Alabama Rose Bowl Access Ribbons

In an era long before the laminated access card, lapel ribbons were used to identify people with various degrees of access to games. These are two such ribbons for Alabama Rose Bowl contests; a red photographer press pass for the 1927 Rose Bowl and a white spectator pass for the 1935 Rose Bowl.

The 1927 Rose Bowl from the Air

An aerial view of the Rose Bowl stadium during the 1927 game pitting Alabama against Stanford. This was the last game in the distinctive "horseshoe" version of the venue as the southern end was completed prior to the following year's contest. The 1927 game ended in a 7-7 tie.

Alabama's 1927 Rose Bowl Sponsors

Photo via Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum

The sponsors of the Alabama Crimson Tide at the 1927 Rose Bowl game who traveled to California on the train with the team. From left to right: Mrs. Almetie M. Grimes (wife of C.B Grimes, owner of The Bama theater), Miss Elinor Williams, Mrs. Cornelia "Connie" Brown (wife of former player Johnny Mack Brown), Miss Louise Fargason (the fiancée of player Hoyt Winslett) and the wife of player Gordon "Sherlock" Holmes. Alabama tied Stanford 7-7.

The 1927 Rose Bowl Drive Chart

Drive chart and stats from Alabama's 7-7 tie with Stanford in the 1927 Rose Bowl. The information was compiled and drawn by Ward Nash, a pioneering sports statistician from Los Angeles.

Pop Warner at Stanford

By the time Glenn Scobey Warner arrived in Palo Alto in 1924, he was already an institution. The 53-year-old coach known as "Pop" took over the Stanford football program after leading Cornell, Pittsburgh and, most famously, the Carlisle Indian School to gridiron success.

A trailblazer in the sport, Warner is credited with introducing a host of innovations that have become not simply commonplace but are the backbone of how the game is played. These include the unbalanced line, the backfield, the screen pass, the rolling block, the naked reverse and the practice of numbering plays.

Warner's success at Stanford was founded on his double wingback offense from which he befuddled defenses with "a bewildering set of spins, reverses, double reverses, fake reverses, runs from fake passes and passes from fake runs" as sportswriter Tim Cohane put it.

Alabama and Stanford battled
to a tie in the 1927 Rose Bowl

When Stanford contacted Warner in 1921 to move west and coach the Indians, he first sent a pair of his assistants to help the team transition to his approach. He himself arrived in 1924 and immediately took the team to the Rose Bowl (where they lost to Notre Dame). He returned to Pasadena twice more in the next three years including the 1927 game against Alabama that resulted in a 7-7 tie.

Warner was also an innovator. He is credited with the creation of shoulder and thigh pads and he was known to experiment with equipment to give his teams an edge. In the 1927 Rose Bowl he outfitted his team with silk pants in hopes it would make them faster and tougher to tackle.

Another innovation Warner used against Alabama was a zone pass defense. While the strategy didn't earn Stanford the victory, it was effective in stymieing the Crimson Tide aerial assault. Alabama attempted seven passes and completed only one.

After the 1932 season, Warner left Stanford and headed back east to coach Temple. In his nine years in Palo Alto he had collected a 71-17-8 record. He retired from coaching in 1938 with a lifetime 319–106–32 record. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

The 1927 Tournament of Roses Program

Graham McNamee & the Inaugural Rose Bowl Radio Broadcast

Graham McNamee broadcasting
the 1924 World Series.

McNamee rose to national prominence with the spread of sports radio broadcasts in the 1920s. He is credited as the first "color commentator" and his dramatic depictions of the action electrified his broadcasts.
 
The Radio Corporation of America experienced a boom in sales during the 1920s fueled mostly by the availability of free over-the-air sales. By 1924, more than 2.5 million units had been sold to customers across the United States and as many as twice that were in use by 1927.

Initially, live radio accounts of sporting events were simple descriptions of the action by newspaper writers. For listeners further afield, they were forced to make do with local radio announcers reading telegraph and phone reports of the action.

When McNamee was hired by WEAF in New York in 1923, that changed completely. Despite his relative ignorance of the games he called, his vivid accounts of the action fueled by his apparent enthusiasm revolutionized sports broadcasts.

In November of 1926, RCA formed the National Broadcasting Corporation and began presenting music and comedy shows on a network of 25 stations across the United States. The fledgling network - already known by the moniker NBC - immediately snapped up exclusive broadcast rights from the Tournament of Roses.

So when Alabama headed to Pasadena to face the Stanford Indians in the Crimson Tide's second Rose Bowl, the network  chose to make the game the first coast-to-coast network broadcast. McNamee was tapped to call the game and launched a new era in popularity for the inter-sectional contest. NBC was so pleased with the response they agreed to purchase broadcast rights to the game for another seven years.

In 1984, McNamee was part of the inaugural class inducted into the American Sportscasters Association's Hall of Fame.

The 1927 Rose Bowl game program

Emile Deering Barnes

From the 1927 Rose Bowl Program.

Emile Deering Barnes, known as "Red" and "Lovely" to his teammates, was a halfback on the Alabama squad in 1925 and 1926 as well as serving as captain of Alabama's 1927 Rose Bowl team. He went on to short career in professional baseball with stints with the Washington Senators and Chicago White Sox.

The 1927 Rose Bowl: Alabama vs Stanford

The 1927 Rose Bowl set an attendance record of 57,417.

While the 1926 Rose Bowl and subsequent National Championship brought unprecedented nationwide attention to Alabama football program, the season that followed was the opportunity to cement the program’s success.

