The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football’s Most Elusive Prize Keith Dunnavant Thomas Dunne Books 1st edition

Jan 31

During the turbulent battles over issues such as civil rights and Vietnam in the mid-1960s, the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team, led by legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, had its own causebecoming the first team in modern college history to win the national championship for three straight years. In this solid if somewhat overlong study of the Tide’s quest, Dunnavant expands upon his earlier Bryant biography, Coach, to explore how national politics and collegiate sports inevitably collided. While the bulk of the book delivers insightful profiles of the team’s working-class players and fast-paced looks at the team’s unbeaten season, it also convincingly argues that Alabama’s image as reflecting “establishment America” was skewed by “the poisonous climate” of Gov. George Wallace’s segregationist policies. But in a provocative account of a late-season meeting with Notre Dame, Dunnavant names his story’s true villains: Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian, who, as Dunnavant sees it, played for a tie, sitting “on the ball to avoid a turnover” instead of playing to win”the most cynical act in college football history”and the sportswriters who voted “media darling” Notre Dame the national champion over a team from “a state seen by many Americans as a national pariah.” (Sept.)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This book fortunately is more than its title would imply, being a deeper, broader portrait of the celebrated but flawed University of Alabama football teams coached by Bear Bryant in the mid-1960s. While author Dunnavant, who has already written a full biography of Bryant (Coach, 1996), ostensibly focuses on that 1967 team–a group that was undefeated but was, controversially, segregated–he reveals the sheer willfulness that marked Bryant’s teams over the coach’s 25-season tenure. The author also places that 1967 season into rich historical context, which saw the state of Alabama and its governor, George Wallace, vainly leading the fight nationwide against civil rights. Dunnavant too readily excuses Bryant, who abided the segregation, for his role in that system. But he makes clear that segregation probably cost the undefeated Tide the 1967 championship to Notre Dame, which tied one game that season by letting the clock run out rather than having the valor to go for the win. Alan Moores
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved

“Keith Dunnavant’s triumph is that he takes us into the heart of Alabama, into the darkness and the light, and there we see Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler, Ray Perkins, and their band of brothers play football for Bear Bryant the way life should be lived, at full throttle, indomitably.”
—Dave Kindred, author of Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship

The Missing Ring is more than a football book. It is both a story of a changing era and of an extraordinary team on a championship quest.

Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured twenty-five conference titles, finished thirty-four times among the country’s top ten, and played in fifty-three bowl games.

The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football’s Most Elusive Prize

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania

St. John’s account of following the University of Alabama’s football team as a part of the team’s fanatical legion of tailgaters is just as much fun as the book’s title (words to a school chant). As St. John, an Alabama native who writes for the New York Times, tries to join Bama RV nation, he spends five months obsessing about every tiny detail associated with Alabama football and, in the process, comes into contact with a slew of good ol’ boys, well-to-do entrepreneurs and the most hated man in Alabama. Despite his own passion for Bama football, St. John is an outsider and must go to the extreme, like buying his own dilapidated RV (astutely nicknamed “The Hawg”), to be completely accepted by the hardcore RV-owning regulars. Driving the country roads from Gainesville to Nashville, St. John uncovers the ugly, quirky and splendid qualities of both football fans and the states below the Mason-Dixon line. But this book is more than a beer and barbecuefueled travelogue. St. John also explores the sociological and physical effects of being a rabid sports fan. These journalistic asides contrast nicely with St. John’s superstitious, obsessed sports-fan persona, which rules much of this amusing and insightful book.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

What is it about sports that turns otherwise sane people into raving lunatics? Why does winning compel people to tear down goal posts, and losing, to drown themselves in bad keg beer? In short, why do fans care?

In search of answers, Warren St. John seeks out the roving community of RVers who follow the Alabama Crimson Tide from game to game. A movable feast of Weber grills and Igloo coolers, these are hard-core football fans who arrive on Wednesday for Saturdays game: The Reeses, who skipped their own daughters wedding because it coincided with a Bama game; Ray Pradat, the Episcopal minister who watches the games on a television beside his altar while performing weddings; and John Ed, the wheeling and dealing ticket scalper whose access to good seats gives him power on par with the governor. In no time at all, St. John buys an RV and joins the caravan for a full football season, chronicling the world of the extreme fan and learning that in the shadow of the stadium, it can all begin to seem strangely normal.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is not only a hilarious travel story, but a cultural anthropology of fans that goes a long way toward demystifying the universal urge to take sides and to win.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania

Thomas Dunne Books 1st editionKeith Dunnavant

Comments

The CAT

January 31st, 2011 at 9:18 AM


Does a #3 ranked football team from 40 years ago deserve an entire book devoted to it? Absolutely! Any college football fan who is old enough to remember the 1966 season knows the story. Paul Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide of Alabama had won National Championships in 1961, 1964, and 1965. The Tide entered the 1966 season with the chance to become the first college football team to win three consecutive National Championships. This was not to be, however. By late October Notre Dame was ranked #1 and Michigan State #2. The two teams played to a 10-10 tie on November 19, 1966, in what was billed as the game of the century. The tie delighted Alabama fans, but amazingly neither team dropped in the polls. Notre Dame and Michigan State finished their seasons with no loses and one tie. Meanwhile, Alabama, led by quarterback Kenny Stabler and a defense that was almost impossible to score upon, completed a perfect season and defeated a good Nebraska team 34-7 in the Sugar Bowl. In the end Alabama’s perfect record (the only perfect record that year) was not good enough. Alabama placed third in the final polls.
The Missing Ring is the story of the 1966 season, the year that haunts Alabama fans to this day. The book is not a diatribe about not winning a championship. Author Keith Dunnavant tells us how Coach Bryant molded a group of young men into one of the most dominant college football teams of all time. Along the way Dunnavant exposes some truths that will cause the politically correct crowd to squirm uncomfortably in their faux-leather recliners. Alabama was not awarded the National Championship for a variety of reasons, none of which had anything to do with football.
We will never know if Notre Dame and Michigan State were better teams than Alabama. It doesn’t matter, there was only one undefeated and untied team in the nation in 1966. Alabama was the defending National Champion, started the season #1, and never faltered. Since the origins of preseason polling, no team has ever started #1, finished the season undefeated, and not been named the National Champion, except Alabama in 1966. After reading The Missing Ring you still won’t know which team was best, but you will know which team deserved the 1966 National Championship. Dunnavant’s well-researched and excellent book will appeal to all serious fans of college football, not just Alabama fans.
yeah– but

