RIP Rod Bramblett

[MetalDog]

^ I liken it to a religion.

My grandfather went to UA in the 40's before he enlisted.  He never finished.  Many years later, when I was a tyke, I caught the last few Bear years and the epic '79 Sugar Bowl against No. 1 Penn State.  That was Bear's last National Championship.  So, I have 'pulled' for 'Bama the last four decades.  But I never had any idea what the Alabama/Auburn rivalry was like until I moved here.  It was good to have Roll Tide to present when I was getting a lot of 'Youre a Yankee,' flak.  But my Pop was always a 'Bama fan first and a SEC fan next.  So Bowl season was spent pulling for SEC teams.  Unless, of course, 'Bama was playing someone in the SEC.  Then it was on!  He also told me that Alabama's enemy isn't Auburn, it's Tennessee.  That may change with an Alabama alum as the Vols HC.

The "Tennessee is the ultimate enemy" is still the cry of many Alabama fans.  That is partly truth, and I can say, I lived in Nashville and they feel the same.  But it's partly to belittle Auburn and say they're not significant enough to be in Alabama's notice.   That's partly why 2004, 2010 and almost 2013 were so damaging to the state Auburn/Alabama relations.  Prior to those years there were a lot of chants and shots of "irrelevant" issued at Auburn by Bama.  Losing that disparity was tough for some of their fan base, but they've regained it since.

Honestly, to me as an Auburn grad, I MUCH more have animosity towards LSU and especially Georgia.   I have never been the guy that hates Alabama as an institution or program.  On the contrary, I respect them.  I get it.   I'm a Cowboys fan, I know what it's like to be the team everyone loves to hate.   I actually genuinely root for Bama when they're not playing Auburn or the Longhorns, even though I kid and throw shade occasionally out of light kidding. 

Tennessee took over during the 41 years Auburn and Alabama didn't play each other between 1906 and 1947.  My grandfather attended in the early 40s.  So I expect that's where his enmity for the Vols came from.  And I was always told by those in the know that it's Georgia for Auburn, not 'Bama.  It's the oldest rivalry in the South.

[SirAndrewD]

^ I liken it to a religion.

Tennessee took over during the 41 years Auburn and Alabama didn't play each other between 1906 and 1947.  My grandfather attended in the early 40s.  So I expect that's where his enmity for the Vols came from.  And I was always told by those in the know that it's Georgia for Auburn, not 'Bama.  It's the oldest rivalry in the South.

Religion is about right.  I really never even remotely understood how deep it ran until I got here.  As a pro fan, I of course had a rivalry with the Redskins, and there's a ton of bad blood with the Eagles.  I will say on that, I'd feel a bit safer seeing an Iron Bowl in Orange and Blue in Tuscaloosa than seeing an Eagles game in Philly in Cowboys gear.  In fact, I would NOT wear Cowboys gear in Philly, ever, at all.  I've worn my colors in T-Town and not felt much concern. 

And yes, I forgot the great gap in Auburn-Alabama play.  To those that don't know, the rivalry got so bad that for a long time it simply wasn't held.  And yeah, in that time I can see how Alabama and Tennessee got to be rougher. 

Also right that I really dislike Georgia more than Alabama, as I've said before.  I cheered EXTREMELY hard for Alabama over Georgia when they played for the NC.  Georgia fans were deeply brutal to Auburn people about how they'd won more recent Nattys before 2010.   They've been desperate to have one to throw in Auburn's face since.  It's also rough that Auburn has such a following in Georgia.   When I lived in Atlanta I'd say it was at least 30% Auburn fans, and that got under the skin hugely of the home crowd. 

[airboy]

Sir Andrew - sounds like you Dad’s wife had mental issues.  Very sad.

My Dad was a huge sports fan and was attached to Wake Forest.  My brothers went there.   I was accepted, then applied late to UNC and went there.  My Dad only came to Chapel Hill the day I graduated.

It hurt him that I was the only serious sports fan and went to games with him as a kid through high school.

[Gusington]

I vaguely knew about these football rivalries but these personal stories are hardcore.

[bayonetbrant]

This makes Boston/NY or Army/Navy seem tame in comparison.

^ I liken it to a religion.

One of the very few worldwide rivalries to Bama/Auburn is Celtic-Rangers in Glasgow, and that one literally is religion.

Part of the issue you have in Alabama is that there's no other unifying factor for the fan base to rally around, and there's no other division other than the Bama/Auburn divide.

