Old Timer Topic-Your Most Memorable John Forney Radio Game

[Alasippi]

There are so many.

I recall Steve Sloan leading Bama 80 yards against Ole Miss in the last two minutes to win 10-8 in 65. Forney was about to fall out of the booth.

His call of Stablers run against Auburn in the rain...incredible

But my most vivid John Forney radio game was when we beat USC in Los Angeles in 1970, after surprising them by coming out in the wishbone.

When I heard we were in the wishbone I was jumping up and down. All 15 years old of me.

I think we scored the first two times we had the ball. They figured us out eventually but it was too late. We beat em.

I still remember Forney, with all that emotion in his voice, excitedly saying...

"And The Alabama Crimson Tide has defeated the USC Trojans in a stunning upset"...

I love watching the games on TV every week now. But that was some pretty exciting stuff.

Forney, technically, wasn't the best play by play guy in the world.

But, in my opinion, he'll always be THE voice...of Bama football.

That was an incredible time.

I'd love to hear everybody's opinion.

Roll Tide...

Sip

 

[bamamoss2]

I believe it was 1971 at USC that was my favorite when we broke out in the wishbone. We had to listen via the radio as it was not carried on TV. I remember watching with my new father in law. What a game.:BigA:

 

[Riverchase]

1979 volz vs Bama at lesion field ( Yes I know )....27 - 17 and it was a hard fought game and at that time for some reason it was not televised. Unlike today you youngsters would hate it because you were only allowed on TV 3 times in 2 years per the NCAA.

 

[bamadp]

There are so many.


But, in my opinion, he'll always be THE voice...of Bama football.

Ditto...no disrespect to Eli, but John Forney will forever be the voice of the Tide. Most memorable game...USC in LA, night, wishbone, a win...I want to say 1971...but after forty years, and old folks will attest to this, the years seem to run together. :biggrin: I may not be sure exactly when it happened, but I'm sure what happened. :wink:

 

[laughinggravy]

I was 14 when Stabler made his run in the mud. I thought Forney was going to jump out of the radio at me. That would be my most memorable.:biggrin:

 

[deliveryman35]

1971 at USC.

 

[laughinggravy]

John Forney will always be the voice of the Crimson Tide. BTW he wrote a book I think called "Forever Crimson." I believe I read many years ago?

 

[Relayer]

I need to find a cassette tape I still have stashed somewhere. It's a tape of Bama football radio broadcasts called "Whoopins", or something like that. Some going back to the '60s

Brings back tons of great memories.

One of my favorites would have to be the call of the Bama last minute win over UT in 1972: Alabama 17, Tennessee 10

Bama scored with 2 minutes left in the game, kicked the XP to tie. I thought , "What the hell?!"

Next vol possession, Mike DuBose hits Condredge Holloway causing a fumble which John Mitchell recovered. Next play, TD Terry Davis! Bama wins!!

 

[FitToBeTide]

I was 14 when Stabler made his run in the mud. I thought Forney was going to jump out of the radio at me. That would be my most memorable.:biggrin:

Dec. 2, 1967, our wedding day and we still were able to hear the game while on the honeymoon. A memorable day in so many ways. John F. was screaming when Kenny broke it for the TD on a sloppy quagmire of a football field that won the game for us. A superb ending to a wonderful day in my life.

 

[Padreruf]

Can't remember the year, but we were playing Ole Miss and were behind like 21-0 in the first quarter. Then Homer Smith opened up the offense and Gary Hollingsworth went nuts throwing the ball. I was driving across Alabama & Mississippi that Saturday and just about wrecked the car we scored so many touchdowns.

 

[imauafan]

Can't remember the year, but we were playing Ole Miss and were behind like 21-0 in the first quarter. Then Homer Smith opened up the offense and Gary Hollingsworth went nuts throwing the ball. I was driving across Alabama & Mississippi that Saturday and just about wrecked the car we scored so many touchdowns.

Eli was the play-by-play guy at that point.

Forney was the greatest and it isn't even close.

 

[imauafan]

Forney, technically, wasn't the best play by play guy in the world.

