![]() ![]() "That guy's gonna look funny with a motor home up his ass," he mumbles to no one. He takes a sip of coffee from a Styrofoam cup and glares at the university cop who's directing traffic. "Shit, if this is the way it's gonna be, we might as well go on back to Legion Field," a man in a velour crimson jumpsuit chimes in. "Y'all 'bout taken all the fun out of it," a man shouts at the officials. A group of university officials sits at a card table at the front of the lot, outnumbered fifty to one by dyspeptic RV-ers they've obviously called the cops to keep order. I park the Hawg near the stately, beer-glazed mansions on fraternity row, walk over, and get in the line. The system seems intentionally designed to provoke a riot it requires that everyone seeking to obtain a parking pass line up in person at the lot, so anyone unfortunate enough to have parked a mile away has to walk or thumb a ride up to the lot to get in line, and then wait. A line of motor homes stretches nearly a mile down Bryant Drive, from the Law Library lot all the way back to McFarland Boulevard. The barricade of police cars gives the lot the appearance less of a tailgate party than of an accident scene. Thursday morning.ĭriving down Bryant Drive in the Hawg on Thursday morning, I see from a distance that the new parking policy isn't going over well through the gauzy morning haze I can clearly make out a stroboscopic bouquet of red and blue lights in the distance at the lot entrance. The university is selling a limited number of parking permits for $25 each, and even for those with permits, they've made the lot off-limits to RVs until 8:00 a.m. Ill will toward a rival accrues exponentially with each consecutive loss, so there's plenty of ill will toward Tennessee on reserve among the Bama faithful.Īmong the RV-ers, though, on the Thursday before the game, ill-will is directed foremost not at arriving Tennessee fans, but at University of Alabama officials, who after a chaotic parking situation at the Arkansas game two weeks back, have decided to institute new parking rules for RV-ers. Tennessee has won nine of the last ten games. A team rarely wins just a single game in the series instead, it dominates for years. At least some of the animosity can be explained by a peculiar feature of the Alabama-Tennessee series: its streakiness. The contest was called off and 2,000 supporters engaged in fisticuffs until police restored order." Since then, things have gotten only marginally more civil. ![]() "Fans from both sides rushed onto the playing field to voice objections. "The game was tied 6-6 when an official made a controversial ruling," the Birmingham News wrote of the game. The 1901 matchup set the tone of rivalry for the years to come. ![]() This is the game that prompted a Birmingham couple named Freeman and Betty Reese skip their own daughter's wedding for football, and it usually prompts a day-long work stoppage across Alabama, along with numerous brawls across the South in the sports bars of the fan diaspora. Alabama's rivalry with Tennessee is as intense as any, even Auburn. There are more RVs than usual in Tuscaloosa this weekend the Tennessee game is the most anticipated home game of the year. For more, you can also visit the Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer web site. John's "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" is available online and in bookstores. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House, Inc. Here, he meets up with hated Birmingham talk-show host Paul Finebaum for a tense day in Tuscaloosa, as the Tide meets arch-rival Tennessee.Įxcerpted from Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer by Warren St. John hits the road for four and a half months in a beat-up 1978 motor home - the Hawg - as part of the RV convoy that follows the Alabama Crimson Tide, in an effort to figure out what makes fans tick. Editor's Note: In Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, author Warren St. ![]()
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