Here in NC, you have the three-headed State-UNC-Duke rivalry, with an extra dose of Wake/ECU fans jumping in on occasion.  But you also have all of those fan bases pulling for the Panthers or Hurricanes when pro sports come into the discussion.

In SC, there's a clear Clemson/SC divide, but there's a big chunk of prominent people in the state that went to The Citadel, and two of the key media markets  are tied to out-of-state teams (Charlotte/Rock Hill and Augusta/Aiken)

In Louisiana, LSU dominates everything, but you also have the Saints as a unifying factor statewide.

In Mississippi, neither Ole Miss nor MSU has regularly played for high enough stakes to really make the rivalry worth caring about, and Southern Miss has been the better football team for loooooooong stretches of time.

In Tennessee, the UT-Vandy rivalry was pretty one-sided for a long time, but the state is so geographically spread out that the fan bases can avoid each other pretty easily (and they all ignore Memphis) and that was before pro sports started to seep into the state.

Up in Virginia, the UVa-VT rivalry is pretty good, but not all-consuming when a huge portion of the population is transient or transplant w/ DC & Tidewater.

The Kentucky-Louisville rivalry is mainly hoops-focused, but they aren't in the same conference, and haven't regularly played each other in literally every single sport for 5 generations.

So in the state of Alabama, you've got a combination of insane fans, tight proximity, dearth of alternatives, generational hate, repeated competition, and high stakes that all add up to a total cocktail of crazy.

[SirAndrewD]

Brant hit it on the head there. 

Part of what makes Alabama/Auburn as bad as it is, comes from the fact that it is actually a rivalry. 

Many college rivalries are about as much of a rivalry as a hammer has with a nail.  Tennessee/Vandy comes to mind. 

Some are among schools that really aren't particularly nationally relevant. 

Alabama and Auburn are both power programs in the SEC that regularly beat each other in their rivalry game.  In fact, since 1980 Auburn's had the better of it in the Iron Bowl. 

That's part of what draws the ire of many Alabama fans.   After Auburn's fall from the top in the late 50's, and the coming of Bear Bryant to Tuscaloosa, Alabama ruled the state with a dominance over Auburn that was almost comical.   Alabama fans referred to Auburn as their "Little Sister" and the Iron Bowl was regularly just a holiday for Alabama fans to celebrate their guaranteed win.  Outside of the brief run Auburn had with Heisman QB Pat Sullivan, there wasn't much in the way of good football being played on the Plains.

Auburn wasn't even allowed home games against Alabama during that period.  The Iron Bowl was played at Legion Field, "neutral" ground that was in actuality Alabama's secondary stadium that they used because Tuscaloosa's stadium was not large enough. 

That all changed in the early 80's when Auburn invested a considerable about of money into the football program, its facilities, and coaches.  They hired Bear Bryant's protegee, Pat Dye, as their head coach, which was shocking to Alabama fans, and they recruited Bo Jackson who went on to win the Heisman.

After that Auburn started winning.  They arguably won a National Championship in 1983, only not getting official recognition because of the weird voting system used then by the AP.  They forced Alabama to accept allowing Auburn to have home games for the Iron Bowl every other year, and the rivalry became very even. 

To this day there's still a lot of Alabama fans that refuse to accept that.  They still consider Auburn the "Little Sister" and like to imagine the rivalry is still the hammer and nail it once was.  The reality of the situation is honestly infuriating to some.   The Saban era has alleviated that a bit, as a flood of Championships and constant recruiting classes of depth most schools only dream about has restored some of the aura of invincibility around the program.   But yeah, a lot of it is still there and still raw. 

In some ways it's a good and interesting thing.  It adds spice to a state that otherwise sometimes lacks it.   In others, it goes too far like when it breaks apart families, causes people to celebrate deaths, or even worse, leads to death and violence itself (and there are times it has). 

[airboy]

The town of Auburn had a very rough two weeks while we were out of the country.

First, three police officers were shot and one was killed responding to a domestic dispute.  I knew two of the three including the deceased.  Not unusual for a small town to know that many officers.

About the time the officer was buried Rod Bramblett and his wife died in a car crash.

The two weeks of local paper I'm catching up on were just sad.  The only light point was one of the injured officers was visited by his K-9 dog and a picture of the dog licking him while he was in the hospital bed was on the front page.

[SirAndrewD]

Well., all of my thoughts are with my alma mater and the good people of Auburn.