January 31st, 2011 at 9:56 AM


One of the best sports books of our time…St.John was raised an Alabama man, and a good Alabama man…His Columbia education has served him well….he has, as evidenced by this book, the ability to be inside something, to convey the flesh, blood, spirit and emotion of the Alabama RV scene and, at the same time, step back, analyze it and put it in context with the larger world. Truly outstanding book. Truly outstanding. Every fan of college football, especially SEC football, will enjoy this book…Those who are trying to understand the phenomena of college football, especially in the South, will find this book especially enjoyable, entertaining and informative. Well done, St. John, Well done. Coach Bryant would be proud. Your book “aint nothing but a winner…” P.S. War Eagle!
james Cordroy

January 31st, 2011 at 10:54 AM


Alabama was ripped off in 1966 and this book proves the point.

Never again will ND get away with such a fiasco.
giftcardblogger

January 31st, 2011 at 11:11 AM


This book’s subtitle is “How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football’s Most Elusive Prize.” The Tide were the defending back-to-back national champions in 1966. They were ranked first in both polls as the season began. They finished the season undefeated and untied – yet managed to end up ranked third behind Notre Dame and Michigan State, who had played each other to a 10-10 tie in the regular season. This book was intended to explore why that took place.

Dunnavant posits two reasons. The first is the most common argument: Notre Dame has been the most popular team in the country since the Jazz Age and routinely places higher in the polls than schools with superior records because they are the darlings of predominantly northern and eastern sportswriters. Irish head coach Ara Parseghian decided to play to preserve the tie against MSU – to sit on the ball with two minutes left to play – rather than fight for the win. His detractors claim this is because he knew they would be treated well by the pollsters in spite of the decision. He was right.

The second argument is that the season occured during the height of the civil rights movement and there was a media bias against the still-segregated Crimson Tide team and against the entire state of Alabama, the bastion of Bull Connor and George Wallace. He believes the team fell from first place simply because of politics even before Parseghian’s Machiavellian move.

Virtually no one who wears Crimson will argue with the first point. Many who were not alive at the time might not have considered the second but it makes sense given the climate of 1966. All that could have been covered in a book half this size.

But the ‘The Missing Ring’ also seeks to illustrate why the Alabama team deserved the title, not just why the other two schools didn’t. It is filled with wonderful details about the players and coaches who comprised one of the best teams in college football history and the system Paul Bryant used to create it. Each chapter has a theme and spotlights players and games from the 1966 season that exemplify it. Dunnavant does a great job of setting the atmosphere of the times both on campus and in the state of Alabama and paints colorful portraits of many young men who have become mere names in the record books but are still alive to share anecdotes and attitudes.

My only misgivings about this book are Dunnavant’s tendency to repeat himself, often verbatim (I lost count of how many times he used the phrase “Bryant used this tactic to great effect in molding a team into champions” – often on facing pages), his often clumsy attempts at foreshadowing, and his unabashed boosterism. I’m aware he’s an alum (although that fact is mentioned nowhere in the book or on it’s dustjacket) but if he is going to build an effective case that Alabama was robbed of a threepeat he must try to at least feign objectivity. Dunnavant shows no such restraint when he arrives at the conclusion of the book. As he recounts Ara Parseghian’s admittedly gutless decision to sit on the ball and trust his team’s fortune to the pollsters’ sycophantic relationship with Notre Dame, Dunnavant bursts into outright apoplexy, calling Parseghian everything but an Armenian-American football coach. He sounds more like a blogger than a journalist.

There were plenty of people to quote if he wanted to include the (accurate) labels gutless, cynical, cowardly, and shameful. Instead, he uses them himself. I kept wanting to reach through the book and grab Keith by the collar: “Don’t do it! Hold off! Show some class. Let the facts speak for themselves. It’ll just look like sour grapes if you go this route.” But alas, the deed was done. It’s like he had driven the ball the length of the field and into the edzone and then ruined it all with a penalty in the final seconds that negated the winning touchdown.

This was the only blemish on an otherwise fascinating book on Crimson Tide football history. I still recommend it, however, for the excellent player profiles.
Joe Blob

January 31st, 2011 at 12:38 PM


We like to think of sports as being something pure and simple, but of course it isn’t. From Hitler determined to show the world the superiority of the Aryan race (and being foiled by Jessee Owens) to the boycotts of the Summer Olympics by the United States in 1980 and by the Soviet Union in 1984, real world politics has intruded into the sports arena.

In this book Mr. Dunnavant writes about the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide coached by Bear Bryant and having arguably the best football team in the country. Despite having an undefeated season, they were not awarded the national championship.

The reason, according to Mr. Dunnavant was that the university got caught up in the integration battles of the time. Alabama had an all-white segregated team. And they were denied the championship. True? Quite possibly. Fair? Depends upon your point of view. You have to ask, if you were an African-American how would you have voted. And I note that in the pictures in the middle of the book there is not one of George Wallace refusing to admit negro (the word at the time) students to the university.

