I’ve been blessed to have attended many of Alabama’s greatest games. My parents were big Alabama fans, so it was natural for me to be an Alabama fan from as early as I can remember. The first ‘big’ game I ever attended was the 1973 Sugar Bowl. Alabama came into the game 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in all the polls. In fact, they were named the National Champion by the UPI before the game.
It was before this game that Coach Bryant gave us one of his best quotes. Prior to the Auburn game, it was announced that Alabama would face Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. When asked about it, Coach Bryant gave his famous retort: “Don’t get me wrong, I would love to beat Notre Dame. But what I really want to do is beat that cow college.” Coach Bryant left us with many great quotes, but none better than this one.
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The 1973 Sugar Bowl was played in the old Tulane Stadium, as the Superdome didn’t open until 1976. The Sugar Bowl was often played on New Year’s Eve, so this game was played the evening of December 31st, 1973. Notre Dame was led by coaching legend Ara Parseghian and was ranked No. 2 in the country. Alabama was ranked Number 1 in the polls. It was to be an epic battle that was called “The Game of the Century.” It lived up to its billing.
It was a dreadful night for football. It was sleeting, windy, and very cold. I sat in the lower deck of the endzone with my mom and dad, our friends Floyd and Melba Hamburg of Foley, and Guy and Helen Moman of Tuscaloosa. It was miserable, but I didn’t care, it was Alabama vs. Notre Dame!
My mom and Melba were freezing, so they left (egads!) and went back to our hotel to watch the game on TV. Guy and Helen Moman were two of my favorite people in the world. Helen complained about being cold, so Guy took off his Crimson sport coat and gave it to Helen and suggested she enjoy the game. Tragically, Helen would die in a plane crash in 1978.
Guy introduced me to my lovely bride while we were both students at Alabama in the early ’80s. Guy passed away a couple of years ago and was survived by his wife, Mary Harmon Tyson Moman. If that name sounds familiar, it is. She is the granddaughter of Coach Bryant and a family friend to this day. Many of seats I sat in during these epic games were due to tickets my family obtained from Guy Moman. He was one of the finest gentlemen I’ve ever met. Much of my love of the University of Alabama is because of him.
Alabama’s vaunted wishbone attack was led by quarterback Gary Rutledge (older brother of future Tide QB Jeff Rutledge) and a talented sophomore QB from Mobile, Richard Todd. Todd was a great athlete and a quirky character who would wear Chuck Taylor Converse HiTop Basketball shoes on artificial turf. Richard would go on to be a great pro quarterback for the New York Jets. His son, Gator, was a recent member of the Alabama golf team.
Notre Dame had a great game plan and held Alabama to negative yardage in the first quarter and led 14-10 at the half. The lead would change six times during the game. Trailing 21-17, Alabama offensive coordinator Mal Moore dialed up a trick play based on a flaw in the Notre Dame defense. While preparing the game plan for the game, Coach Moore noticed when a team lined up in an unbalanced line (what Alabama called “End Over”), Notre Dame would rotate their secondary aggressively towards the strong side of the formation. This was confirmed several times during the game.
In the fourth quarter, Moore dialed up his play to take advantage of this weakness. With Richard Todd at QB, Moore lined up the Tide in a full house wishbone formation, with the tight end and split end to the right of the formation. Todd took the snap, and turned and pitched the ball to left halfback Mike Stock on the Alabama version of the student body sweep made famous by the University of Southern California. The play call was “Right,End Over, 68 throwback.” As Stock moved right with the pitch, Todd circled out and moved down the left sideline, alone. Stock pulled up and threw a perfect strike to Todd, who walked into the end zone untouched. It was the best play call I’ve ever seen.
Alabama was ahead 23-21, with the extra point, it would be 24-21. However, Alabama’s Bill Davis missed the extra point. To this day I can remember Guy Moman yelling “Oh No! He MISSED it!”. It would come back to haunt us.
Notre Dame took the ball and drove down the field and kicked a field goal to go ahead 24-23 with 4:26 left in the game. Alabama took the ball and drove to midfield where they took a sack and were forced to punt on 4th and 20. Alabama punter Greg Gant boomed a 69 yard punt, pinning Notre Dame back to the Notre Dame 2-yard line. But wait, there was a flag. Notre Dame was flagged for roughing the kicker, a fifteen yard penalty. The Bama fans were thrilled to get the ball back. However, it would be 4th and 5 from midfield, so Coach Bryant decided to decline the penalty and take the play, pinning Notre Dame back and let our defense make a play. Two runs into the Alabama line gained less than two yards. His strategy was looking terrific. On 3rd and 8, Notre Dame lined up in a two tight end running formation. One of the tight ends was Dave Casper, future Oakland Raider Pro Bowl Tight End. Coach Parseghian decided to try to win the game. Quarterback Tom Clemens executed a play action pass and dropped back in his own end zone. Alabama defensive end M
ike Raines just missed sacking Clemens, who threw a perfect strike to Notre Dame receiver Robin Weber for a 36 yard gain. Notre Dame was able to run out the clock to win the game 24-23.
After the game, Coach Bryant said “we didn’t lose, we just ran out of time.” This was the only National Championship game I witnessed where Alabama lost. However, it remains one of the greatest games I have attended, ranking just behind the Alabama-Penn State game in 1978 as my all time favorite game.