I disagree. Forney could paint such a vivid picture with words that I could almost see the game. Most of the time with Eli I don't have a clue what is going on.

 

[Hal Bennett]

Well, my meanderings around the South made it such that I rarely listened to Forney do a game.

I was either too far away to pick up Forney on the radio, or I was watching Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles do the game on TV.

I was in Birmingham 1960-64, and it was during that time that Bama switched announcers from Maury Farrell to Forney.

I think that the radio game I remember the most is one that the longtime Mississippi State announcer Jack Cristil did. After 55 years, he may still be at it, I don't know. Anyway, this was in 1977, I believe, when Bama probably could have put three full teams on the field -- offense and defense -- to State's one. Old Jack came on talking about the mighty Crimson Tide, who had beaten Louisville 55-0 the week before. The game was at Jackson, on a warm, sunny day. Almost before Jack could get started talking, the Bama offense had pulled a "Wilkinson Blitz" -- a sort of no-huddle thing that seemed to have shocked both Cristil and the State football team. Cristil had (has?) that low-register, steely voice, and it sounded like he was describing Patton defeating Rommel on the north African desert.

You know, because of Keith Dunnavant's book on the 1966 Alabama team, that 1977 team may not have gotten the "historical press" it deserves. That team got leap-frogged in the polls by #5 Notre Dame and Joe Montana when they beat #1 Texas 38-10 in the 1978 Cotton Bowl, while #2 Alabama was putting it on Woody Hayes and Ohio State 35-6 in the Sugar Bowl. I never heard of Jeff Rutledge and company complaining much about that, perhaps because they won it all the next year.

But that 1977 team lost only to Nebraska, 31-24, in the second game of the season, and then beat #1 Southern Cal 21-20, at Los Angeles. The Bama national championships of 1978 and 1979 were built up to in the last part of that 1977 season. After squeaking by Southern Cal, Bama beat Tennessee 24-10, Louisville 55-6, Miss State 37-7 (the game I'm talking about here), LSU 24-3, Miami 36-0, Auburn 48-20, and then Ohio State 35-6. Nobody got close to them. And the pollsters gave the national championship to Notre Dame.

If you played either basketball or football, you may have experienced a game like that 1977 Miss State-Alabama game. At Vardaman, Mississippi, we played a ninth grade game against Pontotoc in 1956, when they had Jimmy Weatherly, who later went on to quarterback Ole Miss. He came up to the line of scrimmage behind center the first play of the game and he went "Hrumph!" At that signal the ball was centered to him and their uniformly big line broke off the ball in unison, on a quarterback sneak, against our little country boys. I think I may have known from that experience how old Jack Cristil and the Mississippi State team felt that sunny day in Jackson in 1977, when mighty Alabama pulled the "Wilkinson Blitz" on the first play of the game.

Weatherly -- believe it or not -- went on to write "Midnight Train to Georgia." He lives in Nashville.

 

[Alasippi]

I disagree. Forney could paint such a vivid picture with words that I could almost see the game. Most of the time with Eli I don't have a clue what is going on.

What I meant was that he'd sometimes get so excited that he'd slip up a bit....lol

When Terry Davis scored to put Bama up 17-10 over UT in 72 he was screaming......"He's at the 20, the 10, the 15, the five......lol

But his excitement more than made up for an occassional slip up.

sip

 

[Padreruf]

Can't remember the year, but we were playing Ole Miss and were behind like 21-0 in the first quarter. Then Homer Smith opened up the offense and Gary Hollingsworth went nuts throwing the ball. I was driving across Alabama & Mississippi that Saturday and just about wrecked the car we scored so many touchdowns.

OOPS! I did enjoy John Forney the most...

 

[Alasippi]

Imagine this. Forney at the peak of his career.....with all his emotion and excitement calling Teagues Takeaway against Miami in 92....

That would have been amazing to say the least.

sip

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

On the ugly, diseased, putrified, contaminated, wretched, reverse side of the coin, I can still hear the horror and pain in Forney's voice when Auburn twice broke through the line in '72.

"BLOCKED!!!!!":eek2:

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

Well, my meanderings around the South made it such that I rarely listened to Forney do a game.

