Even though the deck was stacked against Alabama, the 1989 team still won the SEC title

Crimson Tide to celebrate and honor SEC champions during 30-year reunion this weekend

Image courtesy of Jimmy Bank

The memory still makes him shudder, something that only another former Alabama football player could understand.

When Lee Ozmint thinks back to his days as a rover on the Crimson Tide defense, he doesn’t necessarily have a problem with the way the 1989 season played out, and Alabama coming a win away from playing for the national championship.

His team lost on the field. He can live with that.

But mention the words, “Lower Gym,” and oh man, the memories come flowing back.

“We’d go into a game and we’d say ‘They might be faster than us, they might be more talented than us, but by gosh they hadn’t gone through Lower Gym,” Ozmint said about the Crimson Tide’s grueling offseason workouts in what was then known as Memorial Coliseum. “They don’t know what that’s like.

“I’ll tell you how bad it was, you’d go to bed on Sunday night dreading to wake up on Monday because it was one day closer to Tuesday, and we went to Lower Gym on Tuesday. That’s how bad it was.”

When Alabama plays its home opener against New Mexico State on Saturday, those workouts will be among the numerous subjects talked about as the 1989 co-SEC champions hold their 30-year reunion on campus. 

There will also be stories about the bowl trip to New Orleans, Bryant Hall and offensive lineman Chris Robinette – there will always be stories about Robinette, one of the true personalities on the team along with Roger Shultz – but sooner or later someone will bring up Lower Gym.

It will be met by a long, loud groan.

“The football was great and the experience was absolutely unmatchable, but I’m going to tell you the friendships were the things that counts,” said Ozmint, who will serve as an honorary team captain for the game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “That’s what matters and that’s what’s stuck through the years.”

On the field, the Crimson Tide was a good team, maybe the best since the Paul W. “Bear” Bryant era ended after the 1982 season. Butkus Award Derrick Thomas had just left for the NFL, leaving linebacker Keith McCants to anchor the defense, and the preseason polls had Alabama at No. 15 (coaches) and 16 (Associated Press).

It made it all the way up to No. 2 by wining 10 straight.

“Our defense was not as good as our offense, not near as productive as our offense,” Ozmint said. “We played hard and we did enough to keep us in ball games, but our offense is what kept us alive.”

It was led by the likes of quarterback Gary Hollingsworth, who threw for 2,379 yards, late fullback Kevin Turner, wide receiver/tight end Lamonde Russell and wide receivers Marco Battle and Craig Sanderson. Freshman running back Siran Stacy set Alabama single-season records for most points (108), touchdowns (18) and rushing touchdowns (17), and finished the season with 1,079 rushing yards on 216 carries.

The offense even helped Phillip Doyle be the NCAA field goal champion.

“They were something to watch,” Ozmint said. “One of the great memories was we go to [play] Ole Miss in Jackson and they were up on us 21-0 before we could even focus our eyes. I think the opening kickoff we fumbled, they recovered. Our first snap on the defense was first-and-goal from the 4.

“Before you know it they were up 24-0 and [the fans] were just going crazy, throwing liquor bottles … Gary never got emotional. You just looked at Gary and went, ‘Ok, Gary’s got this.”

Hollingsworth threw for 363 yards, completing 25 of 43 attempts, with five touchdowns and two interceptions while setting numerous records. The five touchdown passes was finally tied by Tua Tagovailoa against Auburn last season, and the yards are still in the top 10 of all-time Crimson Tide performances.

Alabama won the game 62-27.

However, even after surviving at Penn State, 17-16, the deck was stacked against the Crimson Tide.

Most fans today can’t relate to the makeup of college football in the state that year. For the first time since the series resumed in 1948 after a 41-year hiatus, the Iron Bowl was going to be played in one of the campus stadiums instead of at Legion Field.

One has to understand that for years Auburn couldn’t get big-name opponents to visit the Plains, and the Tigers felt playing Alabama in Birmingham gave the Crimson Tide an advantage.

Tigers coach Pat Dye compared it to the fall of the Berlin Wall and longtime athletic director David Housel likened it to the return of the Israelites to the Promised Land.

The emotionally charged home team scored on its first possession, but trailed 10-7 at halftime. However, the second half was one-sided, with the final score: No. 11 Auburn 30, No. 2 Alabama 20.

“We were almost flat,” Ozmint said in general. “We weren’t a team that got fired up. We weren’t a team that got really emotional. I think that Auburn game was so cooked with emotion, I think it got us a little out of balance.

“They played a great game, don’t get me wrong, but I think we could have played that game 50 other ways, 50 other places and 50 other times and won 49 different ways. But that’s the only regret that I have from that year.”

Everyone knows what happened next.

After Alabama lost to Miami in the Sugar Bowl, 33-25, with the Hurricanes locking up the national championship, Curry resigned and headed to Kentucky. Gene Stallings was hired to take over the program.

Alabama (10-2, 6-1 SEC) still got rings, through, sharing the league title with Auburn and Tennessee.

“We really did play above our talent level,” said Ozmint, who hailed from South Carolina and is now the head football coach at Arab High School. “I think we played together. It’s one of those deals that everyone did their job and depended on their brother to do his. That’s how that year went down from beginning to end.”

So the players have stayed in touch. Even when they don’t have an official reunion on campus like this one they still try and get together on a regular basis. There’s also a shared group text that can get pretty active, especially on Saturdays in the fall.

“It’s a good group of guys, but sometimes that group text gets a little out of hand, you have to turn the volume down,” Ozmint said.“It goes on, and on, and on …”