When talking about the Iron Bowl please get the facts right. Doug Gillett at Dr. Saturday explains to outsiders why the Iron Bowl is so important to Tide and Tiger fans, and he invokes the “brick story†and Bill Curry to do it.
Gillett writes, “Bill Curry, who was 26-7 against everyone except Auburn but 0-3 against the Tigers, famously claimed that someone threw a brick through his window following the ’89 Iron Bowl (couldn’t have been his quarterback, obviously).â€
That famous brick was following the Ole Miss homecoming loss, and not the Iron Bowl. According to the Birmingham News, the brick was tossed on Oct. 8, 1988, and Clyde Bolton wrote a column about it on Oct. 13, 1988. (For those with an interest in verifying the story & its timeline, Bolton’s column was reprinted in the Sunday, September 29, 1996 edition of the Birmingham News.)
Of course, did anyone ever see that alleged brick? Curry was famous for exaggerations like being the last player taken in the NFL draft. (For the record, Curry told everyone this and Paul Finebaum even wrote about the draft & Curry in a Saturday, August 18, 2001 column; Curry wasn’t the last player drafted. I think that is a nice way for me to call Curry a serial exaggerator.)
The Iron Bowl is important. Probably too important to both fan bases, but let’s get the facts right.
22 thoughts on “No brick after the Iron Bowl”
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Eh…overall a very well written article. That was one detail he got wrong…but he would be correct in saying losing to Auburn 3 years straight did not make life easy for Curry.
That’s bullshit about the last draft choice taken and your polite way of calling him a lier! He said that tongue-in-cheek because he WAS close to the end of the draft signifying that they didn’t think much of him. Who gives a shit what Finebaum said. I don’t even care what that tard says nowadays. Everybody was against Curry because he dared remove the Bears traditions from the football program! Hell, I would have too. The program was foundering. Who would have wanted the Bear hanging over their head 24-7 while they were trying to right the ship. Considering what he inherited, he did an admirable job at Bama and left us loaded. And Bear, Perkins and Stallings all had trouble with Pat Dye too. Look, I’m not a Curry lover. In fact I was unhappy when he was coach too. But that was a tumultous time at Alabama. Emotions were running wild. But Bears been gone 27 years. It’s time to consider the errors of how we treated Curry. Running him off was an even bigger error than hiring Dumbose, Francione, Price and Shula!
It is what it is Egg. You put it all in an Historical Context – we had to wander for 40 years in the Desert ( seems like ) to find the Right Man.
I will confess that I was of many that advocated Dubose – and I got what I deserved.
Yes hiring Curry when a young competent Bobby Bowden (not the sad old man he has become) wanted the job was pure genius. I will not sugar coat it as General did, Curry was a poor coach and a sanctimonious, hypocritical, lying piece of dog excrement.
Right on.
I’ve alreday given my opinion of how Bama would have dominated the late 80’s and the 90’s had they hired Bobby Bowden. Just about the dumbest decision in the history of that university.
>>>Just about the dumbest decision in the history of that university.<<< And THAT is saying something! About Dye. Stallings had a problem with him? I seem to remember Stallings having a record of 3-0 (he won in 1990, 1991 and 1992.) I think Curry could have developed into a good coach, but he lacked the strength of character needed to subjugate the institution. Perkins should have stayed; he was a jerk, but that is what Alabama needs. BTW, it was Perkins and not Curry who tried to eliminate Bryant. Curry's problem was the Georgia Tech luggage; people STILL talk about the fights, etc. I know it seems like a minor point in the original post, but that is my historical training...I just can't stand such obvious errors to the historical record. (hence why I added the equivalent of footnotes to my post correcting the record.)
Agreed. But I wasn’t debating the dumbass error in not springing for the bucks to hire Bowden or even Schnellenberger. I was talking about fucking it up with the one we did hire. Say what you want but Currys’ 26-7 record, SEC championship and subsequent recruits who won it all 2 years later in ’92, speaks for itself! Anyway a lot of you know it alls out there were still shittin’ green during the Bears last years and the first fuckup by hiring Perkins, which brought about the need to look for another coach in the first place. Bears’ choice had always been Stallings, but the fools ignored it. Thank your lucky stars, at one time they were actually considering Jackie Sherrill and Danny Ford. Ouch! RTR!