A fascinating book looking at that time in our history through a different set of glasses.
Banker Number

January 31st, 2011 at 1:19 PM


As with most Bama fans — and I am about as hard core Bama fan as one can get — who were alive for the 1966 season I agree with the basic premise that the Tide got cheated by the pollsters and politics. The Tide was the only unbeaten and untied team in the country, defending two-time champs, and the 1966 team had little to show for all their efforts. The Tide could have and should have been the first and to this date the only threepeat NCAA football champions.

Although I have vague memories of prior seasons, 1966 was especially special for me as that was when I began following the Tide religiously and probably will continue to do so until I die. I remember many of the games and events in the book. I especially remembered the Tennessee game that came within a missed field goal at the end of ruining the Tide’s claim on the national title. If that field goal had been good this book would have never been written. I also remembered Bear Bryant saying often that his 1966 team was his greatest.

So why do I give this book only three stars? Dunnavant tries to put a human face on the players who did everything they could do only to get stabbed in the back. No Bama fans were happy with the Tide finishing third and Bear Bryant was probably the most unhappy of all. But it happened. Yes, the 1966 Tide deserves recognition — as does other teams who feel similarly screwed — but it deserves recognition with dignity. This book whines constantly about how the Tide was cheated. It happened, it was not right, get over it. I realized Bear Bryant was unhappy but he got over it. Unless there was some way to go back and correct that injustice — I do not know of any — then recognize the 1966 Tide as a great team who lost out to politics. And it can be done without whining.
The CAT

January 31st, 2011 at 3:36 PM


Sports brings out the best and worst in a fan. It gives people a sense of belonging to a group, but can also encourage violence and uncouth behavior towards opposing fans.

The theme of this book for me was the need that people have to belong to something. In today’s fragmented and fast paced world, this is even more of a concern for people. St. John, a lifelong Alabama football fan, is able to gain entrance into people’s lives simply by supporting the same team as they do. The frenzied postings on the Bama Fan message board and the sense of togetherness these total strangers feel on game days further shows the need for belonging most of these people have. The way most of them are described, Bama football is the end all and be all for them.

St. John’s book also explores the dynamics of minority groups in a roundabout way. By traveling to opposing teams’ home cities, the Bama fans show themseleves to be a vocal and aggressive minority. Everywhere they go, Bama fans are ridiculed and derided for their football allegiance. The way that the Bama fans band together and repel the assaults and insults of their rivals can give the reader some insight into how and why sports teams’ fans can be such diehards.

This is a good book to give to the person in your family who can’t understand the dynamics of being a fan.
yeah– but

January 31st, 2011 at 4:13 PM


The author spent the autumn of 1999 following a successful University of Alabama football season and its loyal RV community. St. John grew up in Alabama rooting for the team before moving to New York City and eventually writing for the Times. His earnest prose consistently shows both his appreciation for the team and his fellow fans. He describes convoys of RVs appearing in town mid-week (for both home and away games) and the fans establishing their lavish setups in parking lots or campgrounds. St. John accompanies a married couple for the first few games before he buys his own thirdhand RV in midseason. While this book obviously holds more appeal for college football fans (esp. those of SEC teams), the game accounts rarely fill a page and the book instead focuses on the fans. The title refers to an favorite Alabama post-game chant.
College football fans: this specific Alabama season featured star running back Shaun Alexander and an embattered coach Mike Dubose.
james Cordroy

January 31st, 2011 at 5:12 PM


This book is ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL!! I grew up in Alabama, lived in Birmingham at one time, and went to school at the University, so I can absolutely picture the places and people. Not to mention I have gotten faaaaar too carried away in the emotion of many a Bama game. But even if you have no relation to Alabama – the school or the state – you will revel in the hilarity of this book. St. John writes with such passion, color, wit, sarcasm, and humor that I found myself busting out in laughter at least once a page. This is a must read!! Even if you’re not a sports fan you will be both amused and bemused by the quirky cast of Southern characters and diehard fans. Buy it, read it, and don’t miss a word!!
Blame Game

January 31st, 2011 at 7:02 PM


First, I have to confess that I have absolutely no interest in any kind of sports, especially college football — but I read this hilarious and fascinating book in one day. I loved St. John’s account of careening through the South in his R.V., with accounts of his conversations with other fans, the logistics of cadging the tickets, the etiquette of the tailgates and trailer lots, the traditions and superstitions surrounding what to wear to the games. St. John is a true fan himself, and a Southerner, so the book doesn’t have an annoying snarky tone; he’s part of what he describes.

Tom Wolfe provides a blurb for the book, and it is truly Wolfe-ian in its inclusion of the precise details that give an intense sub-culture its vitality.
Joe Blob

January 31st, 2011 at 8:29 PM


I am not a sports fan. This book is more a microcosm of southern culture than a discussion of 1966 Alabama football. It profiles the dedication of the young men involved, the tragedy of Jim Crow, and the rank discrimination against southerners that has existed for 150 years. This is a very enjoyable book…a real page turner.
Banker Number

January 31st, 2011 at 9:09 PM


Admittedly, this book is regional in nature, appealing to the ‘Bama fan of any age. Growing up in Birmingham, attending The University, and remaining a loyal Tide fan, I found this book hard to put down. It is a quick read. Being generally aware of this sequence of events during the 1966 season, I was enthralled at the background and behind the scenes information offered by the author.

