re: So, why did the Iron Bowl take a 40 year break?

Essentially Auburn was too poor to travel to Birmingham and asked for welfare to help them and Bama said no.

https://www.thesportshistorian.com/the-iron-bowl/

quote:

---

The University of Alabama is much closer to Birmingham than Auburn and Auburn officials demanded more per diem for the players. Auburn also wanted to allow more players to travel for the game and a different process for choosing the officials for the game. Alabama officials would not agree to any of Auburn’s demands and the series ended.

---