re: Alabama security practiced court storming prevention before this game

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Alabama football slipped far from the early success of Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas to the point of a 19-game winless streak from 1954-1956. So while a 13-12 win over Mississippi State might not seem like much to celebrate today, the Denny Stadium homecoming crowd of 25,000 was apparently quite impressed. Photos from the next day’s Tuscaloosa News showed fans on the playing surface celebrating with players after chanting about wanting a new coach in the second quarter.
“Bama fullback Don Kinderknecht gets a pummeling from some happy students …” read a photo caption on Page 5 of the Oct. 28, 1956 paper. 

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And that led to one of the more notable fans-on-the-field moments in Alabama lore. Alabama had lost four straight Iron Bowls to Auburn from 1954-58 entering Bryant’s second year. A 10-0 Crimson Tide win sent the well-dressed fans past the Legion Field fences and toward the goalposts.
And, as the Huntsville Times front-page headline read, the fans weren’t exactly successful.
“Goals Prove Just As Tough As Tide Team: Fans Effort To Rip Goals Futile…,” the headline read above a story that led with “The Walls of Jericho came tumbling down, but not the goal posts at Legion Field.”

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From all directions they poured onto the field, milling with coaches and players, screaming and waving banners,” read the Nov. 29 story in The Birmingham News where a front-page photo showed fans sitting and straddling the crossbar. “Then a few of them rushed the north end zone goal posts and strained to rock them to earth. A few were quickly joined by a throng. And when they couldn’t remove the cemented posts, they scampered up the crossbar, cheering, swimming and going mad with sheer delight.”

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Skip ahead to 1990 and Alabama was the program suffering through four straight Iron Bowl losses before Gene Stallings took his first swing as head coach.
So a 16-7 Crimson Tide win lit a powder keg in the Alabama student section, and eventually, the Legion Field artificial turf. News accounts differed on numbers and video of the postgame wasn’t clear but Alabama students tried to rush the field as the game ended and Birmingham police officers were there to greet them.

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