Alabama’s National Championship Games: 1980 Sugar Bowl

Alabama came into the 1980 Sugar Bowl with an 11-0 record and ranked No. 2 in the nation after a close call in their final regular season game against Auburn. It would take an impressive showing by the Tide to win their second straight national title.

Arkansas was 10-1, co-champions of the Southwest Conference and ranked fourth in the polls. Alabama’s defense was the number one ranked defense in the country and the Alabama offense was ranked number four. Alabama was loaded with talent, and was thought to be one of Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s most talented teams. Arkansas was also very talented, led by legendary Coach Lou Holtz.

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The hype leading to the game began to grate on Coach Bryant’s nerves. During a press conference prior to the game, a reporter asked Coach Bryant about the polls. A clearly agitated Bryant said, “Polls, polls, polls that’s all I’ve heard about. I just want to beat Arkansas… by one point or a half point, I don’t care. Then I’ll let y’all (the press) take care of the polls.” One always knew where they stood with Coach Bryant.

This Sugar Bowl was played on New Year’s Day, 1980 instead of the traditional New Year’s Eve time slot it had held for the past few years. Since New Orleans was only three hours from my parent’s home in Foley, we loaded up a conversion van and headed to New Orleans early New Year’s Morning. In the van was my Dad, Leon Chaudron of Foley, our long-time friend and attorney Tommy Underwood and his son Gavin, and our friends from Daphne, Howie Wachter and his son Chason, with me behind the wheel. It was a quick and lively drive across I-10 into New Orleans.

The atmosphere for the game was electric. Because Arkansas’ colors were also red, the entire Super Dome was bathed in bright red. I had never been to an Arkansas game before, so it was quite an experience hearing the Arkansas faithful “calling the hogs.” I remember asking my Dad, “What are they saying?” What I thought I heard was correct; it was “Wooo, Pig, Sooooie!”

About 12 years after this game, I was in the office of Kevin Scanlon of Stephens, Inc. in Little Rock. Kevin was the Arkansas quarterback for the Sugar Bowl against Alabama. While in his office, Kevin told me a fascinating story about the events immediately before and right after the game started. Prior to the game, Coach Lou Holtz was giving one of his now-famous pep talks that we see him give during the “Dr. Lou” segment of ESPN Thursday Night College Football.

Kevin told me Coach Holtz was in rare form, and really worked up for the game. Right before they burst out the locker room door, Coach Holtz asked if anyone had anything to say. A reserve running back named George Hull raised his hand. Coach Holtz nodded for Hull to speak.

“Coach, I had a dream last night. In that dream, we lost the coin toss and Alabama elected to receive. We kicked off to them, I ran down the field, knocked the ball loose from the kick returner and I recovered the fumble. We went on to win the game!”

Coach Holtz then said “Well George, that’s great, but that’s not what I had in mind.” With that, Arkansas took the field. When Alabama won the toss, Hull looked at Coach Holtz and said, “told ya.” Holtz just nodded. Arkansas kicked off to Alabama’s Don McNeil, who returned the kick and fumbled. The ball was recovered by George Hull, who ran off the field telling Holtz, “I told you, I TOLD YOU!”

With the ball deep in Alabama territory, Scanlon walked up to Coach Holtz and said, “What do you want to call for the first play, Coach?” Holtz replied, “Hell, I don’t know, go ask Hull, he seems to know what is going to happen!”

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Alabama held Arkansas to a field goal, and Arkansas led 3-0. The Tide’s wishbone attack was ready for the young Arkansas defense. Alabama Offensive Coordinator Mal Moore developed a game plan to take advantage of the young and aggressive Arkansas defense. The first way he did this was to show a myriad of formations off the Alabama wishbone. During the year, the Tide had seldom showed a wide variety of formations, except to occasionally run two split ends with a full house wishbone formation, and also occasionally two tight ends.

For the Arkansas game, Coach Moore had Alabama line up in a double wing formation with both running backs on the outside hip of the two offensive tackles. This formation allowed Alabama to run almost all of their basic running plays, but also enabled them to put two more receivers into pass patterns quickly, or seal off the end on sweeps and option plays. Coach Moore also had Alabama line up in unbalanced formations with the tight end and split end on the same side of the formation, and when not in the double wing set, they would put the fullback in motion.

Coach Holtz said after the game they expected the unbalanced, but didn’t expect the double wing formation. This double wing concept would later evolve into the double slot option attack now used with great success by Georgia Tech, Navy and quite a few other teams. It isn’t likely that Coach Moore was the first one to use it, but he was the first one to demonstrate the entire wishbone offense could be run from the double slot formation.

Alabama’s game plan also called for a heavy dose of counter and counter option plays to slow down the aggressive pursuit of the Arkansas defense. The Alabama offense was led by quarterback Steadman Shealy and halfback Major Ogilvie.

After the Arkansas field goal, Alabama marched down the field on an eight-play, 82-yard drive, capped off by a 22-yard touchdown by game MVP, Major Ogilvie. Bama would dominate the first half and led 17-3 going into the half.

To start the second half, Arkansas quarterback Kevin Scanlon got hot, and led the Hogs to a touchdown to cut the Bama lead to 17-9, after missing the two-point conversion attempt. Alabama had dominated, yet the Hogs had rallied to make a real game out of it.

After stopping Alabama, Arkansas had the ball, but was forced to punt. The Arkansas punter boomed a punt that was downed on the Alabama two yard line. The “Woooo Pig Soooie” cheers were deafening. If Arkansas could hold Alabama to a three-and-out, the Hogs would get the ball back with very good field position and have a chance to tie the game with a touchdown and two point conversion. Momentum had swung in favor of the Hogs and they smelled an upset.

Alabama answered the call. With methodical precision, the Tide marched down the field on a 98-yard drive. Fullback Steve Whitman took it the last 12 yards on what Alabama called “Left, 43 Read” to go ahead 24-9. The drive broke the will of Arkansas, and it would be the final score of the game.

No one knew it at the time, but this would be Coach Bryant’s last National Championship at Alabama. The 1979-’80 team was, in my opinion, Coach Bryant’s best ever on both sides of the ball. Upon completion of the Sugar Bowl, the team lifted Coach Bryant on their shoulders and carried him off the field, victorious. I believe the ride Coach Bryant received that afternoon would be one he would always remember. In just over two years from this glorious day, Coach Bryant would pass away.

Up next we’ll visit the 1992 Sugar Bowl, Alabama vs. Miami, in arguably the greatest defensive performance in Crimson Tide history.