History of the Crimson Tide
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. |
Our 12 National Titles
Wallace Wade 1925
Wallace Wade 1926
Wallace Wade 1930
Frank Thomas 1934
Frank Thomas 1941
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1961
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1964
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1965
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1973
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1978
Paul "Bear" Bryant 1979
Gene Stallings 1992
THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
1933 1961 1972 1978
1934 1964 1973 1979
1937 1965 1974 1981
1945 1966 1975 1989
1953 1971 1977 1992
1999
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Where did the Elephant come from?
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."
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