Frank Thomas at Notre Dame

Frank Thomas, the future head football coach at the University of Alabama, was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1898. His father, an iron worker, moved the family to East Chicago six years later in search of employment.

The young Thomas became such a standout high school athlete he skipped his senior year to enter Kalamazoo College in Michigan. After two years there his prowess on the gridiron caught the eye of Notre Dame great Chipper Smith who contrived to get him admitted to his Indiana alma mater.

Arriving in South Bend in1919, Thomas was part of the Notre Dame freshman squad and gained the notice of second-year coach Knute Rockne. Thomas served as a third-string quarterback on the undefeated 1920 team, playing in five games.

His roommate was star George Gipp and the two played professional baseball in the off-season. (Thomas and many other Notre Dame players regularly played professional football on Sundays as well.) Gipp's sudden death from a throat infection in December of 1920 affected Thomas deeply.

"I broke down and cried like a baby," he later said. "It was like losing a brother."

Thomas was a staple of the Notre Dame roster for his junior and senior seasons which saw the team go 10-1 and 8-1-1, respectively. (Late in the 1922 season Rockne shuffled the starting lineup, switching Harry Stuhldreher for Thomas and creating the group that Grantland Rice would dub "The Four Horsemen" two years later).

Thomas' on-the-field decision making earned him the praise of Rockne who called Thomas "a fine field general."

"It's amazing the amount of football sense that Thomas kid has," Rockne told his staff after one game. "He can't miss becoming a great coach some day."

After graduating in the Spring of 1923, Thomas was contacted by the University of Georgia and subsequently hired. As the bulldogs' backfield coach, he was entrusted with importing Rockne's dynamic "Notre Dame Box" offense to southern football.

After a stop as head coach of University of Chattanooga, Thomas was tapped for the head coaching position at Alabama in 1931 following the surprise resignation of Wallace Wade. The Notre Dame alumnus would lead the Crimson Tide a 115-24-7 record, six bowl games and two national titles over the next fourteen seasons.

Café Brûlot Diabolique at the 1945 Sugar Bowl

Photo via The Duke University Archives

Prior to the 1945 Sugar Bowl, Alabama coach Frank Thomas and Duke's Eddie Cameron took time to stir a pot of "Café Brûlot Diabolique" at a pre-game banquet for both teams held at New Orleans' famed restaurant, Antoine's. On New Year's Day, the Crimson Tide was bested 29-26 by the Blue Devils in a game legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice would proclaim "one of the great thrillers of all time."

The 1946 Rose Bowl: Alabama vs USC

Alabama coach Frank Thomas confers with his team
in Rose Bowl Stadium prior to the 1946 game.

Alabama's final Rose Bowl game in was on New Year's Day, 1946 - a full 20 years since the Crimson Tide's inaugural appearance in the Tournament of Roses invitational football game. Crimson Tide Head Coach Frank Thomas had led Alabama to a second national championship in 1941 - the fifth in the program's history - but building on that success proved impossible due to World War II. The university dropped the football program in 1943 due to the war.

The next season Thomas struggled to restart the program with a group of returning vets, 4-F students and teenagers too young to draft that he dubbed his "War Babies." The first year produced an unsatisfying 5-2-2 record but Thomas knew he had something special with this group of players.

One reason for his optimism was an undersized tailback named Harry Gilmer. With a one-of-a-kind leaping throwing style as accurate as it was unorthodox, Gilmer became the force driving the Crimson Tide offense. He captivated the Alabama faithful from the start when he opened the 1944 season by returning a LSU kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. No less than Grantland Rice declared him "the greatest college passer I ever saw."

With the conclusion of WW II in the spring of 1945, Thomas' war babies were joined by a number of returning veterans on campus in the fall. It proved to be one of the strongest squads Thomas ever put on the field. The Crimson Tide barreled to an undefeated 9-0 season; their closest call being a 28-14 victory over Georgia in Birmingham. Alabama carried the Southeast Conference and earned their sixth invitation to play in the Rose Bowl.

