Alabama Crimson Tide football, 1950–59

The 1950s were the worst decade in the history of Alabama football. The Tide football program, a frequent contender in the Southeastern Conference and regular bowl participant, had five losing seasons in the decade after not having had a losing season since 1903. Alabama bottomed out with an 0–10 season in 1955, the worst in the history of the program. However, the decade ended with the hiring of Paul "Bear" Bryant, who would rebuild Alabama football and guide it to its greatest successes.

1950
The decade got off to a promising start. Alabama went 9–2 and capped their season with a 34–0 victory over Auburn. However, a 14–9 loss to Tennessee and a loss to Vanderbilt cost Alabama the SEC title, and they finished in third place.

1951
Alabama's 89–0 victory over Delta State in the 1951 opener set a Tide record for most points scored in a game after the formation of the Southeastern Conference in 1933. (The 1922 team beat Marion Institute 110–0.) But the Tide followed that victory up with a four-game losing streak that included a loss to second-ranked Tennessee. After evening its record at 4–4 Bama lost games in November to Georgia Tech and Florida. A 25–7 victory over Auburn provided some consolation for a 5–6 season, Alabama's first losing season since 1903. It was a preview of things to come.

Bobby Marlow's 233 rushing yards against Auburn set a school record that lasted for 25 years and remains the third-most rushing yards ever in a game for an Alabama player. Alabama's loss to Tennessee on Oct. 20 was the first ever Tide game to be broadcast on television. The game against Delta State at Cramton Bowl in Montgomery marked the first year of a four-year period in which Alabama, which was already regularly playing games in Mobile and Birmingham as well as Tuscaloosa, began playing "home" games in four different cities.

1952
Alabama bounced back in 1952 to have its best season of the decade, finishing 10–2. However, losses to Tennessee (Bama's fifth year in a row without a victory over the Volunteers) and Georgia Tech cost the Tide an SEC title. The Crimson Tide went to its first bowl game in five years, against Syracuse in the Orange Bowl, and destroyed the Orangemen 61–6. The blowout set a school record for most points scored in a bowl game and an Orange Bowl record for points scored. The 55-point margin of victory stood as the all-time record for a bowl game through the 2008 GMAC Bowl where Tulsa defeated Bowling Green 63–7 for a 56 point margin of victory.

Freshman quarterback Bart Starr, playing with the varsity, appeared in seven games as the backup to Butch Hobson. Starr would go on to a legendary Hall of Fame career as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

1953
1953 was one of the more unusual seasons in Tide history. Alabama won only six games all year, and only four of seven conference games. However, the other three conference games were ties, and a 4–0–3 record was good enough to win Alabama the SEC title. It was Bama's first conference championship since 1945 and last until 1961. Against Tennessee, Bama had a chance to win for the first time since 1947 but had to settle for a scoreless tie after fumbling the ball away on the Tennessee five and missing a 43-yard field goal. The Tide's 10–7 win over Auburn was its fourth in a row in the Iron Bowl.

The Cotton Bowl Classic against Rice featured one of the strangest plays in the history of college football. In the second quarter, Rice had the ball on its own five-yard line, leading 7–6, after recovering an Alabama fumble. Rice running back Dick Moegle swept around the right side, broke free, and appeared to be on his way to a 95-yard touchdown run—until Tommy Lewis of Alabama, who was on the sideline, ran into the field of play and tackled Moegle at the Alabama 40. Officials awarded Moegle a 95-yard touchdown run, and Rice won the game 28–6.

1954
Harold Drew had a winning record at Alabama, going 45–28–7 in seven years, but the program slipped from its glory days under Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas. Drew's teams won only one conference title and gone to three bowl games in eight years. In 1954, the program went into serious decline.

It did not seem that way after the first five games. Following a second consecutive season-opening loss to Southern Mississippi, Alabama reeled off a four-game winning streak that included a 27–0 victory over Tennessee. The win over the Volunteers was the only one for the Crimson Tide in a span of 13 seasons, 1948–1960. But Alabama followed that win by scoring only 14 points over the last six games of the 1954 season. Right after beating Tennessee, Alabama lost 12–7 to Mississippi State, beginning a streak of 16 consecutive scoreless quarters that tied the all-time school record. Consecutive scoreless ties against Georgia and Tulane followed, despite quarterback Bart Starr's comeback from an early-season injury. (Starr, limited by a bad back, threw only 41 passes all year.) The season ended with losses to Georgia Tech, Miami and Auburn by a combined score of 71–7, dropping Alabama to 4–5–2 on the year. It was only Alabama's second losing season in 50 years, but much worse was to come.

