Alabama Football: Tide and Aggies bound by deep history

There may have never been two programs so uniquely connected than Alabama Football and the Texas A&M Aggies. The history runs deep, though with time it has faded in the minds of most fans.

The two teams have played just 13 times, going back to a Cotton Bowl in 1942. The Aggies have won only twice. A 1968 Cotton Bowl win that Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant helped them celebrate, despite being the losing coach. At midfield after the game, Bryant, with a big smile on his face, hefted Aggies’ head coach Gene Stallings up in the air. Stallings was one of Bear’s boys at Texas A&M – a Junction Boy, in fact.

That long-ago episode in Aggies’ football history – was a preseason camp, in such brutal conditions and so severely executed by Bryant, a replication might lead to criminal charges today. The Aggies that survived mostly loved, Bryant. They all respected him. In fairness to Bryant’s memory, many of the stories told and written about that camp have been disproven. The infamous story told in a book of Bryant head-butting a player into unconsciousness, was later refuted by the player.

Junction Boys honored by Alabama Football at Bryant-Denny

Many of the ‘Junction Boys’ were honored at Bryant-Denny a few seasons ago. The now old men, stood on the field of a stadium co-named for their coach and were given a heartfelt standing ovation.

The names of the men that so influenced the history of both schools have become less known over time. There are Bryant and Stallings, of course, and John David Crowe, Bryant’s only player to win a Heisman, and later an Alabama football assistant coach. Alabama Crimson Tide player, Jackie Sherrill, after a successful run at Pitt, was the Aggies head coach for seven seasons in the 1980s. Another Junction Boy and Bryant assistant Dee Powell was on the staff of three Crimson Tide National Championship teams.  Bryant’s A&M trainer, Smokey Harper followed his boss to Tuscaloosa. There were other coaches connected to both schools; Sam Bailey, Bobby Marks, Dennis Franchione and Curley Hallman.

Hallman grew up in Northport and would walk to Tide games and sell cokes or whatever it took to get in. He loved the Tide and became a good high school player but Bryant did not offer him a scholarship. Gene Stallings did, and Hallman intercepted two Kenny Stabler passes in the Aggies’ 1968 Cotton Bowl win. Twice he was an Alabama assistant in Tuscaloosa and also a head coach at Southern Mississippi and LSU.

Tradition does not always carry its weight. That can’t be said about the deep history between the Tide and the Aggies. More about the history between tho schools is available here.

For some Alabama football fans, the strongest memory about the two programs is the 2012 Johnny Manziel game in Tuscaloosa. For others, that game is just a blip in a memorable Crimson Tide and Aggies history.