The time Auburn students called Buckingham Palace to tell Elizabeth the Iron Bowl score

In 1948, Bama brutalized Auburn, 55-0. It was the first time the two teams had met in 40 years. In 1949, Auburn and Travelin’ Travis Tidwell got revenge, stunning the Tide, 14-13. It was a big deal. MacBride, a Pi Kappa Alpha and a sophomore in electrical engineering at Auburn at the time, was there to see it. After celebrating in Birmingham, he got on the road back to Auburn.

“We were back at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house that night and we had some brothers that felt [Auburn’s win] was such tremendous news that everybody in the world ought to know about it,” McBride says.

He started with a call to Princess Elizabeth, obviously.

Somehow — there might have been some liquor involved, who can say — the Pikes convinced the international operator that the call was a life-and-death matter of international importance.

“I’m not sure when we got through to someone at Buckingham Palace, but we asked to speak to Queen Elizabeth” — she was actually still Princess Elizabeth at the time — “and they said ‘she is still asleep and cannot be disturbed,'” McBride says. “We said ‘well, tell her that Auburn beat Alabama 14-13, War Eagle!’ I’m not sure if she ever got the message.”

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