The Nazi minister of propaganda, Joesph Goebbels, once said "A lie repeated over and over will come to be the truth." In the realm of college football, no team has embraced that philosophy or used it more to their benefit than the University of Alabama. Whenever you see a promo for the football team, there is always a bama helmet in the back round with the # 15 on it, supposedly representing the 15 national championships bama has won.....that is the biggest crock of shit in college football history.....first of all bama themselves NEVER claimed any of the pre 1961 titles until 1982 when the alabama sports information director of that day, a fellow by the name of Wayne Atcheson, decided that the 6 titles bama DID claim were not enough since Notre Dame and USC had more than bama.....ALL BY HIMSELF he added 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, and the absolute most ridiculous claim in the history of sports 1941..... BAMA DID NOT WIN ANYTHING IN ANY OF THOSE YEARS....nobody of those days ever recognized bama as #1 in ANY of those years.....in 1925 Dartmouth was widely considered the national champion and the ONLY reason bama played in the Rose Bowl that year was because Darmouth had turned the game down....In 1926 Stanford was already the National Champion BEFORE the Rose Bowl game in which bama salvaged a tie in the final minutes of a game dominated by Stanford....In 1930 Knute Rockne's last Notre Dame team before his death was undefeated and maybe his best team ever.....alabama would not have been good enough to be on the same field with the Fighting Irish that season and EVERY POLLSTER OF THE DAY in 1930 selected Notre Dame #1..... In 1934 Minnesota was a juggernaut and widely considered , once again, by all the experts of that era to be the national champion.....bama was hardly even mentioned in 1934....which brings us to 1941.....bama lost twice that year, both were SHUTOUT losses....they finished fourth in the SEC that year , but they DID win their bowl game and ONE.....count 'em ONE pollster, a guy by the name of Deke Houlgate said bama was #1......out of over 50 selectors ONE guy chose bama and they still claim 1941 as a championship year.....if there was ever ANY doubt about bama having ANY class at all, their refusal to quit recognizing 1941 as a championship season should forever put an end to that debate. Alabama's first truly recognized and deserved national championship was in 1961.... but in 1964 bama lost to Texas in their bowl game while Arkansas, who had beaten Texas during the regular season, finished undefeated and is the REAL national champion of 1964....and here is one fact I have to point out concerning bama and their claims....they use the bowl games SOLELY for their benefit.....if it helps a bama claim that the bowl game counts then you better believe that bowl game counted....but if it hurts a bama claim to a tittle, then by God, bowl games are only an exhibition game.....that is how they justify 1964....the bowl game did not count, AND THE EXACT OPPOSITE CLAIM THEY USE IN 1965, when by virtue of their bowl win and the bowl game losses of the #1 and #2 teams that year bama suddenly went from #3 to #1 without playing a top team. And in 1973 the bowl game DOES NOT count again since bama LOST to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl in a battle of unbeatens.....Notre Dame is the REAL National Champion of 1973.....and in 1978 USC beat bama during the regular season and had a better record than bama and are the REAL national champions of 1978. All of the titles since 1979 are legit and that gives bama 6 completely legitimate national championships and still a place as one of the truly great teams in college football.....but that is not enough for them so the lie keeps getting told and more people keep believing it. It is sad really that in the entire state of alabama no one has enough class to stand up and say, "You know what, maybe we didn't win all those titles, but we are still a great team".....now I would believe that.
I do not know how to do it on this computer.....it keeps bunching everything up......but thanks for the English lesson.....but what I really need is a computer class....
go to al.com an article from 2009 I believe "How Bama Got 12".....it details how Wayne Atcheson himself tells the story of why he added all of the pre 1961 titles and go to college football data warehouse and look at national championship selectors for a list of what selector picked what team in a given year....you will be surprised by what you find.....
And COTiger.....I am not trying to be insulting but obviously you can read......so read....the complete list of all the sources I used is very long indeed and includes calls to the athletic departments of Dartmouth and Stanford......I will say this .....in 1926 there was only ONE actual poll.....a guy by the name of Frank Dickinson was prompted by his friend Knute Rockne to use his mathematical formula to select a champion.....another fellow, a buisnessman from Chicago endorsed the idea and even sponsored a trophy named " The Rissman Trophy" after his own name Jack Rissman.......and Stanford not alabama was the recipient of the ONLY national championship trophy awarded in 1926....the Rissman Trophy. google Rissman trophy and see for yourself....and he also awarded 1925 to Darmouth.....bama is never mentioned