Alabama's 1945 team

In California, the Trojans of USC were riding high under head coach Newell J. "Jeff" Cravath. A center for powerful "Thundering Herd" squads under the legendary Howard Jones in the 1920s, Cravath was called back to Westwood after a dismal 2-6-1 outing in 1941 under Justin M. "Sam" Barry. Cravath fielded several strong Trojan squads relying on experienced players from Navy and Marine training programs set up at USC. He also overhauled the USC offense, instituting the "T" formation featuring with four backs, not one, handling the ball.

The Trojans crushed Tennessee 25-0 in the 1945 Rose Bowl, making the eight consecutive win for USC in the New Year's Day classic. The Trojans carried the Pacific Conference crown with a lackluster 7-3 record outscoring their opposition by just 75 points. Alabama, on the other hand, had amassed a 396-66 point differential during their undefeated season. Going into the game the Crimson Tide was a two-score favorite but that did little to impress the mavens of the West Coast media.

"You've won in the Rose Bowl before," bleated a columnist in the Los Angeles Times. "But you haven’t played Southern Cal yet."

The Rose Bowl boasted a record crowd of 94,000 on a New Year’s Day described as "June in January" weather. Hopes were high for the Trojan's ninth victory by the heavily partisan crowd. USC’s fortunes started foul as a fumble the second play of the game was recovered at the Trojan 15-yard line by Alabama’s Jack Green. Four plays later, with the ball on the two foot line, Alabama’s Henry Self kept the ball on a quarterback sneak and plunged into the end zone. A successful point after kick put Alabama ahead 7-0.

Thomas had kept to the ground game in the first period but as the second quarter opened up he let Gilmer take to the air. The result was an 11-play, 68-yard drive which ended with Gilmer plunging over the pile for the final three yards to score. Another kick and the score was 14-0.

As the second quarter began to wind down, Alabama launched another furious drive covering 64 yards in just four plays. Lowell Tew – who started despite a broken jaw – ran it in from the two-yard-line for the touchdown but kicker Hugh Morrow missed the extra point. The score going into the locker room at halftime was Alabama 20, USC 0.

After the intermission Alabama got the ball at the Trojan’s 39 off of a fumble by Verl Lillywhite and needed all of seven plays to find the end zone again. Norwood Hodges took it in from the one to score and with the kick, the Crimson Tide lead stretched to 27-0. As the fourth quarter started Gilmer completed a 15-yard pass to Self who scooted the final ten yards into the end zone. Alabama now led 34-0 and the Trojan-heavy crowd began heading for the exits. Thomas then took his starters out of the game and let the second and third string squads take over.

Midway through the fourth period, Alabama’s Gordon Pettus fumbled and USC's Jay Perrin, a 320 lb guard, fell on the ball at the Crimson Tide 25-yard line. A pass from Lillywhite to Harry Adelman put the Trojans on the scoreboard at last. With the extra point, the score was 34-7. The Trojans got another break moments later when Myron Dornbos broke through the Crimson Tide line and blocked a punt attempt. USC end Chuck Clark picked it up and ran it back for the touchdown. With Lillywhite's successful kick the score was 34-14 which proved to be the final.

When the dust settled, Alabama didn't simply break USC’s eight Rose Bowl game streak – they racked up more points on the Trojans than all eight opponents that faced USC in the previous New Year’s Day games combined. It wasn't so much a victory as a complete shellacking. Alabama outgained USC 351 yards to 41 and held the men of Troy’s running offense to an anemic six yards. Alabama collected 18 first downs to the Trojans three. Gilmer garnered the game’s MVP honors with a 16 carry, 113 yard performance.

The next day saw the venerable Los Angeles Times  singing quite a different tune declaring the Alabama squad "a faster, smarter, more eager, better trained and conditioned" team than the hometown Trojans.

The recognized national champion for the 1945 season is Army’s undefeated Black Knights squad but the military service academies eschewed bowl appearances during the war years. Still, the National Championship Foundation elected both Alabama and Army as co-national champions for the season.

The game proved to be an end of an era for Alabama. Thomas’ health had declined precipitously as the 1945 season progressed due to heart and lung disease. He continued to coach the team in 1946 but was confined to bed when not on the practice field. He stepped down as head coach at the end of the season (although staying on as the school’s athletic director) with 115-24-7 record and two national championships.