The focus on Coach Bryant and his harshness in molding championship football teams has been well documented, but what strikes me in this book is the contrast in his admonition to do everything one can to be a champion and then letting the polls sort things out in a just manner. In this instance racism, regionality, prejudice, and primitive media capabilities prevented a true NCAA Football Champion. I felt sympathy for MY team…having done all to achieve a goal and STILL not getting the prize. A lifelong lesson at such a tender age!
I have read most of the books about Bear Bryant and Alabama football, but by far, this is the most entertaining of them all. If you are an Alabama fan or a follower of college football, I highly recommend this book. Those who could care less about SEC football and the sport in general might be better served by another subject. I would have scored this book Five Stars had it not been so regional in nature. I however loved every page. Roll Tide!!! BAW c.1976
The CAT

January 31st, 2011 at 11:26 PM


Let me say first of all that I really enjoyed this book. As an inside look at the great 66 team as well as the context of the times, I recommend it highly. On the other hand, I can’t agree that Bryant and his team were unfairly cheated out of a national championship. As good as the team was, the Tide’s schedule was hardly arduous, especially in light of its failure to include the two other top teams in the SEC that year, Georgia and Florida. Bear Bryant had done very well in the context of the league, but if Alabama had to go up against heavier teams with talented black athletes, I doubt the team would have fared as well. Regardless of efforts to pump up the reputation of the 66 Nebraska team, it was certainly not a great one by any means. If Alabama had played the two teams that it trailed in the 66 polls, it would probably have lost to Michigan State and almost definitely would have been beaten by Notre Dame. Either of those teams would have reduced the Tide’s running attack to non-existance and Stabler’s passing alone wouldn’t have been enough to compensate. Cecil Dowdy was a great player, but Bubba Smith took him apart in a post season all-star game. In short, a good big one beats a good little one every time. I can certainly understand, from their perspective at least, why Bama fans might feel cheated by the poll results. In the end, however, the Tide ended up about right where they belonged.
yeah– but

February 1st, 2011 at 12:04 AM


Warren St John’s book is well paced, funny and fascinating. It’s also incredibly well written, which is not surprising to anyone who enjoys his articles in the New York Times. What is surprising, however, was how engrossing Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer became to a non-football fan. I loved it and couldn’t put it down. An enjoyable, quick read for the fan in all of us.
james Cordroy

February 1st, 2011 at 1:02 AM


this is an interesting study of “fans”. Mr St John chose to follow the fans of the Crimson Tide during one footbal season but he attempts to analyze “what is a fan”… he could have easily chosen a hockey team or even a famous performer. He did however convince me I NEVER want to go anywherein an RV.
giftcardblogger

February 1st, 2011 at 1:19 AM


As a participant in the story, I was a little nervous about how it would appear in print. No problem there. I enjoyed reading Warren’s take on all of the personalities he encountered. His up and down moods through the games were a sight to see. He captured the feelings perfectly. I have recommended the book to friends that know nothing about Alabama football. They all look forward to reading about the mystique of those of us who follow Dixie’s Football Pride.
Cassandra

February 1st, 2011 at 4:12 AM


This book was so beautiful, I almost cried everytime I picked it up! For anybody who grew up in Alabama in the ’60s and ’70s, The Missing Ring is solid gold, taking you right back to the day. For younger fans, this story is an education in how the current system of rankings and bowl games came to be, as well as a primer in the Bryant mythology. If you think the BCS is a mess, read this book to find out just how much worse it used to be! ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!
Banker Number

February 1st, 2011 at 4:52 AM


I bought this book while visiting my Mom in Montgomery, Al. After a first couple of chapters I was thinking to myself “Great a boy who grows up in Alabama, but then goes to a school up north and is going to rag on Alabama football.” However I was pleasantly surprised. St. John actually makes you feel like that you are there at Bryant-Denny cheering on the Tide. I was taken back to my college days at the University. His book was not only realistic but was damn entertaning as well. Although, I am 1300 miles away from the Capstone, and no one really cares for Alabama football out here, I am still a Bama fan thru and thru. Keep up the good work Warren St. John, and ROLL TIDE
The CAT

February 1st, 2011 at 7:09 AM


Certainly arguing the merits of who is number 1 is always going to be a heated and fun topic and 1966 was a banner year for this argument .I was intrigued by the author’s premise that Alabama was “Robbed” of a title in 1966. I enjoyed the book but I felt in the end the argument is more emotional then based on fact. Bama was number three, they had a great season but I think in a head to head match up they would have lost to either Notre Dame or MSU. My Reasoning is this-

1-Notre Dame and MSU were better man for man. This is not an insult to Alabama, both MSU and Notre Dame would send loads of players to NFL greatness. both teams had two of the greatest defences ever in the History of college football, Notre Dame gave up 38 points total for the entire year and only two of those touchdowns given up were offensive. MSU’s 66 defence wasnt as good as their National Championship year of 1965 but still, only gave up 99 points, not to mention in the starting lineup were Bubba Smith, “Mad Dog” Thornhill, Jess Phillips and George Webster who should have won the Hiesman that year if it ever went to anyone other then a running back or quarterback. Man for man both teams were better over all and both teams rosters read like a who’s who of College and pro greats, I love Snake Stabler but really who else did Alabama have? Notre Dame had Allan Paige, Jim Lynch, Kevin Hardy, Pete Duranko, Terry Hanratty, Nick Eddy, Larry Conjar, Tom Seymour, Rocky Blier, Bob Kuchenberg and more I am not naming, MSU- Jimmy Raye, Bob Apisa, Gene Washington, Clint Jones,”Mad Dog” Thornhill, Bubba Smith, George Webster, Jess Phillips and more. Oh and if you are going to claim Bama only gave up 44 points I adress that below

2- I was intrigued about Bear Bryants offer to play Notre Dame before Bama’s bowl game, I would have loved to see this, but the auther claims that Notre Dame ducked this offer. Notre Dame was operating under a no post season rule that was really stupid at the time and Bear Bryant knew that the Irish could not accept even if it was legal, the Bear was really smart and knew how this would play in the press, cowardly yankees hiding from big bad Bama, but frankly this is an absurd argument, I wonder what the bear would have said if Ara had said “sure what do you say to a game in South Bend on December 15th? right he would have said no, probably becuase of the cold, also George Wallace might have had a problem with Allan Paige’s presance on the field so it wouldnt have happend anyway.
MSU was also hampered by an equally stupid no repeat rule for the rose bowl, which of course menat no post season, I have a hard time believing that MSU would not have Stomped Oregon in the rose bowl that year and Frankly Duffy Daughty was so desperate for a repeat National Championship that he would have jumped at the Bears offer if he had been allowed. not that the Bear offerd MSU a game.

