Second of two parts
I have for 1961. no memory of one national championship football game. The Rose Bowl was the most important national game of the season, but teams I kept up with never played in Pasadena. I saw things like Ohio State vs. Oregon and Washington vs. Wisconsin, and at the time thought it was the best of the best.
But in 1961, Alabama, four years removed from being the doormat of the Southeast Conference, went undefeated and won the national championship. That title fulfilled a promise Coach Paul Bryant had made to his first class of recruits and paved the way for two decades of national dominance through the Crimson Tide.
By the time I joined the Alabama Sports Bureau in 1970, Alabama was claiming three national championships, 1961-64-65. By the end of the 1970s, there were three more added, 1973-78-79. All were from the poll era of national championship selection, the Associated Press poll of journalists and the United Press International coaches poll.
I can not remember when it happened or over how long a period, and that is not essential in any case, but at one point Alabama added significantly to its list of national championship seasons … without playing a game. Wayne Atcheson had become director of sports information under Ray Perkins and Wayne did what I considered a very good thing. He spent a lot of time researching and discovering years – somewhat prior to the AP interview – in which Alabama football teams were declared national champions.
The first was easy, the 1925 team from Alabama under Wallace Wade went undefeated and was the first Southern team invited to the Rose Bowl, where Bama crossed Washington, 20-19. That Tide team went 10-0 with eight shutout wins.
That, there is no problem.
Atcheson also found support for the undefeated 1926 team that tied with Stanford in the Rose Bowl, the Crimson Tide of 1930 that went 10-0 and defeated Washington State in the Rose Bowl, and the 1934 team of Coach Frank Thomas, 10-0 and winner over Stanford in the Rose Bowl. There were others with a claim to titles in those years, but none with Bama’s references.
But Athcheson went a step too far. It’s not that he found no source that Alabama’s 1941 team was named a national champion, but he would be wise to ignore it. It was called the Houlgate System. Even in Atcheson’s defense at the time, it was believed that a publication Bama had also chosen, but that turned out to be a publication with the Houlgate System.
That Alabama team went 9-2, including an invisible 29-21 victory over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. It was not a bad Tide team. It defeated Georgia with future Heisman Trophy winners Frank Sinkwich and Tennessee, who finished second in the Southeastern Conference. But Alabama lost to SEC champion Mississippi State and to Vanderbilt and was ranked 20th in the final AP poll.
Speaking of LSU, that’s what led me to this topic.
One would think they would be amazed at their great season, 15-0, national championship, winner of Heisman Trophy. That it was a surprise to see that a Tigers fan complained about “some of the title of the grandmothers … esp 1941 … I’m just GLAD LSUs title claims cover 1958, 2003, 2007 and 2019. D ‘ “There is no debate about those years that any Tiger fan can be proud of.”
It was stated that you will not lose two games and win the national championship. (Well, okay, LSU took pride in 2007.)
He also mentioned asterisks by winning Alabama. I have checked and there are none through the 53 Tide wins against LSU (which has almost half as many against Bama, 26).
No wonder Bama lives in their heads.
All that apart, though, the point is made again. Alabama’s legitimate national championships are diminished by the 1941 team that celebrates that designation. I’ve seen it myself brought up by national journalists who need to know better, and said like things: “some of the national championships in Alabama are suspect, like 1941 …”
It is not suspected. It’s fraudulent. No one I’ve ever talked to has any idea what the Houlgate System was, but my idea is that it was very flawed. But that does not mean that others are.
When what is now known as the Mal Moore Athletics Building was renovated, Moore – the athletics director – asked me to serve on a committee to design an area to commemorate the Tide National Championships. I made two recommendations that were accepted – one that left enough room for more national championships (which proved cautious with the purchase of Nick Saban as head football coach) and two that the area is called the Hall of Champions.
Meanwhile, I had pleaded with Moore for a while to erase the 1941 championship from those who claimed Bama. Along with the testimony of a mutual and highly respected friend, Moore was definitely persuaded to accept our advice.
But then, an unexpected development sabotaged our effort. Mike Shula was the head football coach of Alabama and Sylvester Croom had taken over at Mississippi State. One of Bama’s spring awards was named for Croom, a former Crimson Tide star. Shula decided to change the name of the award. Later he would say that he just wanted to name it after different people in different years, but that did not happen true.
What it did do was convince Moore that he did not want to make the change from eliminating the 1941 National Championship, while Alabama’s emotions were high about the attempted purge of Croom’s name from the Award Commitment to Excellence. Award.
Alabama fans are probably over that. There’s no reason to allow the wrong recording of 1941 to continue as an unnecessary flurry on Alabama’s extraordinary record of national championship seasons.
That would leave Bama with 16, which is enough, especially since no one but Alabama counts 1941.