I was either too far away to pick up Forney on the radio, or I was watching Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles do the game on TV.

I was in Birmingham 1960-64, and it was during that time that Bama switched announcers from Maury Farrell to Forney.

I think that the radio game I remember the most is one that the longtime Mississippi State announcer Jack Cristil did. After 55 years, he may still be at it, I don't know. Anyway, this was in 1977, I believe, when Bama probably could have put three full teams on the field -- offense and defense -- to State's one. Old Jack came on talking about the mighty Crimson Tide, who had beaten Louisville 55-0 the week before. The game was at Jackson, on a warm, sunny day. Almost before Jack could get started talking, the Bama offense had pulled a "Wilkinson Blitz" -- a sort of no-huddle thing that seemed to have shocked both Cristil and the State football team. Cristil had (has?) that low-register, steely voice, and it sounded like he was describing Patton defeating Rommel on the north African desert.

You know, because of Keith Dunnavant's book on the 1966 Alabama team, that 1977 team may not have gotten the "historical press" it deserves. That team got leap-frogged in the polls by #5 Notre Dame and Joe Montana when they beat #1 Texas 38-10 in the 1978 Cotton Bowl, while #2 Alabama was putting it on Woody Hayes and Ohio State 35-6 in the Sugar Bowl. I never heard of Jeff Rutledge and company complaining much about that, perhaps because they won it all the next year.

But that 1977 team lost only to Nebraska, 31-24, in the second game of the season, and then beat #1 Southern Cal 21-20, at Los Angeles. The Bama national championships of 1978 and 1979 were built up to in the last part of that 1977 season. After squeaking by Southern Cal, Bama beat Tennessee 24-10, Louisville 55-6, Miss State 37-7 (the game I'm talking about here), LSU 24-3, Miami 36-0, Auburn 48-20, and then Ohio State 35-6. Nobody got close to them. And the pollsters gave the national championship to Notre Dame.

If you played either basketball or football, you may have experienced a game like that 1977 Miss State-Alabama game. At Vardaman, Mississippi, we played a ninth grade game against Pontotoc in 1956, when they had Jimmy Weatherly, who later went on to quarterback Ole Miss. He came up to the line of scrimmage behind center the first play of the game and he went "Hrumph!" At that signal the ball was centered to him and their uniformly big line broke off the ball in unison, on a quarterback sneak, against our little country boys. I think I may have known from that experience how old Jack Cristil and the Mississippi State team felt that sunny day in Jackson in 1977, when mighty Alabama pulled the "Wilkinson Blitz" on the first play of the game.

Weatherly -- believe it or not -- went on to write "Midnight Train to Georgia." He lives in Nashville.

Nice essay, Hal. The great thing about most of those teams in the mid to late 70s was how much they improved throughout the year. By the time the bowl games rolled around, the speed in which we ran the wishbone or attacked the opposing offenses was breathtaking. In '77, they made Ohio State look like 24 uniformed clones of their ancient coach.

The year before, we lost the opener to Ole Miss and got clobbered at Georgia. But by closing time, we were the best team in the SEC. Just ask UCLA.

 

[CrimsonSon]

I would have Loved to have been able to have heard those games by those commentators. I think Eli Gold dose A fantastic job and can't imagine someone doing a better job than him. I sure do miss the Snake.
I think Gold dose a great job of relaying the excitement and passion and seems to be very intuitive of whats taking place. I'm thankful he Loves Crimson Tide football so much.


It's also pretty great when they have guys like Namath in the booth with them to do some talking. MAN, I wish football would get here!

 

[CrimsonSon]

I would have Loved to have been able to have heard those games by those commentators. I think Eli Gold dose A fantastic job and can't imagine someone doing a better job than him. I sure do miss the Snake.
I think Gold dose a great job of relaying the excitement and passion and seems to be very intuitive of whats taking place. I'm thankful he Loves Crimson Tide football so much.


It's also pretty great when they have guys like Namath in the booth with them to do some talking also. MAN, I wish football would get here!

I wander if they would ever consider having him(Snake) on as special guest sometime?