This collection presents 26 accounts of memorable victories and bittersweet failures marking the most significant sports events in Alabama’s history, from 1899 through 1994. The stories capture the excitement of native son Willie Mays’s heroic backfield catch in 1954, Joe Namath’s shining defeat in the Orange Bowl, Auburn’s stunning basketball win over Kentucky, and Alabama’s unforgettable Rose Bowl victory.


The stories cover several arenas of sport—football, basketball, golf, baseball, tennis, auto racing—and are sprinkled with the glories of both notables and relative unknowns. “Prelude to a Grand Slam” describes how a young Bobby Jones won the Birmingham golf tournament on his way to the national crown, while “Grand Champion” is the story of blind golfer Charley Boswell. We learn about the “night Hank Aaron out-homered Babe Ruth” and how the father-son duo of Bobby and Davey Allison shone at Daytona Speedway. There are pieces on high school football heroics and Dixie Series baseball and one on the historic football rivalry between Auburn University and The University of Alabama.

Sixteen of the stories were written by Benny Marshall and appeared in his book Twenty Grand, published in 1968. Additional stories were contributed by sportswriters Clyde Bolton, Jim Martin, Wayne Martin, Phillip Marshall, and Wendell Givens. Collectively, they offer a panoply of highlights that will delight sports fans everywhere, especially in Alabama, where sport is nigh to obsession.


 

Foreword by: Wendell Givens