to retrieve you. My advice to you is to start drinking heavily -- maybe the bottle of tequila at church is the place to start. I was once pre-med for about 15 minutes, too, so you better listen.
My recollection is that the "cow college" comment by coach Bryant was before the 1972 Punt Bama Punt game. That makes sense in context because Bama was to play Texas that year in the Cotton Bowl. I don't think he meant it as a compliment as much as he was reuniting with his constituency in the early stages of his second honeymoon with the Tide. I will try to explain why I think that way. Though it was before you were born, you must remember that the Bama nation (which, Tider Insider notwithstanding, was at the zenith of its obnoxiousness at about this time) turned on Bear in the late 1960s. His back to back losses to Auburn in 1969 and 1970* were the types of sins for which forgiveness was unlikely, if not impossible, for at least two reasons: 1) they were to Auburn for God's sake and one was a blowout and the other a huge choke; and 2) Auburn's QB was a Birmingham product, Pat Sullivan, and Birmingham was an exclusive Tahd recruiting province at the time. Thus, the immortal Bear was actually hearing some rumblings about the game passing him by and was entertaining thoughts of escaping to the Miami Dolphins. Then came 1971 and the wishbone. Bama went undefeated in the regular season, only to be thrashed by Nebraska, one of the best football teams of the era, in the Orange Bowl. When Bama made mincemeat of everyone in 1972 prior to the Auburn game, the Bama Nation was squarely back in Bryant's corner. Bama was ranked second and sitting pretty for another national championship with only an easy win over that cow college and a Cotton Bowl triumph remaining. This was the kind of collateral against which any Birmingham banker would lend to the legal limit. Thus, I view the cow college comment as a smug comment for the Bama Nation, now that Bear was back in good graces -- the sort of excessive pandering you would give a girlfriend or spouse if a long relationship had soured and then rekindled.
I go through this long history because, despite my earlier comment, I hold out hope for you. This history is important to understanding why you must hate Bama with all of your mind, heart, and soul. Because, if you do not hate Bama properly, you will never understand why the fourth quarter of the 1972 game was so special. Bill Newton, David Langner and the rest of the Amazin's not only pulled off a miracle, they also struck a blow against the Tide superiority complex that not even a brilliant fiction writer could not have conceived. To this day, that remains my favorite Auburn victory over Alabama. Proper understanding of tradition is vital to the maintenance of any belief system.
* Speaking of 1970, did you know that was the first Auburn-Alabama game on artificial turf? Perhaps you have read that somewhere.
::::>I wasn't alive at the time of the cow college quote, but I really wonder if the Bear meant it as a slam on Auburn. If you look at Bama at the time, they were one of the powerhouse teams in the nation. Auburn was a very good team, too, but you can't really say that they were one of the nation's powerhouses. To me, I think the Bryant quote is a sign of his respect for Auburn. If you think about it, to say that he'd rather beat Auburn than Texas was quite a compliment. To juice it up with calling Auburn the cow college was also a sign that he respected our rivalry. I wonder if he wanted to get Alabama-Auburn the same national recognition that Texas-TAMU or Texas-Oklahoma may have had. All of that could just be me trying to put a rosy spin on it, but I really wonder if the coaches of the two schools have ever even disliked each other. Maybe Perkins and Dye didn't like each other. It's my understanding, though, that Bear and Shug had a good relationship and Bear and Dye had a good relationship. I think Shula and Tuberville probably like each other.
