeated every year and should no matter what…..It pisses me off to no end.
That said, we are only that way because a large part of the fanbase was spoiled with years and years of dominance. Duke fans are that way now, UK basketball fans were absolutely terrible for years (and still are), UCLA fans….SC fans…the list goes on and on. When programs dominate for long stretches of time, fans tend to get just a tad out of control with expectations…Just ask a Yankee fan.
"You stay bought into it when you see your opponent sucking air and physically failing and you're still fit and ready and you know you own his ass."- Corey Reamer speaking about Coach Cochran
I wouldn't say that I expect an undefeated season every year...
for instance, I think that this season it is possible for Bama to go…..say…..8-4. ;-)
That white stuff on the top of chickencrap...... is chickencrap.
YOUR MAFF IS RONG!!!
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 6:52 PM CDT up reply actions
If we're going to gripe,
I’d like to bitch about the folks who spit out “Well, Coach Bryant always did X”…The man’s been dead for 3 decades. An integral legend? Absolutely. Part of the heart and soul of Alabama football, the University, the State? Damn skippy. But, we were relevant for 30 years before he came back to “momma”. No one man, one player, one era makes or breaks our history.
Take the long view, folks, and respect the man, the coach, and the legend; but let him rest in peace, and the only way to do that is to appreciate this coach and this year’s team.
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 6:51 PM CDT up reply actions
that's exactly what Bear would say.
That white stuff on the top of chickencrap...... is chickencrap.
I will shank you…
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 7:03 PM CDT up reply actions
so violent...
you are the one that threw the brick aren’t you?
That white stuff on the top of chickencrap...... is chickencrap.
by thrashcan on Jul 8, 2010 7:11 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Coach Bryant would NEVER say...
well, yeah, he just might’ve.
"Let's go be champions, boys!" - Greg McElroy
(Formerly SugarBowl93)
by RememberTheRoseBowl on Jul 9, 2010 5:27 PM CDT up reply actions
On a serious note
Curry was just another bad hire. You’d think it’d be easy to get somebody good at a school like Alabama, but it’s clearly much more difficult.
Too many folks have too much of a stake in the hiring process, I guess. Too many agendas, too many big shots who think they know what’s best, etc.
Bill Curry? Jesus…Bill F’ing Curry? What’d they do before that one, put their heads in paper bags full of glue and inhale deeply.
(Brad Pitt voice from True Romance)This guy, wait ’til you see this guy. This is gonna blow their minds!
Perkins was Bryant’s choice, if I’m not mistaken, so that makes sense. But Curry was an odd hire. Why didn’t we give the Eagles and Jets a hand and just hire Rich Kotite? How about Bruce Coslet?
Jesus…Bill Curry? I’m all for going outside of the University to make a hire, but Bill Curry? Danny Ford was a Bama guy and he’d won a title at Clemson. Howard Schwarzennegger was a Bryant guy. He built the U. Bowden was building monsters. Jimmy Johnson was a recruiting wiz. Screw it, hire Dr. Lou. Wasn’t he at Minnesota then?
But those people hired Bill Curry? Sounds to me like the fanatics directed their rage at the wrong building.
Now let’s go further…Gene Stallings was questionable. Let’s be fair, he was average at Texas A&M. He was shitty with the Phoenician Cardinals. Yet, that was their answer?
(In Nic Cage’s accent from Con Air): Coach Stallings knows the culture at the University of Alabama. He coached with Coach Bryant and he knows the kind of student athlete we recruit and he knows the importance of our rivalries. He wants to beat Auburn.
Okay, great logic. Considering we could have had Bobby Bowden, Ford, Sherill, Schwartzenpecker…none of those guys would have wanted to beat Auburn?
Then they replace Stallings with none other than Mike DuBose. Bill Oliver went to Auburn so obviously we needed a loyal guy like DuBose. The D-line coach? The man with the personality and charisma of…of a D-line coach. That was the guy to run the show?
Then they went for outsiders. Fran and Price F it up, so they go back to the fam-damn-ily with Shula. And then Mal Moore was ready to hire Rich Rodriguez. That was the guy Mal wanted? If he’d gone through with it Saban would have never happened and who knows what would have happened in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
In my book, the fanatics threw the brick through the wrong damn window.
In the future I vote for Outsidethesidelines, Todd, and Pete Holiday to be in charge of hiring the next head coach (unless Saban picks his successor).
They should because the people in charge have F’ed it up every damn time.
www.totteringworld.com
by Bamagrad on Jul 8, 2010 7:59 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs
You, sir, get a rec...
Because it is all so damned true. When the Bryant guys are finally gone, root and stem, and we back away from the croneyism that worked in the 60s and 70s, then — and only then — will our athletic department take a step into the world the rest of us ostensibly inhabit.
"Hush now, let it go now. I know it's time to go. Time to let this fall from my hands" VNV Nation, "From My Hands"
by Stuck in the Plains on Jul 8, 2010 8:49 PM CDT up reply actions
you're being charitable to Coach Stallings
he lost two-thirds of his games at A&M
we made him the head coach way too young
I’ll never understand the hate for Curry. Was it just that he didn’t beat Auburn? I’ve heard people say fans hated him b/c he was a Georgia Tech grad, and Bear hated Yellow Jackets, so they hated Curry. Was that it? Didn’t he win the SEC in 1989?
