A century later, Alabama football is returning to the game that brought Southern college football to the limelight.
Thursday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl between No. 9 Alabama and No. 1 Indiana will happen 100 years to the day of the Crimson Tide’s 20-19 victory over Washington in what was coined “the Game that changed the South.”
The win helped secure the school’s first national title and perfect season. It also helped set the tone for decades of program success, lifting Southern football into the national spotlight and giving the post-Civil War era South something to take pride in.
Historian Andrew Doyle said in “Roses of Crimson” — a documentary about the game — that it was “the most significant event in Southern football history.”
The Rose Bowl was the first postseason football game created, and at the time, it was the only one on the calendar. Alabama became the first school from the South selected to the game following a 9-0 regular season and SoCon title, after Dartmouth, Yale, Illinois and Tulane declined invites due to academic reasons.
The Crimson Tide entered the game with few outside the program believing it had a chance against the Huskies, who entered the game as Pacific Coast Conference champions at 10-0-1. The Huskies also had All-American halfback George “Wildcat” Wilson, who helped lead the team to a Rose Bowl appearance in 1924 and 34 wins across four seasons.
Entertainer and actor Will Rogers proclaimed Alabama to be the team from “Tusca-loser.”
The general public’s sentiment did not matter to Alabama head coach Wallace Wade, though.
“Southern football is not recognized or respected,” Wade said to his team ahead of the game. “Boys, here’s your chance to change that forever.”
The Crimson Tide seized that chance, despite a slow start.
After entering halftime down 12-0, the Crimson Tide roared back at the Huskies with 20 third-quarter points, led by star halfback Johnny Mack Wilson, who hauled in two receiving touchdowns.
Alabama held on despite a late rally from Washington and secured a Rose Bowl victory so significant, it earned a mention in “Yea Alabama,” the school’s newly-adopted fight song:
“Fight on, fight on, fight on, men! Remember the Rose Bowl, we’ll win then.”
A century later, and the Crimson Tide again finds itself stacked up against an undefeated team from a Northern conference in “The Granddaddy of Them All,” with doubt cast upon the team’s chances of victory. Time will tell if history repeats itself.
Alabama’s College Football Playoff journey will continue Thursday in the 112th edition of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m. CT, and the game can be streamed on ESPN.
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