How football influenced the 1978 Alabama Governor's race in one picture

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but DGAF

Birth of the REC?

Alabama has a history of shady recruiting

I'm shocked

It was the battle of the three "B"s for the Democratic nomination...former governor Albert Brewer, current lt. governor Jere Beasley, and atty. general Bill Baxley. They all focused on beating up on each other; meanwhile, seemingly out of nowhere came Fob James. The others, especially Baxley, refused to believe James was a threat until it was too late.

LINK

Where are they now? (2012)

Interesting. I bet it really bothered Baxley that he lost the race to Fob James, an AU graduate and running back.

Just cheating in general

No clue what he was like then, but I know Brewer now and he's a class act

Interesting. It was said that Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma lost his U.S. Senate race because he didn't beat Texas enough at the end of his tenure.

quote:

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Back in Norman, the Bud Wilkinson epoch came to an end. Wilkinson officially announced he would seek a seat in the U.S. Senate, running as a Republican. His candidacy was tied to Barry Goldwater's 1964 bid for the Presidency against Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater said he favored the use of American nuclear force in warfare. "In your heart, you know he's right," was Barry's campaign slogan. Oklahoma Democrats distributed thousands of bumper stickers that read, "Beat Barry, Bud and Texas."

Political analysts wondered whether Wilkinson's bad loss to Texas might impact his race for the Senate. (The previous season was a national championship year for Texas.) One pollster estimated the setback cost him 50,000 to 70,000 votes.

Three weeks before the November election, OU played Texas under its new coach, Bud's longtime loyal and trusted assistant, Gomer Jones. The Longhorns won by the same score as the previous year, 28-7. Afterward, Dave Campbell, a Waco sports columnist and founder of Texas Football magazine, wrote, "Those Oklahomans might beat Barry and Bud this year, but they'll never beat Texas, and in their heart they know that's right."

Wilkinson lost his bid for the Senate. Of more than 900,000 votes cast, he was beaten by Fred Harris, the Democrat, by a 21,000-vote margin. If the analysts were correct, Wilkinson could thank Texas for the demise of his ambitions in the Senate chamber. That's the law of the landscape in Sooner territory: Senators and Presidents will come and go. The Texas game is forever and eternal.

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LINK
From this book:

Wrong board