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Alabama head coach Ray Perkins attempts to get his team going in their homecoming game with Vanderbilt at home on Sept. 29, 1984.
When most people think of Alabama football and bowl games, they think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
That’s certainly when Alabama has played most of its postseason games over the years. No SEC team has played in the Sugar Bowl more times than Alabama’s record 17 appearances.
But the Crimson Tide have also played in many non-New Year’s bowls — some more flattering than others. The Tide have even gotten into the holiday spirit by playing on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It happened on three different occasions, all in the 1980s.
The 1983 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, on Christmas Eve saw Ray Perkins’ first Alabama team take on the SMU Mustangs one year after the famed “Pony Express” of Eric Dickerson and Craig James.
In what was an upset win, Alabama stormed to a 28-0 lead at halftime and defeated the sixth-ranked Ponies, 28-7, before a national television audience on CBS. SMU had been a heavy favorite entering the day at 10-1 and having won the Southwest Conference.
Three years later, Alabama was back in El Paso for another Sun Bowl appearance — this time against Don James’ Washington Huskies on Christmas Day 1986. Running back Bobby Humphrey had three touchdowns, and future College Football Hall of Fame defensive end Cornelius Bennett was named the game’s MVP.
Bennett ended his college career with 11 tackles and a sack in a 28-6 Alabama win over Washington. For Perkins, it was his last game as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. It was also the first meeting between Alabama and Washington in a bowl game since the 1926 Rose Bowl, which Alabama won 20-19 in a major upset that has been chronicled in countless books on Crimson Tide and college football history.
Alabama returned to El Paso for…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-football-history-christmas-eve-192601205.html
Author : Roll Tide Wire
Publish date : 2024-12-24 19:26:00
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