Agreed. But I wasn’t debating the dumbass error in not springing for the bucks to hire Bowden or even Schnellenberger. I was talking about fucking it up with the one we did hire. Say what you want but Currys’ 26-7 record, SEC championship and subsequent recruits who won it all 2 years later in ’92, speaks for itself! Anyway a lot of you know it alls out there were still shittin’ green during the Bears last years and the first fuckup by hiring Perkins, which brought about the need to look for another coach in the first place. Bears’ choice had always been Stallings, but the fools ignored it. Thank your lucky stars, at one time they were actually considering Jackie Sherrill and Danny Ford. Ouch! RTR!
As I remember the Curry era, there were two big items that worked against him. One, he did not welcome past players coming to the games or practices. That was his way of saying “No” to Bama’s tradition…. Two, he was unwilling to go to “lesser” areas to recruit. Friends of mine at Bama (at that time) said it was common knowledge he didn’t want to recruit in the “projects”. The second one is hard to believe, but there is no excuse for playing down a tradition as proud as Bama’s. (Can you still believe that we offered “Rich” before “Nick”???)
There certainly was the Georgia Tech stigma. No one could believe they would actually hire a Tech man. Tech was actually Bama’s biggest adversary, if not rival pre ’60s. People talk about Neyland and Tennessee and Butts and Georgia, but the real challenge to Bamas’ southern supremacy up until they left the SEC, was Georgia Tech. Yes there were nasty wars. Fights. Bad blood. If I’m not mistaken if Tech came back to the SEC after all these years they would still be 2nd in championships. They had more Southern championships than Bama. The Ramblin Wreck was bad news in the old days. Was it Perk that took down the Tower? I was thinking it was Curry. That is sometimes a fuzzy period for me. There were years of traumatic developments in my family at that time. I’d rather not think about it.
Yep, Perk took down the tower. Curry is the only coach at Bama to have beaten Our Lady! What is wrong with not recruiting in thug town? Curry was chewed up by the good ole boy boosters and the meddling board members.
Shula was not a bad hire. He was the best we could do bcause of sanctions, no one else would come and he had ‘name recognition’ which helped in recruiting. Shula was stubborn and would not give up the play-calling which he was lousey at in the red zone. Plus ole ‘bend-but-don’t-break Joe ran me crazy!
I do remember the talk about former players not being welcome. But if he didn’t recruit the projects, then how did he get Antonio Langham and the other black stars on the ’92 team??? On another note and speaking of Our Lady. How ’bout them Catholics? Everybody talks about the radical Alabama and other SEC fans. But when has a fan in the SEC ever sucker punched and coldcocked their Heisman candidate QB after the TEAM lost a game? Go Irish! ROTFLMAO! RTR!
bill curry is a goddamned liar and a fraud of the grade one could only expect of a georgia tech graduate.
you don’t have to google very hard to find the blatant falsehood curry fabricated and began repeating in public AFTER coach bryant died about the phone call bryant made to him about advice on playing notre dame after curry’s tech team TIED the fighting child molesters 3 – 3 in 1980. anyone who believes coach bryant, who had just won TWO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN A ROW called a loser like curry (i’ll remind you that curry had a losing record – not even close – when he was hired) for advice is naive enough to believe the brick story.
jimmy fuller loves to tell folks the window supposedly hit was a second floor window that would have required a herculean effort to hit with a standard bessemer red. he also said afterward an investigation found little glass in curry’s office. 95% of the glass was outside.
add to that the brick was never produced and the earlier story and the public disdain curry has displayed for the institution that gave him the best opportunity he ever has in his coaching career at every opportunity and to me it’s obvious curry is no friend of alabama.
that alabama fans still cling to this fraud re-enforces my contention about how some will always buy snake oil no matter how many times it’s proven it doesn’t work.
bill curry was our black jersey.