Oh, I’ve always heard that Hurricane Bowl game was bogus; not a single drop of rain fell in College Station the day the game was originally scheduled to be played. The hurricane was just an excuse to move the game to later in the season, when your inexperienced QB would be more mature and have a better command of the offense.
Was it just that he didn't beat Auburn?
Yes. Imagine that A&M never beat Texas. Oh…nevermind….
As to Curry’s real motive for moving the game…worked, didn’t it?
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 8, 2010 11:36 PM CDT up reply actions
we've beaten texas just as many times in the last 5 years
as ’Bama has beaten Auburn
sad but true.
It seems to me that y’all hated him before the 1989 season, and even if he had gone undefeated, y’all would still hate him. There just seems to be a never-ending well of hatred for Curry, and I don’t understand it. Y’all hate Franchione, for obvious reasons, and I understand that; I hate Franchione more than y’all do, for even more obvious reasons. I just don’t get the out-and-out loathing for Curry.
As for the not beating the arch rival thing, John Cooper had the same issue at Ohio State, but I don’t think their fans hate him like y’all do Curry.
Let me back up...
…‘cause I’ve only helped to reinforce an unfortunate stereotype. First, there are/were plenty of Alabama fans who hate(d) Curry because he played at Georgia Tech. Coach Bryant once had to wear a helmet in their stadium to protect himself from the stuff they were hurling at him, and you might want to listen to our fight song. Anyway, that was/is unfair, but true.
Personally, despite what my earlier post sounds like, I’ve never hated Curry. I was a fan of his as a young man, and — at the time — I thought it was a shame that he chose to walk away. His record improved each season, he won a share of the SEC title, and he recruited quite well.
Since he left, and since I’ve aged, I’ve still some respect for the man, but I’m glad he left. There’s no question his replacement was a superior coach and a better man.
Anyway, I don’t get the out-and-out loathing for Curry some have, either. Sorry to add to the confusion.
But, yeah, if anyone ever again loses three in a row to the barn, I’m for ’em packing off.
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 9, 2010 3:57 PM CDT up reply actions
after looking at the lyrics
I’m guessing that was written when Georgia Tech was in the SEC, and Georgia was ’Bama’s big out-of-state rival, similar to what Tennessee is now?
Yes...
…and sort of. There are Bulldogs at MSU as well, so the lyricist kinda killed two dogs with one stone.
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 11, 2010 9:32 PM CDT up reply actions
Living in Tuscaloosa from '83-'91...
…I recall the Hurricane Bowl well. The storm predictions weren’t favorable, so the decision got made on Monday-Tuesday (travel plans, etc.) before the original game date. Lo and behold, later in the week the storm turned, and they coulda played it anyway. But the choice was made.
Live from the Varsity, during the game, ESPN did some fan shots and live comments. Just before 2nd half kickoff, as they were cutting away, the mic caught someone clearly: “TIM BRANDO SUCKS!” They never cut back with audio after that, only video of celebrating.
The Curry brick/rock incident came after the ’88 homecoming loss to Ole Miss. A dark day in our football history. Later that night, the band at the party I attended announced: “Final: LSU 7, Auburn 6.”
Epic post...
… this is why you’re my RBR man crush.
Man crush out of the way, though, a few points…
- As the Aggie mentions, Stallings was terrible at A&M. One winning season in the better part of a decade in College Station. The A&M people may have loved him, but his hiring was a terrible decision that set their program back a decade.
- Bryant did not want Perkins. He actually didn’t want to endorse anyone, so he didn’t make a push for anyone, but he was pretty open that he thought Stallings should be the hire.
- The Curry hire really only makes sense when you view it from the perspective of a focus on academics and institutional change. His on-field football record was terrible, but the powers that be at the time could not have cared less about that. Our players were academically terrible at the time, and I’ve ran across quite a bit on that front. I might have a post up in that regard later.
Either way, that’s all nitpicking / random junk. Epic post. Totally recommended.
"Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself." -- Milton Friedman
by outsidethesidelines on Jul 8, 2010 11:16 PM CDT up reply actions
Mal...
…never wanted Rich Rodriguez…Mal was pressured to hire Rich Rodriguez….
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 8, 2010 11:38 PM CDT up reply actions
Whether or not it's true...
… and only Mal himself knows (and he’s not telling), a hell of a lot of people believe that.
"Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself." -- Milton Friedman
by outsidethesidelines on Jul 8, 2010 11:40 PM CDT up reply actions
Well, what Mal has said...
…is that the man he wanted is the man we’ve got.
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 9, 2010 3:59 PM CDT up reply actions
And with an NC
trophy in hand, any AD would be saying that! I’m not doubting Mal, I’m just saying that if anyone does, they’ll never get “the truth” now that Saban brought us a crystal football.
"Let's go be champions, boys!" - Greg McElroy
(Formerly SugarBowl93)
by RememberTheRoseBowl on Jul 9, 2010 5:38 PM CDT up reply actions
Let me clarify...
…Mal said that when he hired him….
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jul 11, 2010 9:33 PM CDT up reply actions
Phoenician Cardinals
A side note…I had a Phoenix Cardinals t-shirt when I was in high school and one day I wore it to my Latin class. The Latin teacher (some Euro-trash lady with a burr) saw it and in a really gay voice asked, “What are the Phoenician Cardinals?”
Changed my life.
www.totteringworld.com
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