some of the recent threads have inspired me to start a series of threads over the coming days.
To kick it off, I want to ask a few questions:
- What was the first Bama game you attended? (Date, opponent, location, outcome)
- What were the circumstances of your attendance?
- Where did you get the ticket?
- Where did you sit?
- Who took you (or with whom did you attend )?
- What was the outcome and any particular meaningful plays or players or events you remember about the game?
- Do you still have the ticket?
- How much was the ticket (face value and/or what you paid)?
- Any other observations about the game you want to share.
I don't remember.....
It was October 21, 1995, Alabama vs Ole Miss at Vaught-Hemingway. Alabama won, 23-9. It happened that way because - with the WWW in its infancy - I didn't know much about getting tickets. I found it was easier to go to a road game and use their system. So I bought it from Ole Miss. My seats were terrible - high up in the lower level down near the five-yard line. The sight lines (at least then) were TERRIBLE. Most of the game I was just listening to the crowd response because most of it was played at the other end of the field.
My ex and I went. We'd been married four years (it lasted 25).
Before I made it to my seat, we got a safety (2nd or 3rd play of the game). I think (I was never sure) it was Dwayne Rudd that got it.
Ralph Staten had a pick six in the first quarter.
It was kind of a boring game, the discussion in our area of the stands a lot of whining about losing the previous week to Tennessee.....but far angrier still over losing to Arky. Fans wanted Burgdorf pulled for Freddie Kitchens.
I don't still have the ticket. I paid $25 each for two tickets back when my income was whatever an E-4 made.
OBSERVATIONS
While not as pronounced there WERE some Rebel flags in the seats. Rarer than in the 80s for sure, but there were some there.
The game was not televised because Ole Miss had a bowl ban thanks to their second probation under the now departed Billy Brewer
The signs on the sidelines seemed focused on new Ole Miss player Kris Mangum, who had transferred from UA - like this meant he had more than one tooth or something.
There were some fans arrested for scalping tickets - which is illegal there.
That morning I bought two audio cassettes to listen to in the car. One was a 70s rock, the other was a Righteous Brothers
Heading home, I listened to the AM radio that had game one of the World Series. Before we even got to the highway to leave Oxford, the Braves trailed Cleveland, 1-0. That was the year Atlanta finally won it.
The next morning we woke up to news my wife's aunt had passed away that night. I only had weekend leave, but I had to take two additional days off for the funeral and then drive back to Little Rock.
Big news stories about that time?
OJ had been acquitted
The Farrakhan inspired Million Man March had occurred a few days earlier
Windows 95 had come out in late August
The Braves!