Resuming Grid Relations in 1945

Here we have another item from the old Gadsden Times issues I've been paging through in recent months. This brief article relates to one of the most important topics in the state's history--Alabama and Auburn football.

The two schools first played each other in that sport on February 22, 1893. The game took place at Lakeview Park in Birmingham. Auburn--formally known at the time as Alabama Polytechnic Institute, or API--won that contest. 32-22. The park no longer exists; Highlands Park Golf Course occupies the land today. 

The teams continued playing each other through 1907. After that contract negotiations stalled and another game wasn't played until several decades later. Various rumors arose about why the contest ended and how it started again in 1948. The Encyclopedia of Alabama entry by Clyde Bolton on the "Iron Bowl" sorts out the mess: 

"Auburn and Alabama stopped playing each other after 1907. Over the years, a myth grew that a huge fight among players and fans had led to the severing of relations between Auburn and Alabama. The truth, however, was decidedly less dramatic. The schools' officials simply could not agree on contractual details, such as per diem pay rates for the players, and thus there was no game in 1908. Another myth has persisted that the state legislature mandated resumption of the series, but a resolution approved by the legislature on August 15, 1947, merely officially requested that the schools resume the annual contest. In 1948, Auburn president Ralph Draughon and Alabama president John Galalee simply agreed that the schools should play, and the rivalry was renewed in the modern era."

As the article below indicates, a bill to force resumption of the series--with a serious penalty attached for non-compliance--was actually introduced in the state legislature on May 2, 1945. The bill called for the governor to set the time and place of the first game. However, Governor Chauncey Sparks declared his opposition to this method of restarting the game. 

Apparently some momentum had developed. The quote above from the EOA mentions a resolution about the game passed by the legislature on August 15, 1947. That resolution notes there had been a "lapse of many years in athletic relations" between Alabama and API and that a majority of the legislature feels resumption of a "full athletic program" between the schools is in the best interest of the universities and the people of Alabama. Thus the legislature "respectfully requests" the Boards of Trustees of the schools to implement that program by May 1949. 

The first game of the resumed series was played on December 4, 1948; Alabama won 55-0. Thus, "grid relations" did not resume in 1945, but did soon enough to fulfill the legislature's request. Note there is no mention of any "Iron Bowl" in all of this wrangling. Shug Jordan christened the game the "Iron Bowl" in the 1950s, but the term didn't gain traction until the following decade. 

Also notable is the fact that original negotiations between the schools in 1907  broke down over the issue of player payment.  

Source: Gadsden Times 2 May 1945

The resolution appears on pages 215-215 of the 1947 General Laws. 

Source: Internet Archive

Alabama Photo: A Barn in 1935 by Walker Evans

 Walker Evans is one of the most famous American documentary photographers of the 20th century. He made at least two trips to Alabama during the Great Depression as he traveled through America taking photographs. This barn photo was taken in December 1935. His best known visit to the state came in the summer of 1936 when he and writer James Agee travelled from New York to Hale County to document the lives of sharecropping families. That effort eventually resulted in one of the best-known books ever written about Alabama, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. During that summer the two men visited other parts of the state as well. 

I've written several blog posts about Evans' Alabama photos of a cemetery, two stores, and an advertisement for J.C. Lincoln's Sunny South Minstrels. I've also discussed his shots of the abandoned town of Advance and some of his 1936 photos in Birmingham. 

The photo below features cigarette and tobacco ads on the side of the barn. Such advertising on barns was common in the Midwest and Southern United States in the first half of the 20th century. The exact location of the barn in the state is unknown. See below for discussion of these specific ads. 

Source: Farm Security Administration Photo Collection

Library of Congress

"Prince Albert" is a cigarette and pipe tobacco marketed by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company since 1907. R.J. Reynolds himself named the product after the future King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII. The tins in which the tobacco was sold are now highly prized vintage items and can be seen on the right in this ad. The containers are also the subject of a long-running joke, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" The Wikipedia entry linked at the beginning of this paragraph explains. 

A Phillip Morris ad appears twice on this barn. The company has produced many brands over the years including Marlboro and the one here named after the firm. Both ads feature "Johnny the Bellboy", a campaign that lasted more than 40 years. The individual was an actual person, Johnny Roventini, a midget and actor who had actually worked as a bellboy. Phillip Morris sponsored the I Love Lucy TV show for several years, and Roventini figured prominently in the advertising there. 

I'm not sure if the woman in the Camel ad was a real person, although to me she looks a bit like actress Dorothy Lamour. In the 1930s Camel was the first cigarette brand to show women smoking in its advertisements.