1955
1955 brought a new coach, J.B. Whitworth. Whitworth, a former Alabama player, brought a new system that was more oriented towards the running game. Consequently, senior quarterback Bart Starr and the other Tide seniors saw little playing time. Whitworth, for his part, was only allowed to hire two assistants and required to retain the rest of Coach Drew's staff.

The result was a disaster. Alabama football hit rock bottom in 1955, going 0–10. It was only the third winless season in the history of the Crimson Tide, the others being 1893 and 1895 when the program was just starting, and the only one when Alabama played more than four games. The scope of the failure was epic. Alabama averaged 4.8 points per game; the opposition averaged 25.6. The Tide was shut out four times; the opposition never scored fewer than 20 points. Bama never even came close to a victory, with the smallest margin of defeat being 15 points in a 21–6 loss to Vanderbilt. The next worst team in the SEC, Georgia, scored 125 points more than Alabama and allowed 86 fewer, and whipped the Tide 35–14.

1956
In 1956 the Crimson Tide improved somewhat from the meltdown of the year before—but not much. Alabama opened the season with four straight losses by a combined score of 99–26. The all-time school record losing streak ran to seventeen consecutive games, and the winless streak reached 20 games. Then, finally, Alabama won a game for the first time since October 16, 1954. The Tide scored with 2½ minutes to go and kicked the extra point to beat Mississippi State 13–12. The Tide managed a 13–7 victory over Tulane two weeks later and a 13–13 tie with Southern Mississippi two weeks after that, but lopsided losses to Georgia Tech and Auburn left Bama's final record at 2–7–1. It was the Tide's third losing season in a row.

1957
Whitworth's third and last season resulted in a 2–7–1 record that was identical to the year before. The first four games saw the opposition outscore Alabama 76–6, but those six points were good enough to salvage a tie with Vanderbilt. (The Tide missed a chance to win after they turned the ball over on downs at the Vanderbilt 1 in the final minutes). Highlights of a dismal year were a 14–13 victory over Georgia and a 29–2 drubbing of Southern Mississippi, the only time in thirty games under Coach Whitworth that Alabama managed to score more than 14 points. However, the season ended with an embarrassing 40–0 loss to Auburn. Alabama had now lost four games in a row to their arch-rivals by a combined score of 128–7. To add insult to injury, Auburn went 10–0 and won the national championship.

After the season was over, Whitworth was finally fired. He was replaced by another former Alabama player, one who had gone on to great success as a head coach at Kentucky and Texas A&M--Paul "Bear" Bryant.

1958
The improvement of Crimson Tide football under Bryant was immediate and dramatic. Despite playing a tough schedule (five ranked teams), Alabama managed its first winning season since 1953. The Tide went 5–4–1, with Bryant winning more games in one year than Whitworth did in three.

In the season opener, Bama led LSU 3–0 at the half before losing 13–3; LSU went on to win the 1958 national championship. The Tide played a ranked Vanderbilt team to a scoreless tie and then, on October 25, beat then-#19 Mississippi State for its first victory over a ranked team since beating Auburn in 1953. On November 15 Alabama sprang a 17–8 upset on Georgia Tech. The season finale saw Alabama's fifth straight Iron Bowl loss, but the 14–8 defeat to Auburn was much closer than the previous four. For the season, Bama scored 37 points more than the year before (although the offense was still poor, averaging 10.6 points per game), and allowed 98 points fewer, holding the opposition to 7.5 points per game. Respectability had been restored.

1959
An outstanding defense in 1959 keyed Alabama's continuing rapid improvement, as the Tide went 7–2–2. (The offense was actually slightly worse than the year before, scoring only 95 points all season). After dropping the opener to Georgia, Alabama did not lose for the rest of the regular season. A 7–7 tie with Vanderbilt was the third year in a row that Alabama tied the Commodores. Against Tennessee, a missed 26-yard field goal try with 12 seconds left forced Bama to settle for a 7–7 tie. Alabama beat Georgia Tech again and, most importantly, beat Auburn 10–0, snapping what was then a school-record five-game Iron Bowl losing streak (since exceeded by a six-game streak, 2002–2007). The Tide's rewards were a national ranking and a bowl game, each the first since 1953. The season ended on a downer when Alabama lost the Liberty Bowl to Penn State, 7–0. This bowl game marked the beginning of a school record 25 straight bowl appearances.