Alabama's Only Rose Bowl Tie Also Meant a Share of the National Title

All this week, BamaCentral will be looking back at Alabama's elaborate history in the Rose Bowl, where the Crimson Tide has only lost once.

As the four-team College Football Playoff era comes to a close, the Alabama Crimson Tide is already guaranteed of having the most wins, and most games played since it was adopted in 2014. 

Alabama is 9-4, with a winning percentage of .692 heading into its Rose Bowl semifinal game against Michigan on Jan. 1. The Wolverines have yet to notch their first CFP wins, losing in the 2021 and 2023 semifinals. 

Michigan will also be making its first appearance in the Rose Bowl since 2007, when it was ranked third and lost to No. 8 USC, 32-18. It lost its two previous appearances before that, in 2004 and 2005, to USC and Texas, respectively, although it wasn't favored to win either game. 

Back-to-back appearances aren't that common on Rose Bowl history, in part because for years both the Big Ten and the Pac-12, which for decades had an exclusive agreement to participate in the game that was originally titled the "Tournament East–West football game," had a "no repeat" rule of its champions. The first time Michigan did so was actually during a three-year run from 1977-79. It lost all three games. 

Alabama was actually the third school to play in back-to-back Rose Bowls, following the Mare Island Navel Shipyard (located in California) in 1918-19, and Cal in 1921-22.  

In 1925, Alabama was not the first choice of the selection committee to play in the 1926 Rose Bowl, but it proved worthy by pulling off a 20-19 upset of Washington to win its first national championship.

A year later, many wondered if it could possibly do so again, especially after being thrust into the national spotlight by being the first Southern team to play in the high-profile game.

Although standouts Pooley Hubert and Johnny Mack Brown had moved on, Alabama continued to discredit its naysayers and critics with another undefeated regular season that included six shutouts, with the only close game a 2-0 victory against Sewanee decided by a blocked punt that went out of the end zone.

Led by All-Americans Fred Pickhard and Hoyt “Wu” Winslett, along with All-Southern Conference backs Herschel Caldwell and Emile Barnes, and center Gordon “Sherlock” Holmes, the Crimson Tide outscored its regular-season opponents 242-20. Similar to the previous year, the Southern Conference championship came down to a season-ending showdown with Georgia, and for the third straight year Alabama left with the title in tow — this time thanks to a convincing 33-6 Thanksgiving victory.

This time, Alabama didn’t have to wait for Rose Bowl officials to first ask a host of East Coast powers to make the trip to play on January 1, 1927. It was the clear and obvious choice, and eager for an opportunity to both defend its accomplishments and prove that the previous year was not a fluke. Again, the hopes of the South rested with the men from Tuscaloosa, who were, not surprisingly, considered underdogs.

On the opposing side was Stanford, coached by the legendary Glenn “Pop” Warner, who had already made quite a name for himself and boasted the West Coast’s finest team that season. Jack James of the International News Service wrote in reference to Stanford’s 13-12 victory against USC: “Football followers of this vicinity cannot forget the bewildering deception, the concentrated power, the grim determination of the afternoon. And because they remember, they figure that Alabama, or any other ball club, would have to be just short of super-human to deny a repetition of that attack.”

Alabama was outplayed, but Stanford could never put the game away. In the closing minutes, the Crimson Tide scored a touchdown for a 7-7 standoff and 9-0-1 record. Pickhard was selected MVP of the Rose Bowl, and the game was the first transcontinental radio broadcast of a sporting event on NBC.

Because most services at the time held their final rankings at the conclusion of the regular season, both teams along with Lafayette and Navy had already been declared national champions by at least one organization prior to the game — Alabama’s second title.

Tournament of Roses

The 1926-27 Alabama Crimson Tide

9-0-1, national, Southern Conference champions

Date, Opponent, Location, Result

Sept. 24: Millsaps, Tuscaloosa, W 54-0
Oct. 2: Vanderbilt, Nashville, W 19-7
Oct. 9: Mississippi State, Meridian, W 26-7
Oct. 16: Georgia Tech, Atlanta, W 21-0
Oct. 23: Sewanee, Birmingham, W 2-0
Oct. 30: LSU, Tuscaloosa, W 24-0
Nov. 6: Kentucky, Birmingham, W 14-0
Nov. 13: Florida, Montgomery, W 49-0
Nov. 25: Georgia, Birmingham, W 33-6
Jan. 1, 1927: Stanford, Rose Bowl, T 7-7

Coach: Wallace Wade
Outscored opponents: 249-27
Captain: Emile “Red” Barnes
All-American: First team — Hoyt “Wu” Winslett, end; Fred Pickhard, tackle.
All-Southern Conference: Emile Barnes, Back; Herschel Caldwell, back; Gordon Holmes, center; Fred Pickhard, tackle; Hoyt Winslett, end.

 

Parts of this story originally appeared in 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.

This is the second in a series about Alabama's history in the Rose Bowl as in prepares to face Michigan in the CFP semifinal on Jan. 1

Rose Bowl Has Been Alabama's West Coast Home for Nearly 100 Years