Your Friday Hoo Doo Thread: Texas A&M

Our beloved Tide travels to College Station, TX this week, to play against a ranked team in one of the most difficult environments in the country. We can’t mess around this week, y’all.

Give us your best and please send your content to be featured in future Hoo Doo posts to RBRhoodoo@gmail.com. We are getting dangerously low on Hoo Doo content, y’all.

Ground rules:

We know that you miss the Friday Hoo Doo thread, and that we are at least partly to blame for Alabama’s poor injury luck. The problem is, any one person has only so many stories to tell. I do not have the time or creativity to make something up every week just so we can have a thread.

I do, however, have an idea and modest proposal. None of these traditions are really about the writers anyway, they belong to the community at large. Why not feature some of your own infamous moments, in full color?

I have created a new email account, RBRhoodoo@gmail.com, for the express purpose of receiving Hoo Doo photo and video submissions. We will review them and select one each week during the season to feature. As usual, readers will comment below with their own tales.

The only criteria, being that this is a #familyblawg and all, is that all submissions must be PG rated. Please include a quick story behind the visual and permission to post. Videos will be published to Youtube if you send me a file, or you can send a link if it is already on the web somewhere that will allow an embed. Photos can generally be uploaded with no issues. Also, tell me how you wish to be credited, by name or your RBR username.

We’re breaking our rules here and not requiring a photo/video submission because, well, this tale needs to be told. From reader Warren Holladay:

It was the fall of 1971, it was my freshman year at the Capstone. Our beloved Crimson Tide had sucker punched Southern California to open the season with the wish bone offense. There was a great celebration on campus for the victory, as the tide by our standards had experienced a couple of woeful seasons on the gridiron. The fountain in front of Rose Administration had been spiked with soap and billowed foam for quite some time. Students disgruntled with professors had sent them into the bubble bath.

Friday, October 1, 1971 was my 18^th birthday. My older brother and a couple of friends decided we needed to celebrate this momentous occasion. Being from Mississippi, it was legal for me to consume alcohol, beer anyway, in my home state. I became draft eligible and we as a nation were still involved in the Vietnam War. A road trip to Columbus, MS, was determined to be an appropriate means to mark this important coming of age.

Following the Friday night trip to the University Cafeteria, we loaded up my brother’s 1966 Cutlass for the trip west. As we arrived in Columbus, we came upon a drinking establishment. To say that this place was a dive would be overly generous. But we were allowed to drink large quantities of beer and shout Roll Tide with no one threatening our lives. We left this establishment and found another of equal quality to consume even more beer.

Finally after closing this 2^nd Honky Tonk, we returned east to Tuscaloosa. We had a safe ride back to the University though I am certain Highway 82 began to act silly. I was not concerned. My older brother was driving and I was certain he could do no wrong.

We wake up on the glorious morning of October 2^nd. The Crimson Tide has an afternoon game against the Ole Miss Rebels. The Rebels had no identity crisis at this time. The same four of us prepare for the trip to Legion Field. To prepare for the trip we first empty the Cutlass of many empty beer cans, and we fill the gas tank with 50 cent per gallon gasoline.

This was my first trip to Legion Field. This was a particularly special weekend. I was looking forward to a beat down of Ole Miss to do some serious smack talk when I returned home for a visit.

We load up the Cutlass, 1971 no one even thinks about a seat belt. We head up University, which becomes Highway 11, no Interstate 59/20, at this time. We are cruising along making good time heading for the game. Visibility is unlimited and traffic is flowing as far as we can see.

As we come into Bessemer traffic begins to get a bit more congested. Highway patrol is out directing traffic. Highway 11 has increased to 4 lanes with a median between North and South bound sides. We are moving comfortably in the left lane. As we discuss the various important topics of the day. The legal purchase of beer, the pros and cons of mood altering substances of alcohol vs weed.

Traffic is quite congested but moving at a good clip. Then all of a sudden the left lane comes to a halt. My brother checks and sees no chance of merging right decides to take the median over rear ending the car in front. This maneuver goes remarkably well for a short time. We crash into a concrete culvert that was in the tall grass unbeknown to us. The Cutlass is flipped over onto its roof. I am in the back seat and land squarely on my head, no damage; We can all crawl out of the car except for the person riding in the passenger side of the front seat. He is quite tall and is wedged in and could not move. We were able to get leverage from outside and help him out of the vehicle.

Thankfully no one is hurt badly. Ambulance arrives and attendants tell my brother he needs a couple of stitches on cut over his eye. Rather than pay for the ambulance ride to the hospital, brother asks for a ride from the police. No drugs or alcohol in the car so the police are willing to do this. While we ride in the police car to the hospital, Bessemer police arrange to have our car towed.

After my brother gets his stitches, we get a ride to the Greyhound station. From there we ride the bus back to Tuscaloosa. Thus ends my almost first trip to Legion Field. The Tide crushed Ole Miss, 40-6.

Roll Tide

I most certainly will take a 40-6 result for the road team this weekend, Warren. Thanks so much for sharing.

May this, along with all of your confessions in the comment section, be sufficient to get us through another week with a comfortable victory and no major injuries.

Hoo Doo away, for the good of the team, and think about any photos or videos you have to submit to Football Loki in the future.

Roll Tide.