Third Saturday in October: The Game-By-Game Story of the South's Most Intense Football Rivalry

by Al Browning

On November 18, 1901, the University of Alabama and the University of Tennessee first locked horns on a football field. At the contest's end, the score was tied, nothing had been resolved, and about two thousand fans were on the field at Tuscaloosa, fighting. Since that day the Tennessee-Alabama game has developed into one of the premier football rivalries in the nation. To many of the faithful, it is much more than a game -- it is a crusade. The intensity with which these games have been waged makes victory as satisfying as the warm crimson and orange leaves that dance in Knoxville's cool Smoky Mountain breezes. Defeat, however, is more bitter than the choking smoke of Birmingham's steel mills. Beginning in 1928, the annual game has been played on the third Saturday in October, and the contest has produced enough heroes to fill several books. Third Saturday in October tells the story of each game. From Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Red"" Drew, Paul ""Bear"" Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, and Mike Dubose of Alabama, to Robert Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle, Johnny Majors, and Phil Fulmer of Tennessee, the game has been directed by legendary coaches and played by heroic young men who have risen to greatness on the third Saturday in October. Third Saturday in October is filled with memories and reflections of players, coaches, reporters, sportscasters, and fans. The people who were there, who made or failed to make the key plays, tell what happened in their own words. More than two hundred historic photographs illustrate the lively text. This second edition contains reports of the games from 1987 through 2000.""

Genres: Football

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tennessee vs. Alabama: Third Saturday in October: The Game-by-Game Story of the South's Most Intense Football Rivalry (2nd Ed.) by Al Browning (Cumberland House 2001) (796.33263). This volume features summaries of all the games between 1928 and 2000. In 1970 Tennessee won 24-0 in Knoxville and intercepted eight passes. In 1972 Tennessee led 10-3 with under two minutes to go in Knoxville before Alabama scored two touchdowns in thirty-six seconds to steal a win. It was 1990 when Alabama blocked UT's (Greg Burke's) attempt for the winning field goal of fifty yards with 1:35 left and then watched the ball roll twenty-three yards off a facemask to the UT thirty-seven yard line. Phillip Doyle hit the winning field goal from forty-seven yards with four seconds on the clock. It was 1993 when David (Deuce) Palmer ran a two-point conversion in with twenty-three seconds left to tie the game 17-17. Said Coach Phillip Fulmer after the game: “We played toe to toe with the defending national champions on their home field and they tied us.” Remember: even years in Knoxville, odd years in Tuscaloosa.
1928-29 UT - 2 straight
1930 Bama – 1
1931-32 UT - 2 straight
1933-35 Bama - 3 straight
1936 TIE: 0 - 0
1938-40 UT - 3 straight
1941-42 Bama - 2 straight
1944 TIE: 0 -0
1945 Bama - 1
1946 UT - 1
1947 Bama - 1
1948 UT - 1
1949 TIE: 7 – 7
1950 - 53 UT 4 straight
1954 Bama - 1
1955 – 58 UT - 6 straight
1961 – 66 Bama - 6 straight
1967 – 70 UT - 4 straight
1971 – 81 Bama -11 straight
1982 – 85 UT - 4 straight
1986 – 92 Bama - 7 straight
1993 UT - 1
1994 Bama - 1
1995-2000 UT - 6 straight

I really hate those guys. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 2003.