Iron Bowl

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The Iron Bowl logo.

The Iron Bowl is the name given to the annual intercollegiate football game between the teams of Auburn University and University of Alabama. The deep-seated football rivalry between Alabama and Auburn has historically spilled over into the politics and society of the state of Alabama.

The winner of the game has statewide "bragging rights" until the next year, and as is typical of rivalry games of this nature, a win in this game can seemingly salvage an otherwise poor season for the winner, while a loss can ruin what had otherwise been a fine season for the loser. As is typical of such games, it is usually scheduled to be the final regular-season game for each team and is always played in late November.

[edit] History

**Iron Bowl**
Alabama (38)	Auburn (32)
1894 1903 1905 1906 1948 1950 1951 1952 1953 1959 1960 1961 1962 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1984 1985 1990 1991 1992 1994 1996 1998 1999 2001	1893 (Feb. & Nov.) 1895 1900 1901 1902 1904 1949 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1963 1969 1970 1972 1982 1983 1986 1987 1988 1989 1993 1995 1997 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Ties (1)
1907

Alabama and Auburn played their first football game in Lakeview Park in Birmingham, Alabama on February 22, 1893. Auburn won, 32-22, before an estimated crowd of 2,000. As if a signal of the future, disagreement between the schools began immediately as Alabama considered the game to be the final matchup of the 1892 season and Auburn recorded it as the first of 1893. The series was suspended after the 1907 game when the schools could not come to agreement over the amount of expenses to be paid players, as well as from where officials for the game should be obtained.

Auburn president Dr. Ralph B. Draughon and Alabama president Dr. John Gallalee decided during the winter and spring of 1948 to end the disagreement and renew the series after fighting what they considered interference into their internal affairs by the state legislature. The teams met in Birmingham because it had the largest stadium in the state, 44,000-seat Legion Field. Alabama won that game, 55-0, in the most lopsided victory of the series. The game would be played exclusively at Legion Field until 1989 when Auburn hosted the game in Jordan-Hare Stadium before a (then) record crowd of 85,319.

For most of the 20th century, both schools played many of their home games in Birmingham (and for Auburn, Columbus, Georgia) due, in part, to the difficulty of travel to both Tuscaloosa (the location of the University of Alabama campus) and Auburn as well as insufficient on-campus facilities. Over the years, Auburn's stadium was steadily enlarged and Auburn was able to convince most of its opponents to travel to Auburn for a true home-and-home series. Alabama, however, continued to play half its home games each season in Legion Field.

By 1980, when the west upper deck of Jordan-Hare was completed, the only remaining 'neutral site' game on Auburn's schedule was the Iron Bowl, as it had come to be called due to Birmingham's prominence as a center of iron and steel production. Auburn fans now perceived a disparity in fan support in Birmingham due to Alabama's other home games in the city. Auburn officials, led by its athletic director and head football coach Pat Dye, set out to move their home game to Auburn with the addition of the east upper deck which would make Jordan-Hare the largest stadium in the state. On December 2, 1989, a sellout crowd would witness Auburn win its first true 'home' game of the series, 30-20 over an Alabama team that entered the game unbeaten and ranked #2 in the country.

Alabama officials had fought the move from Birmingham and continued to hold their home game at Legion Field until the 2000 season where it was once again played in Tuscaloosa in Bryant-Denny Stadium after the capacity of the Crimson Tide's on-campus home was expanded to more than 83,000, exceeding the capacity of Legion Field. The game had been played in Tuscaloosa only twice before early in the series in 1895 and 1901. A new attendance record was set in 2006 as the latest expansion to Bryant-Denny increased its capacity to 92,138.