The 1946 Rose Bowl proved to be the final contest featuring any team outside of the Pacific Coast and Big Ten conferences. The Tournament of Roses struck an exclusive deal to pair the champions of the two conferences in the New Year's Day classic beginning with the 1947 game.

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

The 1935 Rose Bowl: Alabama vs Stanford

The 1934 Alabama line in a publicity shot prior to the 1934 Rose Bowl.

The 1935 Rose Bowl marked the start of a new chapter in the history of Alabama football. Under head coach Wallace Wade, New Year’s Day games in Pasadena and subsequent National Championships had become the norm. His departure to Duke University in 1931 left his hand-picked successor, Frank Thomas, loaded with high expectations.

Thomas had been a player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne and had entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at the University of Georgia. While well recognized for his understanding of the game, Thomas’ only head coaching experience before taking the Alabama job was a five-year stint at the University of Chattanooga.

Yet, University of Alabama president George Hutchenson Denny made his choice and Thomas proved to be the man for the task. In his first three seasons at the Capstone, Thomas amassed a respectable 24-4-1 record. In 1933 his team was able to capture the Southeastern Conference Championship but a 2-0 loss to Fordham dropped their overall record to 7-1-1 and kept them out of the National Championship picture. Thomas was chomping at the bit all off-season knowing his squad was only going to be stronger the next year.

Part of his confidence stemmed from possessing one of the most talented passer-receiver combos the game had ever seen. Quarterback Millard "Dixie" Howell and end Don Hutson were selected as consensus All-Americans in 1934 for the aerial attack they developed under Thomas’ tutelage. It would become the precedent for the modern passing game. The other end on the squad was a lanky young man from rural Arkansas everyone knew by the nickname "Bear" – Paul W. Bryant. His faith in his coach was unwavering.

"The thing about Coach Thomas, like every fine coach, was that he was sound," Bryant recalled years later. "He beat you with the things he did best. Occasionally he would have one little new play for the opponent, but basically he preached blocking and tackling and executing."

It proved to be an unbeatable formula in 1934. Alabama rolled to an undefeated regular season that was highlighted by dramatic wins over Tennessee and Georgia Tech. A Southeastern Conference title followed and no less than four different polling systems chose the Crimson Tide as the national champions.

Alabama's 1934 team

Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, Stanford University was putting the finishing touches on head coach Claude Earl Thornhill’s second season. An assistant under Glenn "Pop" Warner during the legendary coach’s seven-year tenure in Palo Alto, Thornhill took over the head coach slot in 1933 after Warner left for Temple University.

Although Stanford had adopted the Indian mascot in 1930, Thornhill's squad came to be known as the "Vow Boys" for making a pact to never lose to conference rival USC.

They kept the promise in 1933 handing the Trojans their first defeat in 27 games, a 13-7 loss at home. The victory gave Stanford the Pacific Coast Conference championship and a matchup with Colombia University in the Rose Bowl. The Indians subsequently lost 7-0 to the Lions and Thornhill finished his inaugural season with an 8-2-1 record. Stanford's 1934 team was even stronger than the previous year, boasting three consensus All-Americans; quarterback Bobby Grayson, end Jim "Monk" Moscript and tackle Bob Reynolds.

The Vow Boys kept were good to their word the second year running, besting USC in Los Angeles on Nov. 3 that year. The Indians rolled up a 7-0-1 record and coasted to another Pacific Coast Conference title. As the regular season wrapped up, Stanford was ranked the No. 2 team in the nation and earned the inevitable Rose Bowl invitation.

When Alabama was chosen as their opponent there was a feeling that the Tournament of Roses had made a grave error by selecting the Crimson Tide over undefeated Minnesota. The Golden Gophers were widely viewed as the best team in the country after racking up an 8-0 record and outscoring opponents 270-38 in the process. Even though numerous polling services tapped Minnesota as the national champion following the close of the college football regular season, the Big Ten Conference prohibited its teams from participating in bowl games. Thus, Alabama got the nod from the Tournament of Roses Committee.