3- That the press loves Notre Dame? true, the world is unfair, get used to it.

4- Scheduale. Bama played a really weak scheduale, a combined 51-61-1 record for the oppisistion, and lets face it the SEC in the 1960′s was not the SEC of today. Yeah Bama only gave up 44 points but Notre Dame gave up 38 against opponants who’s overall record was 54-46-2, in short Notre Dame played the hardest season. MSU opponants were 48-49-3 and played ND to a 10-10 tie and scored the most points on offense against Notre Dame.

5-The Spartans, while the book talks alot about Notre Dame, the other great team of 1966 Michigan State is all but ignored. This is a shame because MSU is a direct contrast to Alabama. Bama recruited locally while MSU was one of the first to recruit nationally. MSU’s Key Players were mostly African American or Hawaiian, Alabama’s…were not. MSU needed another game to prove they were better then Notre Dame and would have come out pumped up. Throw in the fact this was 1966 and George Wallace was the face of Alabama(Unfortunately) and that there were two great coachs in Duffy Daughty and Bear Bryant this would have been the match of the decade. it’s to bad we didnt get to see it. There are enough sub plots for five hour ESPN Outside the lines special, we the viewers were robbed by stupid rules. I am also pretty sure a umemployed Richard Nixon would have gone to the game and that would have just made everyone more paranoid. That being said I think Bubba Smith and Company would have shut down the Snake and the final score would have been something like 7-3 in favor of MSU but it would have been a hell of a game. If Only..I enjoyed the book and it’s team but in the end Bama was the 3rd best team in the country in 1966. Thank you sir for inspiring some fun research
yeah– but

February 1st, 2011 at 7:47 AM


Wonderful description of the 1966 season. Gives Coach Bryant’s management of the team and fills in background events that were used as an excuse to withhold the title. The step by step of events keeps you reading. Comments by the players makes you feel like you are there.
james Cordroy

February 1st, 2011 at 8:45 AM


As a grad of another SEC school who over the years has sufferred through many defeats at the hands of Alabama, I certainly don’t have any abiding love for the Crimson Tide and their fans. In fact, I enjoyed recently learning that Alabama had more “Walmart Fans” than any other school. A Wal Mart Fan is a fan who rather than being someone who attends the school is connected only by their wearing of the school paraphanalia purchased from Wal Mart.

All of the above aside, St. John’s book is a fun read for football fans , and even those who don’t get it about crazy fans. I’m sure that the book will be especially enjoyable for the Roll Tide crew. So, I defintiely recommend it.

In closing, Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Go to Hell Alabamer.
Simon Oldmann

February 1st, 2011 at 10:05 AM


The first two-thirds of this work provides an interesting and insightful tale of how a magical coach molded an amazing bunch of overachievers into a team that nearly won a third consecutive national championship in 1966. A nice book on an interesting piece of sports history. But after describing the crucial 10-10 tie between Michigan St. and Notre Dame, the author begins to sound like the president of the University of Alabama booster club and the League of South. (Note: the author’s bio on the back cover, at least in the paperback version, fails to mention that he attended Alabama). He leaves out facts that might cloud his thesis that Alabama, and the South in general, was put upon by northern liberals with a superiority complex. His use of sports facts is selective as well. For instance, while complaining that Notre Dame was awarded the national championship in 1966 before the bowls games were played, he fails to point out that two of the Alabama national championships (’64 and’73) were won in years in which they were awarded the titles before LOSING bowl games to Texas and Notre Dame. He actually mentions the fact that Notre Dame beat Alabama after the ’73 season, he just doesn’t mention his unjustly persecuted Crimson Tide had already been awarded at least a partial national championship. In general, the author seeks to re-enforce the belief by some Southern sports fans that Notre Dame and non-Southern teams have gotten “gift” championships over the years, while Alabama hasn’t gotten what it deserves. Alabama has been awarded the national championship at least a dozen times. It has a glorious football history, much of it built by the masterful motivation of Bear Bryant. For two-thirds of this book, the author tells that tale. His work could have done without the whining, preaching and cliched pop sociology.
Joe Blob

February 1st, 2011 at 11:32 AM


Alabama was snubbed in 1966 for one simple reason: it was,by preference, a segregated football team. The emerging leftist politics of the time could not tolerate it. It mattered not who was the best team, who had the best record, who played the best schedule, or who had won the most games, any of which criteria would have made the Tide no. 1, it only mattered that the fractious state of Alabama was still insisting on a segregated football team and a largely segregated society. The Tide had eleven wins (to ND’s and MSU’s eight apiece); the ONLY perfect record in the nation; the best QB in the country (Ken Stabler, compared to Hanratty of ND or Jimmy Raye of MSU); a blowout 35 to 6 bowl victory over a fine Nebraska team (neither ND or MSU even played in a bowl that year); and, of course, the best coach in America. But the polls said they could not be no. 1 because they had no black players. One could argue (meekly) that even this overwhelming preponderance of evidence cannot actually prove that Bama was the best team, but lacking a national playoff to decide it, we can only go on the evidence of who DESERVED it, and on that issue there can be no room for doubt. The true national champion that year, unfortunately, was political correctness.
And if Bama and ND had actully pklayed? My bet is on the Tide, by two or three touchdowns, This was the University of Alabama’s greatest team ever.
As a footnote, and in fairness, Alabama didn’t deserve the national championship of 1964; Texas beat Bama in the Orange Bowl that year, and Arkansas, the only team to beat Texas, beat Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, thereby becoming the only team in ’64 to complete a perfect season.
Banker Number

