The Crimson Tide: The Official Illustrated History of Alabama Football

Winston Groom, UA alumni and author of Forest Gump, does a wonderful job of recording the history of Alabama football from 1892 to present.   This book, originally published in 2000, chronicles the triumphs and tribulations of the Crimson Tide football team.  Each page in this book contains wonderful pictures of the players, posters, cheering crowds, and Big Al.   It also contains stories by players and prominent alumni, schedules, and scores from every season. Many die hard fans will appreciate the statistics that this book offers.  Groom concentrates a lot of his book explaining crucial detail of some of the most significant games in Alabama football team history.    He places emphasis in the coaches and assistant coaches that made this program great.  This book is full of interesting facts such as from 1896-1897 the football team did not play any away games since UA deemed it unprofessional and that the Quad once served as the football practice field.    In 2010, Groom expanded his book to include the “dark days” of Alabama football history to the National Championship of 2009. McLure Library has both the original and the National Championship edition in its collection. Why don’t you come check them out.  This book is the ultimate reference book for Alabama fans!!!

Education Library  GV 958.A4 G76 2010       

Review written by Robert Burgess, Education Library Graduate Assistant.