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OPEN DAILY
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
5/25/1978
Alabama assistant coach Bill "Brother" Oliver is honored by the Birmingham Touchdown Club as its "Working Coach of the Year." In announcing Oliver's award in the Birmingham News, Alf Van Hoose calls Oliver "the best young coach in the business." |
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Coach: Frank Thomas (Notre Dame) Record: 10-0
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Captain(s): Bill Lee
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No one ever called Bama's coach a Doubting Thomas about the superiority of this national championship team. Pollsters (pre-AP, etc. days) lumped the Tide with Minnesota and Pittsburgh in the No. 1 race. Frank Thomas candidly called it his best Alabama team and the 29-13 romp over Stanford in the Rose Bowl confirmed the Tide's belief this team was special.
In an era when points were at a premium, Bama averaged 31.4 a game; the opposition could manage but 4.5 a contest. Legendary Don Hutson, who some 56 years later, would be named to the all-time college football team, displayed the skills that would one day earn him induction into seven different Hall of Fames (Alabama, Arkansas, Green Bay Packer, NFL, College, and Helms Foundation, Wisconsin).
Tailback Dixie Howell and tackle Bill Lee joined Hutson as All-Americans. The only close game all year came in the annual heavyweight thriller with Tennessee, a 13-6 Bama win. Sports writing's most fabled character Grantland Rice forever immortalized Howell in Southern football lore when he penned these words after the 29-13 win over Stanford: "Dixie Howell, the human howitzer from Hartford, Ala., blasted the Rose Bowl dreams of Stanford today with one of the greatest all-around exhibitions football has ever known," Howell scored two TDs, one on a scintillating 67-yard scamper, and passed 59 yards to Hutson for another. For the game, he averaged 43.8 yards a punt, gained 111 yards rushing, and 160 passing. He was the game's MVP. |
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Notes: Alabama wins the national title under Thomas. Dixie Howell's the Rose Bowl MVP as well as the SEC Player of the Year. |
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