February 1st, 2011 at 12:13 PM


Warren did an excellent job of putting the reader right in the middle of the tailgate party or in the stadium for the closing seconds of the game. You don’t have to be a Crimson Tide fan to enjoy this book, I think any die hard fan can relate to Warren’s experiences following Alabama football.
The CAT

February 1st, 2011 at 2:30 PM


Warren St. John’s Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is a fascinating look at the fans of the University of Alabama’s football team and particularly those who RV to the games. Anybody who is a college football fan will enjoy the book. Your level of enthusiasm for your team may not match that of the Crimson Tide RV folks, but the Tide fans are fun to read about. You will learn about Bama Bombs, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, ticket brokering, and the world of the fans arriving at games days ahead of kickoff in the RVs. Read the book during football season and decide whether or not you would like to be part of the scene. Some will want to drive to Alabama and experience a game firsthand. Others will be horrified by the description of the whole experience. Give it a try.
Lily McCallister

February 1st, 2011 at 6:44 PM


Who hasn’t wanted to climb into their very own Hawg, complete with shag carpeting and fading football decals, and hit the road in the quest to answer questions such as: Why are fans crazy? Are fans crazy? Have they discovered the true essence of fellowship? Is that ref crazy?! Why not have another? St. John’s book is the perfect combination of travel book, social observation, philosophical tract, slice of Americana, sports column, historical perspective and humor. I have only a passing knowledge of sports, and I NEVER read the sports pages, yet I found this book immensely entertaining. St. John treats his fellow fans as comrades-in-arms – real people rather than easy caricatures – and the reader gains a true insight into the mind of the fan in the process of meeting them.
William D.

February 1st, 2011 at 8:15 PM


This book is an excellent read. Keith Dunnavant has not only written a sports book about the 1966 undefeated and untied University of Alabama football team, he has written a thought provoking book that answers for many why a two time defending NCAA champion was denied a third title.

In this book you will get to know the players and the sacrifices they made for the greatest coach in collegiate history. Some of you will hear for the first time the phrase “breaking your plate” which is intricately woven into the book in a way that will touch your heart and will make you want to know more about these special young men that were on this team.

Why was Alabama denied the championship in 1966 after having won the title in 1964 and 1965 and going undefeated and untied in 1966? Did politics play a role? Did the image the state of Alabama had in the eyes of the country have an influence in the voting for the eventual champion? All good questions and this book will make you ponder these and many more.

Buy this book you will not regret it. You will not be able to put it down!
giftcardblogger

February 1st, 2011 at 8:31 PM


As a writer myself, I admit I was a bit concerned when I first met Warren St. John in the RV lot before one of the games he tells about in this book. Concerned on two accounts.

First worry: He seemed to be a nice enough fellow, but he did work for the NY Times. That’s the way he was invariably introduced to everyone in the lot, sort of like politely pointing out a slightly addled third cousin at a family reunion. I assumed he would come at us serious college football fans (read: “crazy as a loon”) from the usual perspective. You know: rubes bearing rolls of toilet paper and a Tide detergent box impaled on a “plumber’s friend.” screaming crimson-tinged obscenities at anyone ignorant enough to root for anybody else.

Either that or, coming from where he did, he would miss the whole point, that these folks may act a bit peculiar when they pull their RVs into the Law Library lot on Wednesday before a Saturday game, but they are mostly salt-of-the-earth types, people you are proud to have in your army, just like millions of other folks who color their lives in pursuit of pastimes or allegiances that seem absolutely goofy to most of the rest of us right-thinking intellectuals. Certainly no different from rabid Red Sox or Cubs fans, the Dawg Pound in Cleveland or the crazies who show up for Raider games. Just different in the color of our face-paint and the poetry of our cheers. Our poison just happens to be 18-year-old young men on a college football field who proudly sweat and bleed while wearing our school colors. Not pro football, international soccer or widget collecting.

But then, it turns out that St. John is one of us. He understands. And yet he is a good enough reporter to tell the truth about us, warts and all, and do it in an informative and entertaining way.

There’s the rub. As a writer, I’m damned envious. Man, this guy can put us right in the middle of a tailgate party, a fourth-and-goal with the clock running down, or a scholarly dissertation on the nature of fandom in ancient Rome as it applies to college sports and make it all read like a lazy conversation over a Coors Light at a bar on the Tuscaloosa strip. St. John had me hooked right up front when he described Bear Bryant’s “old growth stature.” Bingo! That’s a goodie!

This, by the way, is not a college football book. No more than HUCK FINN is a book about a raft. This is a very funny, sometimes serious, often moving, and an always entertaining (and sometimes astonishing) examination of a phenomenon that surprisingly few have really tried to dissect before. I hope it helps others see why we do the things we do in the name of our beloved Crimson Tide, or whoever “our team” happens to be. Or gives us better insight into the psyches of the fans of the Red Sox, Cubs, Browns, and Raiders. Maybe even a glimpse into the thought processes of those poor, misguided souls who pull for the Tennessee Vols or Auburn Tigers.

No. Belay that. That would be asking too much of any book or writer.

Thanks, Warren. You took the ball over the top, into the end zone, and we’re huggin’ and high-fivin’ and lettin’ loose a rousing rendition of Rammer Jammer that they’ll hear all the way to wherever we tee up the ball next.
Cassandra

February 1st, 2011 at 11:24 PM


I am not a fan of Alabama, I do however understand the fervent fan world. Living in Columbus, Ohio, you can almost not avoid the intense Ohio State Buckeye support.
I found Rammer Jammer a fun book to read. The fans depicted by St. John were both endearing and understandable in their manis to support ‘Bama. I like that St. John did not come into their world as an absolute outside, he was already an ardent Alabama fan. To have done this otherwise would have come off as condesending and mocking at the expense of his subjects. I would recommend this as a good read for family members of those crazed fans of any sports team. It may help to shine a light on the mania of your loved one who devotes so much time and energy to their team.
Banker Number

February 2nd, 2011 at 12:05 AM


Having worked as a sports writer for some 30 years and a graduate of The University of Alabama I enjoy reading books about Coach Bryant and his great teams. However, few of these books live up to what I experienced as a student intern on Coach Bryant’s staff. This book is truly the exception. Keith Dunnavant has produced a WINNER !!

