Remembering Wallace Wade's first Alabama team 100 years later...

The 1923 Alabama Crimson Tide football team were notable for being the first under new head coach Wallace Wade, who had previously been an assistant coach at Vanderbilt. To show how crazy big coaching staffs have gotten in the last century, it is important to note that Henry "Hank" Crisp and Russell Cohen were the only two assistant coaches on the team while W.T. Vandegraaff rounded out the staff as a freshman assistant.

Alabama end Al Clemens was team captain and was the star of an offense that ran out of the single wing formation. The roster was as follows:

Ends

Al Clemens
Tom Newton
Ben Hudson

Tackles

Jack Langhorne
Ben Compton
William Buckler

Guards

Bruce Jones
J.S. Camp
Ben Ennis

Center

Clyde Propst

Backs

A.T.S Hubert
Allen MacCartee
Emile Barnes
W.S. Oliver
Johnny Mack Brown
W.C. Baty
Hulet Whitaker
Graham McClintoch
James Johnston
Andy Cohen
Grant Gillis

The Schedule

09/29 vs. Union College (W) 12-0
10/06 vs. Ole Miss (W) 55-0
10/13 @ Syracuse (L) 0-23
10/20 vs. Sewanee (W) 7-0
10/27 @ Spring Hill (W) 59-0
11/03 @ Georgia Tech (T) 0-0
11/10 vs. Kentucky (W) 16-8
11/16 vs. LSU (W) 30-3
11/24 vs. Georgia (W) 36-0
11/29 vs. Florida (L) 6-16

Overall Record: 7 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie

The loss to Florida in the last game of the season cost us the Southern Conference championship, a title we would finally claim for the first time ever the very next year.