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News Article: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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A Look Back: Alabama Football Coach Frank Thomas
by Bill Brown (selmaborntidefan)
August 8, 2010

Imagine for just a moment that your life was over at 55 years old. When you looked back over the course of that all-too-brief life you could count up memories of those whose life you’d come in contact with. Perhaps you had played quarterback for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and their legendary coach, Knute Rockne. You were a roommate with the most famous collegiate football player in history, a guy whose mythical story would resonate down through the years off the lips of a President. Or maybe you yourself had been privileged enough to coach the greatest college football coach who ever lived, Bear Bryant. Or maybe you had won a couple of Rose Bowls and a national championship.

Any one of those accomplishments would be a legacy of the highest order. But what if you – all by yourself – did all of those things in a brief life? If so then your name is Frank Thomas, perhaps the greatest obscure coach in collegiate football history.

READ MORE HERE
 
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TideMan09

TideMan09

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Great article man..Two thumbs up from me..Coach Thomas should be considered the best of the best among all Bama HC's..His winning % proves that fact..We're very fortunate as Tide Fans to have so many great HC's & Players that have built the Tradition known as "CRIMSON TIDE FOOTBALL"..
 
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buzzincuzzin

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

I bring him up all the time. I tell my aubarb buddy,, Bear Bryant wasn't the first great coach we ever had, nor will he be the last.
 
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Hal Bennett

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Good going, Selma.

I agree with you that Thomas is unfairly overlooked. Younger sportswriters have tended to think that Alabama football came of age when Bear Bryant arrived in 1958. Alabama football arrived in 1925 when Wallace Wade's team went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl. In fact, that put SOUTHERN FOOTBALL on the map. Alabama has led the way ever since, with hiatuses, of course, and Frank Thomas' career at Alabama may well have been as good as Bo Schembechler's at Michigan. I haven't combed through Schembechler's record, but I don't remember him being as good as the Northern press has tried to make him out to be.

I question whether Bear Bryant would have said that Thomas was better than he was. I have never seen any indication that he thought this.

I think that one thing that probably holds Thomas back may be his record against Bob Neyland and Tennessee. If I remember correctly, Thomas was 7-6-1 against Tennessee, and 3-5-1 against Neyland -- when Neyland wasn't off on Army duty. When Bryant was at Kentucky, he went 0-5-2 against Neyland. The problem, as Bryant said in Bear, was that at Kentucky he could not bring in the number of blue-chippers that Neyland could at Tennessee. Thomas probably had the athletes at Alabama that Bryant wished he had at Kentucky, and Neyland still bested Thomas. It took the seventies for Bryant to pull well ahead of Tennessee with that 1971-81 eleven game winning streak. If Bryant had not done that, Tennessee and Neyland, as Thomas had left the situation, would probably have remained very competitive with Alabama and Bryant, in the overall record books -- and in the eyes of the historians.
 
Chukker Veteran

Chukker Veteran

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

That's a great post.

With Thomas living until age 55, you can only imagine what he might have been able to do if his health had allowed a longer run.
 
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deliveryman35

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Great read. Thanks, Selma. I've often thought of him as our 'forgotten' coach--Next to the Bear, he's the best we've had in terms of both accomplishments and length of tenure, yet you rarely hear people talk about him.

You say he died in Tuscaloosa. Does anyone know where he is buried? I've tried googling it and looking on wikipedia, and still haven't been able to find out the answer to that.
 
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TommyMac

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Great post Selma. I've never figured out why Coach Thomas is so often left out in discussions of great coaches and I'm not just talking about outside of Alabama either. When talking about Bama's great coaches, it seems that even among Bama fans he invariably gets left out. Coach Wade gets mentioned and then most folks just skip all the way up to Coach Bryant.

We've been very lucky with all the great coaches we've had. Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings and now Saban, 5 that are better than any they've had over at John Deere Tech across the state.

BTW Selma, how did Schembechler ever get mentioned on that list? He shouldn't legitimately be mentioned even in a top 20 list. Yeah, he had a pretty good winning % in the Big-10, but geez, the guy is most famous for choking in big games and losing bowl games. Shouldn't a guy have to win a NC to be considered legendary?
 
RedStar

RedStar

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Great, Great, Great post. If Thomas had coached anywhere else besides Alabama, I'm convinced he'd have a stadium named after him. Great coach with a great tenure, I just wish there were some better way of recognizing him around campus.

Great job Selma.
 
bamachile

bamachile

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re: "The Obscure Legend:" A Look Back At Frank Thomas

Kudos. :Joker_PDT_43:

This is one of many 'Alabama Football 101' articles appearing on Tidefans.com that should be required reading for any 'Bama fan.
 
selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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A couple of points I need to make:

1) I forgot to mention in the article that Thomas's college roommate was George Gipp, aka "the Gipper." I guess most of you figured that out, but I failed to mention Gipp by name.

2) I have no clue why Schembechler's name comes up as an all-time great. John McKay was better than Bo. I'm guessing it's because Bo sprouted such a coaching tree with Woody Hayes, Bill McCartney, and others.

Thanks for all the kind words.

Oh - and Thomas never knew anything about any national title in 1941. That's why I didn't mention what is surely our most controversial claim.
 
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CrimsonChuck

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Great article.

Interesting fact...I was looking up Chattanooga to see if it was the same UT-Chattanooga that exists today. Not only is the the same one, but also the coach that succeeded him at Chattanooga was Homer "Red" Drew...yet another future Bama coach.
 
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bama61

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Actually Coach Drew's first name was Harold, not Homer, and he was an assistant under Coach Thomas in the 30's and came back to Bama as head coach from Ole Miss. Ole Miss came out ahead on that one as they replaced Coach Drew with Johnny Vaught, a definite step up. Drew was the head coach at Chattanooga before joing Coach Thomas's staff.

I happened to be visiting campus in January(?) of 1955 when Coach Drew was fired. The headline in the Crimson-White was "Red Sails in the Sunset" a lift from the title of a song popular in the era. Drew was replaced with a popular former player named J.B. Whitworth.
 
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