[edit] Miscellaneous

As of November 2006:

Alabama leads the all-time series 38-32-1.
Since the resumption of the series in 1948, the only head coaches to win the Iron Bowl in the first year at their school are Gene Stallings (Alabama-1990), Terry Bowden (Auburn-1993), and Dennis Franchione (Alabama-2001). The only coaches to win their final Iron Bowl appearance are Stallings in 1996 and Bowden in 1997.
Since the resumption of the series, the only two Auburn coaches to win more than half of their Iron Bowls are Terry Bowden (1993-1997, 3-2), and Tommy Tuberville (1999-present, 6-2). The only Alabama coaches to lose more than half of their Iron Bowl games as coach are the three who failed to win a single Iron Bowl: J.B. "Ears" Whitworth (1955-1957), Bill Curry (1987-1989), and Mike Shula (2003-2006).
Alabama has shut Auburn out 14 times (1894, 1905, 1906, 1948, 1952, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1973, 1975 and 1992), while Auburn has shut Alabama out eight times (1895, 1901, 1902, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1987 and 2000).
The largest margin of victory in the series is 55 points, when Alabama defeated Auburn 55-0 in 1948, the first game in the series since 1907. Auburn's largest margin of victory in the series is 48 points, when the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide 53-5 in 1900.
Five games have been decided by one point. Auburn won by one point in 1949 (14-13), 1972 (17-16), 1982 (23-22) and 1997 (18-17), while Alabama won by one point in 1996 (24-23).
Since 1981, the Iron Bowl has been televised nationally on either a broadcast or cable network every season except 1993, when NCAA probation prevented Auburn from appearing on television.
Former Alabama head coach Mike Shula is the only Crimson Tide head coach to lose four consecutive games to Auburn, and is one of only three coaches to lose at least four consecutive games in the series. The others are Auburn's Ralph Jordan (1959-1962) and (1964-1968) and Doug Barfield (1976-1980).
The longest winning streak in the series is held by Alabama at 9 games, from 1973 to 1981.
Auburn won five in a row from 1954 through 1958, and again from 2002 through 2006.
The game has been played in four cities: Auburn, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa.
The greatest number of points given up by an Alabama team coached by Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant occurred in the 1969 Iron Bowl. Auburn defeated Alabama, 49-26, ending a five-year Crimson Tide winning streak in the series.
Auburn and Alabama have never both had losing records in the same season.
Alabama has never beaten Auburn in Tuscaloosa (0-6), only scoring 35 points in those six games.
Alabama has entered the Iron Bowl undefeated and untied on 11 occasions (1961, 1964, 1966, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1989, 1992, 1994), while Auburn has entered the game with an unblemished record four times (1957, 1971, 1993, 2004). In the only Iron Bowl to match up two undefeated, untied squads, the Crimson Tide routed the Tigers 31-7 in 1971. Auburn and Alabama were both undefeated in 1994 (Auburn and Georgia had tied 23-23), and Alabama defeated Auburn 21-14. The only other team to enter the game undefeated and untied and lose the Iron Bowl was the 1989 Alabama squad; the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide 30-20 in the first Iron Bowl game played at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Auburn has been defeated twice at Jordan-Hare Stadium and never at Bryant-Denny, giving Auburn only two losses since the Iron Bowl moved to a home-and-home series in 1999 (Auburn is 12-2 in games played on-campus).
The trophy given to the winner of the game is called the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Award. It is named after James E. Foy, an Alabama graduate and former Auburn dean of students and Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society - which was established on both campuses during the 1920s.
Per Auburn's media guide, Alabama holds a 30-19-1 record in neutral sites and went 6-1 in games played in Birmingham after the 1988 resolution. The teams split the four games played in Montgomery.
Starting in 2007, the Iron Bowl will be played during the week of Thanksgiving which moves the game back one week each year. This is due to a change in SEC policy that will begin in 2007 that requires conference teams to play the week of Thanksgiving, which is tradtionally the last week of the season before the SEC Championship Game. Many schools have complained that with the Iron Bowl taking place the weekend before Thanksgiving, if the winner of the Iron Bowl won the SEC West, that team would have an unfair competitive advantage by having a week off before the championship game.