Congratulations to the National Champions Crimson Tide on their big win last night. Their name and mascot are curious, so we went to find the reason behind these questions.
Reason the mascot is an elephant:
In the 1930 Alabama-Ole Miss game, Coach Wallace Wade started his second string in the first quarter. They were still bigger than the Mississippi first string, but Ole Miss was hanging tough. Sports writer Everett Strupper, of the Atlanta Journal, wrote “At the end of the (first) quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, ‘Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,’ and out stamped this Alabama varsity.” Several other writers referred to the Alabama linemen Red Elephants and the name stuck. That is how Alabama came to be associated with elephants. Now, the Crimson Tide mascot is an elephant fittingly named Big Al.
Reason they are called The Crimson Tide:
Early football teams were simply know as the Varsity or the Crimson White after the school colors. The nickname Thin Red Line was used by sports writers until 1906. The nickname Crimson Tide was penned by Hugh Roberts, of the Birmingham Age-Herald, after the 1907 Alabama-Auburn game. In a game that was played in a sea of red mud, Alabama played heavily favored Auburn to a 6-6 tie. After the game, Roberts dubbed Alabama the Crimson Tide. Zipp Newman, of the Birmingham News, probably popularized the name more than anyone else. Source: www.rolltidebama.com
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