rbr reading room Stories - Roll 'Bama Roll
RBR Reading Room: Third Saturday in October
Since the expansion of the Southeastern Conference in 1992, The Third Saturday in October is a name without a tether in reality. Rather than designate a specific weekend on the fall football schedule when the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers would meet on the gridiron it has simply...
RBR Reading Room: The Basketball Tide
Even when Alabama basketball’s star has shined the brightest, it has been understandably obscured by the glare of Crimson Tide football. Yet, make no mistake, Alabama basketball has shone quite well indeed. In the Southeast Conference the Crimson Tide trail only Kentucky in basketball wins,...
RBR Reading Room: America's Quarterback
The Alabama Legends video that precedes every Crimson Tide contest in Bryant-Denny Stadium contains no game clips of Bart Starr. Despite being recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks at the pro level, his legacy at the University of Alabama is all but overlooked due to the unfortunate...
RBR Reading Room: The Crimson Tide
The worst thing about Clyde Bolton’s book on the history of Alabama football, The Crimson Tide, has to be the cover. The 1987 version of the book boasts the grinning visage of Bill Curry – not exactly the standard of excellence the former Birmingham News sportswriter was trying to...
RBR Reading Room: Oh, How They Played the Game
The sheer number of transformations that have occurred to the game of football over the last 141 years makes it seem an alien contest when held in comparison to the modern version. Even worse, our perception of the early era of football is marred as much by its bungled recounting as it is by the...
RBR Reading Room: Always Alabama
The format of Don Wade’s 2006 book, Always Alabama: A History of Crimson Tide Football, suggests the selling point of the tome will be the photographs. In this instance, though, you really need to purchase it for the articles. This is a very well written account of the 119-year history of...
RBR Reading Room: FANtastic
There are a lot of folks who claim to be die-hard Alabama football fans but few people back it up with the devotion shown by Tony Brandino. Between 1954 and 1997, the self-proclaimed residential hardware consultant from Birmingham attended 500 consecutive Crimson Tide football games. (He also took...
RBR Reading Room: Boys of Autumn/We Believe...
With the death of Paul W. Bryant now almost three decades behind us, the ability to understand the actual stature of the man to those around him is ebbing as well. By all accounts, he possessed a powerful physical presence that game film and online video snippets capture in only the barest...
RBR Reading Room: Bowl Bama Bowl
In the 119-year history of Alabama football, the Crimson Tide have played in an NCAA-leading 58 bowl games. To a certain extent the team’s 32-22-3 bowl game record presents a history of the program and so it’s no surprise to find someone has already taken that tack to write it. Clyde...
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