1925 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

The 1925 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (variously "Alabama", "UA" or "Bama") represented the University of Alabama in the 1925 college football season. It was the Crimson Tide's 32nd overall and 4th season as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). The team was led by head coach Wallace Wade, in his third year, and played their home games at Denny Field in Tuscaloosa, at Rickwood Field in Birmingham and at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. They finished the season with their first ever perfect record (10–0 overall, 7–0 in the SoCon), as Southern Conference champions and as national champions after they defeated Washington in the Rose Bowl.

Game notes
The 1925 Tide was overwhelmingly dominant in finishing the regular season 9-0. Only one team scored: Birmingham-Southern managed a touchdown after recovering a fumble at the Alabama 25 and benefiting from two Alabama offside penalties. Two games were close calls. Alabama beat Georgia Tech 7–0 on a Johnny Mack Brown punt return for a TD. Tech turned the ball over on downs at the Alabama 28 and again at the Alabama 21. The Tide then beat Mississippi State 6–0, scoring after a short punt set Bama up on the MSU 26 and later intercepting a Mississippi State pass after the "Maroons" (now the Bulldogs) drove to the Tide 16.

The season was extended when Alabama received a surprise invitation to head west and play in the Rose Bowl. It was Alabama's first bowl game ever and the first time a southern team had ever been invited to play in what then was college football's only bowl game. Its opponent was the Washington Huskies, who had gone 10–0–1, been just as dominant as the Tide, and were regarded as heavy favorites by the press. Through one half, that prediction looked accurate. Washington's star halfback George Wilson intercepted a pass in the first quarter and then led his team 63 yards for a touchdown and a 6–0 lead. In the second quarter Wilson ran for 36 yards and then threw a 22-yard touchdown pass, and Washington went up 12–0. Both extra point tries failed. At the half, Wade changed his game plan, telling Pooley Hubert to run more often. Possibly more importantly, George Wilson sat out the entire third quarter due to sore ribs. It was in that third quarter that Alabama struck. A short punt set up Alabama on the Washington 42 and the Tide quickly capitalized, Hubert scoring on a 1-yard run to make the score 12–7. The Huskies couldn't move the ball without Wilson and punted. Shortly thereafter Hubert hit Brown on a 59-yard touchdown pass and suddenly Alabama led 14–12. Not long after that Washington fumbled the ball and Alabama recovered at the Husky 30. Hubert found Brown for another touchdown pass on the very next play. The extra point failed, but Alabama still led 20–12. Bama scored three touchdowns in seven minutes of clock time. Wilson returned in the fourth quarter and threw a late touchdown pass, but the two missed extra points in the first half proved decisive, and Alabama won 20–19.

It was Alabama's first real perfect season in school history. (Bama was undefeated in 1897 when the Tide played and won one game.) The NCAA retroactively deemed Alabama to be the consensus "national champion" for 1925 due to its selection by a majority of authorities. Johnny Mack Brown and Pooley Hubert were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Brown capitalized on his Rose Bowl exposure in southern California by signing a motion picture contract with MGM and beginning a 40-year career in the movies.

Schedule

 * Source: Rolltide.com: 1925 Alabama football schedule