Not only does this book take you into the locker room and the huddle from the off season workouts to the practice field and on the field for many thrilling victories but it also takes you above the action where a much larger view teaches you about the social conditions and how they denied a championship team their just rewards.

I grew up in a Catholic family in the North and was steeped in the Notre Dame mystique. I watched every play of the epic 1966 Michigan State – Notre Dame battle. I left that game with a sad and empty feeling. Why would a great University play for a tie ?

That question plagued me until I became a student at The University of Alabama in 1969 and dug behind the scenes to get the answer. When it was revealed it was a shocker.

This great book will help you understand why also. It’s much more than a book about football. It transcends the playing field and reveals the true story of how a team and a region were distained. Not because they didn’t deserve a title but because politics denied a group of young men and their coaches something they toiled for, sweated for and bled for.

Truly a Winner, Dunnavant has delivered his best work to date. Anyone who is a football fan, a fan of politics or a student of social justice must read this book.
The CAT

February 2nd, 2011 at 2:22 AM


Alabama still claims the 1973 National Title even though they lost to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl that year. The UPI used to award the title before the bowl season and changed it because of that year’s fiasco. But Alabama fans go around claiming 12 National titles when 3 or 4 of Bear’s titles were split titles and not consensus. If Notre Dame claimed titles the way Alabama did(claiming any Dunkel polls, Helms Foundations), they could count up to 19. But they don’t, because they only count consensus which is the way it should be. Consider 1973 your title that makes up for 66.
aponcet

February 2nd, 2011 at 4:51 AM


Being an Alabama graduate and avid Alabama football fan, I was able to relate to the emotions of the author on victories and defeats. I too realize that many of us take these games too seriously but he did a great job of illustrating this fact. You would not have to be an Alabama fan or a serious football fan to enjoy and learn from this book. He undertakes the envious job of following the Crimson Tide through every game of a football season and luckily chose an ideal season to pursue this task. The team endured a big early season upset and struggled under a coach having been retained by the university after conduct which many thought would lead to his dismissal. However, the Tide came back with upsets of its own to win the conference championship. The author joins the RV contingent at each game and meets and describes several interesting characters. He gives a good picture of the Alabama fan with the exception that one might get the impression that we all get drunk at or after the game. Many, if not most of us do not.

This is an interesting,easy reading book.
james Cordroy

February 2nd, 2011 at 5:49 AM


As a lifelong Alabama fan, I, too, have experienced the thrill of great victories and numerous championships and also suffered the agony of many recent defeats while living in far-away (from ‘Bama) places, Also, as a publisher of a fan website (www.TideFans.com) devoted to the thousands of passionate fans that Warren St. John describes, I empathize with Warren St. John’s outstanding depiction of what it is like to be a true fan of the Crimson Tide.

Rammer Jammer is a great read for not just Alabama fans, but for any true fans of any team where passion is displayed on a large scale. St. John’s story of the picture he had taken with legendary Alabama coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, is one that little boys our age in Alabama grew up dreaming about.

St. John’s book should be required reading at tailgates across the nation.
Simon Oldmann

February 2nd, 2011 at 7:09 AM


The word fan is so common in our culture that we often forget that it is derived from the word fanatic. For those of us who have forgotten, Warren St. John reminds us in Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.

In 1999, St. John bought a beat-up RV and followed the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team to all of its games. St. John fell in with the true fanatics who live for Alabama football. By writing about his experiences, St. John entertains his readers with some incredible stories.

The best aspects of Rammer Jammer all involve the colorful characters who follow the Crimson Tide. Few of these passionate fans attended the University, but somehow they all latched on to the football team. Among many others, you’ll read about: a man who is proud that he can make EXTREMELY hot food, a couple who misses their daughter’s wedding for an Alabama game, and a man who needs a heart transplant, but violates doctor’s orders to attend Tide games. You also get a great insight into the festival that surrounds football; the degree to which southern culture revolves around college football may amaze you.

St. John’s book is not perfect. He tries to be a participant observer; he wants to participate in the fan mania while making detached comments on it. I didn’t feel that he was always successful. At some point, you begin to wonder why a grown man gets himself thrown out of the press box at a game or why he cannot see how boorish it is to shout “We just beat the hell out of you!” to opposing fans each time the Tide wins a game. In the end, St. John admits that he cannot explain his own behaviors, but he runs on for many pages while trying.

In spite of a few drawbacks, Rammer Jammer is an entertaining book that is worth a read.
Joe Blob

February 2nd, 2011 at 8:37 AM


I read this for my book club. I am not a sports fan AT ALL, but enjoyed the book up to a point. The stories of the folks who follow their team were interesting and well done. The unending tale of football players and stats was of no interest to me. Others in the club (including some from Alabama) loved it.
Banker Number

February 2nd, 2011 at 9:17 AM


I enjoyed the first half of the book, the story of the hard work, dedication, and discipline of the young men that made up the 1966 Alabama football team. By the second half of the book, however, I couldn’t wait for it to end. The problem was not that my opinion of the protagonists had changed. What had changed was that I couldn’t put up with Keith Dunnavant’s never ceasing editoral comments of Alabama brilliance or non-Alabama ignorance. This takes hero-worship of Bear Bryant and his Alabama players to a level that will alienate anyone that doesn’t bleed crimson. And that’s too bad because this story deserves being told to a wider audience. The sacrifices and the hard work of the players reveal the heart of a champion. But, Dunnavant’s over the top cheerleading turned a 5 star story into a 3 star read.
The CAT

February 2nd, 2011 at 11:34 AM


I am a member of the 1966 Alabama football team.

