A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN NEW ORLEANS--38 YEARS AGO

          A National Championship game will be played in New Orleans Monday night.  Alabama will play LSU with the winner being crowned the champion of college football.  I will watch the game and pull for Alabama to win, but my mind will wander back some 38 years, to December 31, 1973, when Alabama played for another National Championship in New Orleans.  I remember it well because I was there.

        The game was the Sugar Bowl, played in massive old Tulane Stadium before the Superdome was even conceived.  Alabama was undefeated and entered the game ranked number 1.  Their opponent was Notre Dame who was also undefeated and ranked number 2.  This was a long time before the BCS was designed to have the number one and two teams play, such a game didn’t happen very often in those days. 

        It was the first time the two football powerhouses had played in their storied histories.  For years Notre Dame would not play in bowl games.  Alabama, on the other hand, had played in more bowls than any team in history, beginning with their big Rose Bowl wins back in the 1920s. 

        Alabama fans despised Notre Dame.  They were still seething from the 1966 game between the Irish and Michigan State.  That was also a number 1 vs. number 2 game, although it was in the regular season.  Alabama, also undefeated was number 3, and wanted one team to lose that game to elevate the Tide to number 2 and hope the other team was knocked out in a bowl game, but it was not to be.  The game was tied 10-10 late in the fourth quarter when Notre Dame got the ball and Ara Parseghian, the ND coach, famously ran out the clock to play for a tie.  (There was no overtime back then)  When the season ended, Notre Dame and Michigan State were still number one and 2, and an undefeated Alabama team that destroyed Ne1ska in the Sugar Bowl was forced to settle for number 3. 

        The two legendary coaches, Parseghian and Bear Bryant were coaching against each other for the first time.  The game was the talk of college football.  The buildup to the game was incredible, and this was long before 24 hour sports talk radio and ESPN.  ABC was televising the game and decided to use their Monday Night Football broadcast team to heighten the drama.  Howard Cosell and Dandy Don Meredith probably didn’t know a lot about college football, but their presence added to the spectacular nature of the game. 

        My Daddy somehow got tickets and we got in the car and we headed for New Orleans on the 30th of December.  I thought both of my brothers went to the game with us but Jon, my youngest brother, says we left him and our grandmother in Tuscaloosa with family.  I’m sure his memory is better than mine.  I remember the long drive through Mississippi on our way to the Louisiana Delta.  Rather than stay in an expensive New Orleans hotel, my Daddy found some little inexpensive motel in Slidell, just outside of New Orleans.  There were some other people from our hometown staying there.  I remember the night before the game Dr. Bob Sittason, who was a good friend of my Dad and also a personal friend of the Bear, stopped by the room.  He told my Dad, “Bear looks mighty worried.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this.”  I took this as a bad sign. 

        We never took in any of the festivities surrounding the game.  We were there to see a football game and that was all.  I think there was a Sugar Bowl parade that afternoon but we didn’t see it.  We left early to get to the stadium that was on the Tulane University campus.  The weather was bad in New Orleans that day, but had cleared up before game-time. 

        Our seats were in the end zone, but that didn’t matter.   We were there.  I even had a movie camera to record some of the game.  I’m sure those old movies are packed away somewhere. 

        One thing I remember was before the game they had a Catholic Priest from Birmingham to offer the invocation—a pretty good compromise for Alabama vs. Notre Dame.  And, an invocation before a football game!   What a novel idea!

        The game went back and forth.  Alabama had taken the lead only to have Notre Dame run the ensuing kickoff all the way back for the touchdown.  Notre Dame was ahead 24-23 late in the fourth quarter when Alabama punted and downed the ball inside the five yard line.  Notre Dame could not run against the stout Alabama defense and the roar from the crowd was deafening as Notre Dame faced a third and long from their own one.  All Alabama had to do was stop them on third down, force a punt from the end zone that could be blocked, but if not the Tide would have the ball in great field position to set up a winning field goal.  Then the unthinkable happened, the ND quarterback retreated back in the end zone and threw a long pass that was complete for a first down.  Notre Dame easily ran out the clock and won the game and the championship, 24-23. 

        I was devastated.  It was one thing to lose, but to lose in such a fashion and to Notre Dame of all teams!  Surely, Alabama should have won.  They outplayed Notre Dame.  The referees called a bad game.  It was a conspiracy.  Anything to face the truth that Alabama lost the game. 

        The drive back home was long and quiet.  When we reached Tuscaloosa, we stopped at a steak house (a Golden Corral type).  There was a fellow there by the name of T-Bone.  My brother and I thought that was funny and we started laughing.  Then Daddy started laughing.  My youngest brother Jon said when we picked him up, all we could do was say T-Bone and then we would laugh so hard we couldn’t finish the story.  He said it was years later before he found out what was so funny. 

        Looking back on that game 38 years ago, I don’t really think that much about the fact that Alabama lost.  What I remember was a long journey with my father and my brother, Robert.  I wish I could call them and reminisce about that journey.  I wonder if we would start laughing at the mention of T-Bone.  I would love to talk to Daddy about the current National Championship game in New Orleans.  But I can’t do that.  My Daddy is gone, my brother is gone---That is much more painful than losing a national championship.  I wish we could be together and laugh again.