Many Stanford supporters felt the Gophers were a more deserving opponent and used the issue to taunt the Crimson Tide players when they arrived in Los Angeles. Hundreds of Indians fans flocked to the Alabama practices to loudly insist their team was going to whip the squad from the south decisively. Stanford’s coach was having none of it. "The boys know they've got a fight on their hands," Thornhill said of his players the day before the game.

A record total of 84,474 spectators were on hand in Rose Bowl stadium on New Year's Day 1935 to see the two lauded teams face off at last. The Crimson Tide's luck started early with tackle Bill Lee calling the coin toss.  Alabama chose to kick off and Stanford chose to defend the south goal, favored by the light breeze.

Alabama was slow to get started in the game, amassing just four yards in four plays during the first period. Stanford got a break when Alabama’s Joe Demyanovich fumbled the ball on the 29-yard-line and the Indian’s Keith Topping recovered. A few plays later Stanford’s Bobby Grayson plowed in for the score and Stanford had the lead 7-0. That situation held until the second quarter when Thomas unleashed the Crimson Tide’s passing attack and Alabama’s offensive exploded for a flurry of scores that Stanford was all but helpless to stop.

Alabama’s second possession in the second quarter began with a bang as Howell returned the kick 25-yards to the Indian’s 45-yard line. Howell then completed passes to Hutson, James Angelich and then Bryant to reach the 5-yard line. On the next play Howell kept the ball and blasted through the line where he was hit and did a complete somersault in the air. Amazingly, he landed on his feet at the two-yard-line and bounced into the end zone for the score. Riley Smith missed the point after and Alabama cut Stanford’s lead to 7-6.

Stanford then chose to kick the ball. Alabama drove back down the field on their next possession but the Indian’s defense held this time. Thomas called a timeout before Smith was set to attempt the 27-yard field goal. During the wait the kicker overhead Bryant and another player arguing if he could make it after the missed point after a few minutes prior.

"You sonsabitches should have better confidence in me than that," Smith told them then went out and booted it through the uprights. Alabama took the lead, 9-7.

Once again, Stanford chose to kick off to the Crimson Tide. Two plays later Howell made them pay for the decision, carrying the ball around the right side of the line and down the sideline for a 67-yard touchdown run to lengthen the Crimson Tide lead to 16-7.

Any hopes Stanford had for recapturing the momentum before halftime was ended with an interception by Alabama’s Smith giving the Crimson Tide the ball on the Indian’s 46 yard line. With just eight second left in the half Alabama’s Joe Riley completed a 24-yard pass to Hutson who galloped the rest of the way into the end zone. Another missed extra point and the score 22-7 in favor of Alabama. After halftime Stanford tried to regain the momentum and launched a frantic drive to catch up. A 74-yard Indian drive was topped with a 12-yard touchdown run by halfback Elzo L. Van Dellen Jr. The Alabama lead narrowed to 22-13. 

In the fourth quarter, Stanford fans, upset at the beatdown their team was receiving, began throwing money onto the field during a timeout in hopes  of distracting  the Alabama players. Bryant recalled scooping up some of the change in his hands but then having to drop it when he had to tackle a Stanford runner heading downfield on a sweep.

"It was the only decent tackle I made all day," he later said.

The gambit didn't stop the dynamic combo of Howell and Hutson from striking one more time. On third and 23 from the Alabama 41-yard-line, Howell completed a 59-yard touchdown pass to Hutson to seal the game. The kick by Smith was the final point of the game, 29-13. Howell finished the game with 111 yards rushing, 164 yards passing and punted six times for an average of almost 44 yards. No less than legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice described his performance as "the greatest all-around exhibitions that football has ever known"

Once again, Alabama’s victory in Pasadena had brought a fourth national championship to Tuscaloosa and the fans in Alabama showed up to show their appreciation. On Jan. 5, thousands of fans mobbed the Tuscaloosa train station to welcome the team back home.

Hutson went on to play for the Green Bay Packers, eventually being enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame. Howell played for the Washington Redskins for several years and was a head coach at Arizona State University as well as Idaho. Both are now in the College Football Hall of Fame.

The next year, Riley Smith became the first Alabama player selected in the inaugural NFL draft when he was chosen second overall by the Boston Redskins. Bryant, of course, went onto one of the most celebrated coaching careers in college football history.

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