The brick story is true. Eggy probably was the one that threw it !!!
Hey, maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t???? Anyway, I’m not debating sainthood or demonspawn here finebammer! This is about coaching accomplishments. Anyway the things you’re ranting about are more opinion than fact, and you sound just like the ’89 fan base. As a coach with a mediocre record and from our ancient enemy, Curry was hated before Bama ever took the field the first time under his hand. With our off the charts fan base it would be well within the realm of possibilities that a lot of bullshit was made up and or exaggerated, and by the Alabama media too. I mean Finebaum is such an upstanding reporter (tongue in cheek)! Did you ever stop to think that Curry might have been just a little bit bitter about the way he was treated? He was rebuilding and losing to Auburns’ best coach ever, but so did Bear and Perk! He did not understand the magnitude of the Iron Bowl. No other rivalry could prepare him for that! All I’m saying is a 9-2 ave, an SEC championship and the base of the ’92 NC is not a shabby resumé.
Hey EG look at what he did at Tech and at Kentucky then look at what Johnsom and Brooks are doing at those two schools. Dude can not coach!
eg, by your own admission, your memory of the day was fuzzy.
mine’s not. i remember quite clearly joab thomas’ (the school president at the time) declaration to tear down alabama’s “football factory” image.
those were his words. bobby bowden was sent packing and curry was hired.
after the brick, after going public with calls to the fbi over death threats from aubies, (in my opinion, another fabrication) after the stupid decision not to go to a & m (the hurricane game) and his inability to beat auburn, i’d say thomas got the man he wanted.
as to your contention that curry was a good coach because of his record, he got that record BECAUSE he coached at alabama. not the other way around.
he was a loser BEFORE he got here. he was a loser AFTER he left.
the university of alabama has made winners out of several coaches. perkins, curry, stallings, among others. the head football coach at alabama has a built in advantage not many schools have: our championship tradition. coach bryant said it himself, games, no, championships were won, there was a championship tradition BEFORE he arrived.
never question my understanding of the differences in the coaching expertise of a nick saban and a mike dubose. but also understand that saban enjoys the same advantages coach bryant did. he’s got a rock solid foundation to build on.
curry didn’t have the expertise nor, in my opinion, the character to do what bryant, stallings did and saban is doing.
but with those advantages, a ham sandwich can win 10 games.
mike shula proved that.
p. s. the paul finebaum you hate so, said at the time curry was hired, in response to the moaning from people like me, that if the university could give ray perkins a chance, they should give curry the same chance. he was on board with curry until he realized what i already knew.
Since we are caught up “What might had been ” – seems like my 20/20 would had preferred Richard Williamson over Shula. Granted there was no wow factor with recruits – but his Coaching would had been superior to Shula. His hiring would had been viewed strictly as Interim until we got out of the woods.
pluto, any “wow” factor that was anticipated with shula’s hiring went down in raging flames with that welcome to the harsh glare of bigtime college football press conference of his.
it was a disaster. it was so bad paul wouldn’t even replay it because it was so embarrassing to shula. he actually pitied the guy.
that press conference was a glimpse into the mind of shula. it was a precursor to sending brodie back in at georgia. to losing prothro while trying to run up the score on florida. the boooing at the duke game his final season.
don’t get me wrong, i’m sure mike shula is a nice guy. but head coaching material at ua???
not! and it was painfully obvious from the get-go.
Wonder if Eli will ever put that in one of his damn books ?
Ok finebammer, you’re jogging my memory now. Truce. I agree with you. In my opinion though, it would have been the lesser of two evils to have treated Curry better, and run off Joab! And I don’t hate Finebaum. I don’t like any reporters. There are no more ‘and that’s the way it is’ Walter Cronkites! Everybody is wishy washy now. It’s go with whoever is on top today. That’s especially bullshit when it involves my team and our #1 rival. Bring on Friday!!! RTR!