Frank Thomas was better for Alabama football than Bear Bryant

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One afternoon toward the end of his coaching career, Paul “Bear” Bryant climbed down from his tower overlooking the Alabama practice field, warmly greeted an elderly gentleman, and called his entire team to attention.

“This man standing here is responsible for the great tradition of Alabama football,” Bryant told his players, who hung on every word as he draped his arm around Wallace Wade.

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It was a bit like Neil Armstrong introducing Christopher Columbus to the crew at Mission Control.

The origins of the University of Alabama football program can be traced to 1892, when student William G. Little, fresh from prep school in Massachusetts, led the formation of the first intercollegiate football team on the Tuscaloosa campus, unable to imagine the mighty inferno eventually produced, in a distant, unrecognizable future, by his hopeful spark.

Wallace Wade turned the spark into a flame.

Recruited away from Dan McGugin’s staff at powerful Vanderbilt by University of Alabama President Dr. George Denny—who believed a winning football team could help him raise the institution’s national profile—Wade was a stern disciplinarian and a perfectionist. His arrival in 1923 instantly infused the Crimson Tide with a new level of ambition.

“He was tough on his players and expected them to measure up,” recalled Hoyt “Wu” Winslett, a star end on his teams of the mid-1920s. “And that’s why he was so good.”

After leading Alabama to its first Southern Conference championship in 1924, Wade produced a team for the ages in 1925. Featuring halfback Johnny Mack Brown and quarterback A.T.S. “Pooley” Hubert, the Crimson Tide thundered through the conference, recording eight shutouts en route to a perfect 9-0 mark and becoming the first Southern team invited to the Rose Bowl. Hardly anyone gave the Tide a prayer, but Alabama’s shocking 20-19 upset of Washington, which secured the school’s first national championship, struck a blow for supposedly inferior Southern football—and the region’s battered pride.

The 22 Alabama players who traveled by train to Pasadena felt a tremendous responsibility to defend the honor of the South, still stinging from the distant Civil War, still burdened with feelings of disconnection and inferiority, unaccustomed to claiming national superiority in any significant endeavor. The full measure of the Crimson Tide’s accomplishment began to sink in as their victory train rolled across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where delirious crowds gathered at stations large and small to clap and cheer.

“We were the South’s baby,” Winslett said.

When they finally reached Alabama, the celebration lasted for days

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The arrival of Frank Thomas, who played for Knute Rockne, forever intertwined the Alabama dynasty with Notre Dame’s. Building on Wade’s foundation, Thomas directed the Crimson Tide to a 115-24-7 mark (.812) from 1931-46, leading the Crimson Tide’s transition to the Southeastern Conference and capturing four titles in the new league.

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The 1934 Crimson Tide, led by the passing of Dixie Howell and the acrobatic catching of Don Hutson, culminated a perfect season with another Rose Bowl victory, giving ‘Bama its fourth national championship over a 10-year period.

“Coach Thomas was some kind of competitor,” recalled Young Boozer, a halfback for the Alabama teams of the mid-1930s. “If you played for him, you had better be willing to fight, scratch and bleed on that field.”

A young team that Thomas admiringly referred to as his “war babies” matured in 1945, producing one of the greatest seasons in school history. Led by Harry Gilmer, master of the jump pass, the Crimson Tide completed an undefeated run by routing Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl but finished second in the rankings behind powerful Army.

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Ears Whitworth

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Ears Whitworth

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If anyone deserved that honor, it would be Wallace Wade,

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Thomas came as close to the Wade standard as anyone could have hoped in his 15 years as Crimson Tide head coach. He posted an overall record of 115-24-7 with two national championships, four Southeastern Conference titles, two Rose Bowl wins in three appearances, and additional appearances in the Cotton, Orange and Sugar Bowls.

Alabama was 10-0 in 1934 and 1945 with Rose Bowl wins over Stanford 29-13 and Southern Cal 34-14, respectively, to cap the seasons

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Thomas added to his legacy as the Alabama head coach in ways other than simple football wins, however. He also started the first free coaching clinic in the South in his second year (1932) at Alabama, helping to improve coaching techniques and improve the overall game of football in the state. He likely got the idea from Rockne, who had set up summer coaching clinics around the country in the early 1920's.

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“Coach Thomas was a very detailed coach,” said former Tide player Clem Gryska (1944-48) of his former coach. “With him, everything was precision.” Atlanta sports writer Ralph McGill once called Thomas “the little Napoleon of football.”

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BradPitt

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