I strongly recommend reading this book. The author is to be commended for his accurate account of the factual information presented. For me, the book iterated 40 year old memories of the ’66 season in a manner that seemed as though they happened yesterday. Once I started reading the book, I could not put it down.

Keith Dunnavant’s research and presentation of the story is complete and impeccable. He brought a ball club from a FOOTNOTE to the SPOTLIGHT!!

Mike Hall
yeah– but

February 2nd, 2011 at 12:12 PM


Dunnavant is a good historian, but he isn’t a good writer. His prose is plodding and pedestrian at best, and antagonistic at worst. He’s clearly outraged by the treatment Alabama received, but the book might be better served by an author who editorialized slightly less. Better book on Bryant: “The Last Coach,” by Allen Barra.
William D.

February 2nd, 2011 at 1:43 PM


First, a disclaimer: This reviewer is a die-hard Florida Gator (and he’s hard-dyin’ today, after our New Year’s Eve humiliation at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes in the Peach Bowl), which undoubtedly colors my opinion of this book. That said, I’d recommend “Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer” to any serious college football fan, if only for a reality check. And for anyone who wishes to understand college football fandom — especially in the South — this is a good starting point.

Marino Casem, longtime coach at Mississippi’s Alcorn State University, made the oft-quoted observation that “Football is, in the West, a cultural experience; in the Midwest, cannibalism; in the East, a tourist attraction; but, in the South, football is a religion, and Saturday is the holy day.” “Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer” is an Alabama fan’s attempt to fathom that religious experience by following a group of RV-driving Crimson Tide faithful on their season-long pilgrimage to stadiums around the Southeastern Conference.

The religiosity of Alabama football fans is a special case, even for the South. There are no major league pro teams in their home state for Alabamians to worship, so the Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers are the icons in their sports universe; and if the South at large is “Christ-haunted” (in the words of Flannery O’Connor), Alabama also is haunted by the spirit of Paul “Bear” Bryant. Elevated to Christ-like status in his 23 years as head coach in Tuscaloosa (22 winning seasons, 13 SEC championships, six national championships), Bryant`s shadow has darkened the tenure of every succeeding University of Alabama football coach since he retired at the end of the 1982 season and succumbed to a heart attack just a month later. As with Steve Spurrier at Florida, Bryant raised expectations of consistent victory to unrealistic heights among his fans. As a boy, Alabama-born Warren St. John had the privilege of meeting the Bear, and he appreciates the mystique that Bryant still generates in the Heart of Dixie, as well as the heartbreak that Tide fans have experienced when succeeding coaches fail to continue Bryant’s winning ways.

It’s interesting that St. John chose to make his Crimson Tide pilgrimage during the fall of 1999, when Bama was reeling from two disappointing seasons and a sex scandal that involved head coach Mike DuBose. Perhaps St. John needed to see the truest believers (as opposed to fair-weather fans) up close, before the Millenium. (Why did he wait until 2004 to publish the book, though? As it worked out, the Tide wound up 10-3 in 1999 and beat Florida for the SEC championship. They haven’t done as well since then.) Whatever, St. John’s account of his adventures with the Tide’s RV camp followers, while not especially insightful, is amusing and an excellent read (mostly). If you are a serious college football fan, you’ll probably recognize many of these people (despite a few grotesques St. John wrote about), and perhaps yourself. If you’re not one of the faithful (and I mean to college football), you can still laugh and feel smugly superior to we poor believers in God’s chosen game.

Since it’s about the 1999 season, there are some anachronisms in the book. For example, the University of Florida no longer allows fans to leave home games at halftime and re-enter the stadium after a few drinks. There have been a few coaching changes in the Southeastern Conference since 1999. But the book’s major weakness is St. John’s attempt to incorporate academic analysis into what should have remained a straightforward chronicle of Alabama football fandom. The book reads extremely well until those sections where St. John cites this authority or that scholar about sports fans and sports loyalties. Then the book comes to a dead stop. Really, you can skim these passages.

Neither St. John nor anyone else should be surprised to find white racists among the faithful of the Tide or any other SEC team. Racism twisted everything in the South, and still does, only less so. There’s still a good book to be written about the transformation of Southern college football since the 1960s due to racial integration of the teams and universities, but that’s not what St. John was trying to do here. “Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer” is one literate fan’s effort to understand and explain the religious experience that is Crimson Tide football. He is honest enough to conclude that, like many adherents to the true church, his loyalty to Bama (rather than, say, Auburn) is largely irrational. Like all faiths, it just IS – but it gets us through the day, and the season.
Simon Oldmann

February 2nd, 2011 at 3:02 PM


What makes rational (or seemingly rational) people to put part of one life on hold during the fall to follow another life on the road RVing across the south following “their” football team? I don’t know if you will come away from St. John’s book knowing the answer, but you’ll have a great trip along the way. There are sports fans in the world, and there are college football fans, but the southern college fan is a breed all unto itself. Life in the fall takes on a new dimension following teams to their weekly Saturday matches. The author’s journey begins with the story of a couple who missed their own daughter’s wedding because it conflicted with an Alabama Football game (they made the reception). And with that story the door is opened to world of colorful characters, each expressing his or her devotion to ‘Bama football in their own way, but while each story is unique, they all make up the sea of red to be seen in Bryant-Denny Stadium on those glorious Saturdays. The book is an enjoyable armchair ride in the tradition of the best travel writing of Bryson and others. It looks at how deep the legacy of Paul “Bear” Bryant runs to this day, over two decades since he coached his last Alabama football game. The book is a portal into a world most of us see at a distance at best. Roll Tide!

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