HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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DECEMBER 2012
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most important job in the state, after
university president and just ahead of
governor. The rest of the state (at least the
part that doesn’t truckwithAuburn) takes
its cues from the coach. A detail-oriented
andmethodicalman, Saban talks endlessly
about the process, and it’s not uncommon
to hear everyone from plumbers to state
senators parroting his lines.
Replacing the Bear hasn’t been easy.
There have been seven or eight head
coaches in the past three decades—
depending on whether you count Mike
Price, who was fired before ever coaching
a game—as well as a number of scandals
off the field. But with the old-school
Saban, the Tide today have the perfect
coach to satisfy a demanding congrega-
tion. In an era of garish uniforms and
flashy offenses, the Tide wear crimson
and white, only crimson and white, and
combine a smashmouth offense with a
destructive defense.
Saban’s teams are relentlessly disci-
plined machines. Eight players from
last year’s championship squad were
chosen in the NFL dra , including four
first-rounders. His players go to class
and graduate, an obvious point of pride
on campus. And, of course, they win.
AS GAME TIME APPROACHES,
the sights
of the SEC come alive. Among these are
the coeds in brightly colored sundresses
who stride through the Quad on platform
heels or in cowboyboots. Nothingwill stop
the women of Alabama from appearing
in their traffic-stopping finest (not even
injury: I count half a dozen knee braces
and just as many walking boots).
Many of the ’Bama boys are dressed in
the standarduniform—khaki pants, white
oxford shirt, blue blazer, red tie—and sport
the samemoppishhaircut. Somewear but-
tons proclaiming “Beat Ole Miss”; others
opt for “Go to Hell, Auburn”; a few go with
the more sensible “Beat Everybody.”
That Alabama-Auburn rivalry, inciden-
tally, is not to be taken lightly. A marriage
between graduates of the two institutions
is known locally as a house divided. I hap-
pen upon a ’Bama woman who is married
to an Auburn man. When I ask if this
causes problems, she says, “Oh, hell no. I’d
never fly that flag. He just needed a good
woman to help him see the light.”
Across the street from the Quad, at
the university president’s antebellum
mansion, congressmen, judges, univer-
sity trustees and assorted other power
brokers gather at a pregame reception to
talk football and politics until the blaring
of police sirens announces the team bus’
approach to the stadium. “Kind of makes
you chokedup,” one immaculately dressed
partygoer tells me. She appears to be
genuinely teary.
By nightfall, the excitement in the sta-
dium has reached a fever pitch, matching
the stifling humidity. When a highlight
montage plays, the eyes of 100,000 people
are locked on four massive video screens.
For fans, these moments from the Tide’s
storied history are as memorable as, say,
their ownwedding day: VanTiffin’s 52-yard
field goal that beat Auburn, Cornelius
Benne ’s sackagainstNotreDame, George
Teague’s strip against Miami in the 1993
Sugar Bowl, and so on.
When the gamefinallykicks off, a young
womanbehindmeinthestandscannolon-
ger take it. She screams above the throaty
din, “I LOVE FOOOOOOOTBAAAAAWL!”
A few turn their heads and reply, simply,
“
Roll Tide.”
PAUL FLANNERY,
who teaches journalism
at Boston University (a school with no
football team), has suddenly developed an
overwhelming desire to wear houndstooth.
THE FAN
||
culture
75
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