re: Pivotal games in your program's history and why?

The 1926 Rose Bowl game, in which the University of Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the heavily favored University of Washington Huskies, is often remembered in Alabama and throughout the South for restoring some measure of pride to the region.

Many southerners saw the Rose Bowl game as an opportunity to bring prestige and honor back to their region that had been ravaged by the Civil War. Even 60 years after the conflict, many older southerners remembered the war, and many more remembered Reconstruction. The South also was motivated by a national press that was critical of almost anything associated with the South, from the size of the southern brain cavity to the quality of its football. Thus, the Rose Bowl invitation to the University of Alabama (UA), the first team in the South to be so honored, set up what has been recognized by many historians and sports fans as the most important game in southern football history. Alabama was not simply representing its home state in a football game; it was carrying the banner for the entire South. One historian, in emphasizing the importance of the game's outcome, characterized it as an inspiration to southerners who had for so long been burdened by the combined effects of poverty and political and social isolation resulting from a demoralizing military defeat.

I'd think that this game was pivotal for all of our teams.