To achieve that Coach Wallace Wade faced a difficult challenge. Gone were Alabama’s marquee names of "Pooley" Hubert and Johnny Mack Brown as well as a host of key playmakers. Yet Wade was convinced  the team still had enough of talent and determination to make it back to Pasadena. With disciplined play Alabama continued to be an immovable object on defense. The Crimson Tide outscored opponents 242-20 during the 1926 regular season, allowing just three touchdowns.

The closest game was an Oct. 23 matchup against the Tigers of Sewanee that was decided by a safety in the waning minutes of the contest. The victory ensured Alabama would retain the Southern Conference crown and an invitation to the Rose Bowl to face the Pacific Coast Conference champion, Stanford. As he had the year before, Wade insisted his players were to stay focused on the game and he made sure to provide plenty of practices to ensure they would.

Alabama's 1926 team

The team completed the 2,000-mile train journey to California on Christmas morning and Wade had them on the practice field that afternoon. The Crimson Tide had arrived in Pasadena the defending national champions riding a 20-game win streak and they were ready to play. Their opponent wasn't cowed in the least.

In the 1920s, Stanford was coached by Glenn Scobey Warner, better known by his nickname "Pop." Warner was a legendary figure due to his success at Georgia, Cornell, Pittsburgh and Carlisle Indian Industrial School where he coached Jim Thorpe. Warner had revolutionized football with his innovative strategies. One of which, the single wing, had become a standard of Wade’s dynamic offensive attack. Hired by the Cardinal in 1924, Warner quickly built the team into a West Coast football power.

He led Stanford to a 6-1 season and the Pacific Coast Conference championship. A Rose Bowl invitation followed matching the Cardinal against Knute Rockne and the famed Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. While Warner's team dominated the Fighting Irish for most of the contest, Notre Dame capitalized on three Stanford turnovers to win it 27-10. Two seasons later Stanford amassed a 9-0 record, another conference crown and an invitation to spend New Year’s Day in Pasadena.

On Jan. 1, 1927, a record Rose Bowl crowd of 57,417 showed up on a sunny and hot afternoon to see the showdown of the last undefeated and untied teams in the country. The United Press called it "the football championship of America" and demand for tickets was so great organizers had added extra stands to boost the stadium’s capacity by 4,000 seats. The game also boasted a national audience as NBC made it the first coast-to-coast radio broadcast with famed sports broadcaster Graham McNamee calling the play-by-play.

Stanford wasted no time trying to get the upper hand. On the Card’s first play from scrimmage the teams fullback and primary passer, Clifford Hoffman, threw a 40-yard pass to end Ted Shipkey. First down on the Alabama 27-yard line. The Crimson Tide defense stepped up and forced Stanford’s George Bogue to try an 18-yard field goal. The kick went wide and Alabama took over on downs. Yet, three unsuccessful running plays later the Crimson Tide was forced to punt.

Then things got a little crazy. Stanford’s William Hyland caught the ball but before he could return it he was hit Alabama’s Fred Pickhard. Hyland fumbled the ball and Alabama’s Herschel Caldwell scooped it up… only to fumble it himself. Shipkey finally fell on it giving the Card’s possession and starting their drive again. It wasn't until late in the quarter that Stanford completed a 63-yard drive with a five-yard-pass from Bogue to Ed Walker who scrambled the remaining yard into the end zone. A successful extra point kick by Bogue made it 7-0 Stanford.

The second and third quarters produced a scoreless defensive struggle. It wasn't until well into the final period that either team had a real chance to score. Late in the fourth quarter Stanford was forced to punt from their own 42-yard-line and Alabama’s Baba Pearce blocked the kick. The Crimson Tide recovered the ball at the Card’s 14.

Knowing he'd need fresh legs to run the ball, Wade sent in running back Jimmy Johnson who had not played all afternoon due to a dislocated shoulder. On the first play of the drive, Hoyt "Wu" Winslett carried the ball three yards. Johnson then got the ball and ground out four more. Two more carries by Winslett got the ball to the Stanford one-yard-line and Johnson made the final carry into the end zone for the score.

Wade was taking no chances on getting the extra point and relied on a bit of deception to make sure the kick went good. As Alabama got set for the play, running back and signal caller Emile Barnes stood up and yelled "Signals off!" Stanford’s players took this to mean Alabama was going to reset for the play and relaxed for a moment. Instead, Crimson Tide center Gordon "Sherlock" Holmes snapped the ball, Winslett placed it on the ground and kicker Herschel Caldwell put it through the uprights to tie the game at 7-7.

On the following possession, Stanford started at their own 22-yard-line but only had time to get off two plays. With no overtime the final score stood 7-7. The game would be the final Rose Bowl to conclude with a tie and the outcome resulted in Alabama and Stanford sharing the National Champion title.

Stanford returned to Pasadena the next year to face the University of Pittsburgh. The Cardinal edged the Panthers 7-6 to give Warner his only Rose Bowl victory. Although Alabama would not return to the Rose Bowl for another four years, the two successive New Year’s Day contests had cemented the program’s future. The Crimson Tide was now a household name across the country and that brought greater attention to both the football team and the university itself.

In addition, the proceeds from the two Rose Bowl games helped pay the $150,000 cost to construct Alabama’s own football stadium. On Sept. 28, 1929 the school opened the 12,000-seat Denny Stadium – named for the University’s president George Hutchenson Denny.

Perhaps the most important impact of the 1927 Rose Bowl for Alabama’s football program went completely unnoticed at the time. In rural Arkansas, a 13-year-old boy listened to the historic broadcast of the game on the radio and heard the siren call of his destiny.

"I never imagined anything could be that exciting," recalled Paul W. Bryant years later. "I still didn’t have much of an idea what football was, but after listening to that game, I had it in my mind I wanted to go Alabama and play in the Rose Bowl."

A version of this article first appeared on Roll Bama Roll.