Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania

by Warren St. John

What is it about sports that turns otherwise sane people into raving lunatics? Why does winning compel people to tear down goal posts, and losing, to drown themselves in bad keg beer? In short, why do fans care?

In search of answers, Warren St. John seeks out the roving community of RVers who follow the Alabama Crimson Tide from game to game. A movable feast of Weber grills and Igloo coolers, these are hard-core football fans who arrive on Wednesday for Saturday’s The Reeses, who skipped their own daughter’s wedding because it coincided with a Bama game; Ray Pradat, the Episcopal minister who watches the games on a television beside his altar while performing weddings; and John Ed, the wheeling and dealing ticket scalper whose access to good seats gives him power on par with the governor. In no time at all, St. John buys an RV (a $5,500 beater named The Hawg) and joins the caravan for a full football season, chronicling the world of the extreme fan and learning that in the shadow of the stadium, it can all begin to seem strangely normal.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is not only a hilarious travel story, but a cultural anthropology of fans that goes a long way toward demystifying the universal urge to take sides and to win.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Travel, Humor, Memoir, Audiobook

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Warren St. John is a former reporter for the The New York Times. He also has written extensively for The New Yorker, the New York Observer, and "Wired." He attended Columbia University and now lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the middle of baseball season. My team somehow finds itself in first place despite an up and down season. With three months left in the regular season I find myself craving football but the games that count do not start for another two months. I am relegated to videos of prior seasons and players’ social media accounts. On one of these forays I came across a book that is part football, part travelogue, which is the type of book I look forward to reading in the summer. In Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Alabama native son and New York Times columnist Warren St. John asks himself what it means to be a fan of a team as he journeys to the heart of college football country.

Born in 1970 at the height of Bear Bryant’s coaching reign supreme over college football, Warren St John was indoctrinated into Alabama Crimson Tide football culture at a young age. His father and uncle took him to his first game when he was six years old, and he was hooked ever since. Using that game to mark time, St John has followed the Crimson Tide for better or worse for the rest of his life. It has gotten tricky at times as a student at Columbia in New York, being relegated to listening to a game against rival Auburn over the phone. Yet, somehow, St John living in New York for his entire adult life, has persevered with his team allegiance in tact. St John began to question what it meant to be a fan and what would constitute devotion to a team. For the 1996 season St John took leave of his job as a reporter for the New York Times and traveled to every game the Crimson Tide played as a member of the RV crowd.

As a Midwesterner growing up in an urban area, tail gating was something that we did not do. Our teams’ stadiums are located in the heart of Chicago Making tail gating all but impossible. The Milwaukee fans tail gate and it looked crazy but fun when I noticed their fans grilling in the parking lot whenever our teams squared off. In Alabama in the heart of college football country tail gating is almost as important as the games themselves. With few professional teams in the region, fans profess an allegiance to their college team of choice. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Southeastern Conference, of which Alabama is a member. Fans from all over the south arrive on college campuses as early as Wednesday evening for a game taking place three days later. They stoke out prime spots in RV campers and barbecue and drink for a good three days, and then repeat this each week of the season. Along the way, friendships are made and broken, all in the name of allegiance to a football team. As crazy as this may sound to outsiders, to a football fan, or a fan of any sport, RV convoys to a game out of state are all part of the fan experience.

St John traveled to Crimson Tide games first with Chris and Paula Bice and their dog Larry and struck up a friendship with them over Bama Bomb cocktails and breakfasts of tater tot casserole. Three games into the season had St John thinking that he should purchase his own RV, and so he did, albeit as inexpensive of a model as possible. Yet this $5500 camper got St John through an entire season and allowed him to travel to away games at Florida and Auburn without being a burden on his fellow fans. Striking up a friendship with Tuscaloosa ticket agent John Ed Belvin and following the career of a young Paul Finebaum, St John was along for the ride of the 1996 Crimson Tide that somehow won the SEC despite having less talent than in previous years. After experiencing the highs and lows of fandom, St John decided to do it all again the next year.

After selling his RV and moving full time back to New York, St John has followed the Crimson Tide as best as he can living out of town. In his findings he has decided that he is not any less of a fan by not joining the RV crowd or was he any more of a fan by participating in full for an entire year. His findings include psychological studies on fandom, which as an ardent fan of multiple teams, I found as interesting as St John’s travels to the games themselves. With football season still a few months away, I was at least able to experience the fan experience for a few hours with Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer. Let the countdown to kickoff begin.

4 stars

[boxer_dogs_dance · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can call this book immersive cultural anthropology or you can call it a confessional narrative of self examination. Either way it is excellent sports writing and a compelling read.

The author explores the lives and passions of Alabama football fans who take their motorhomes to every game along with various supporting characters including a radio sports commentator, a ticket resale professional and the team coach. The book is about food, about alcohol, about college life, about the American south and of course about football.

[Corinne Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book personifies the reason why is why I am in a book group. I would have NEVER (see how that's in all caps?) have picked up this book. I am not a sports player. I am not a sports fan. I couldn't care less about football. Especially college football. Unless it's my alma mater, the Maryland Terps, in which case I might say "go Terps" when I find out they've won something. Just not my thing.

But this book? It digs deep, as it says in the subtitle, into the heart of Fan Mania. And Warren St. John, our tour guide into this land of manic fans, is an Alabama boy. That's the University of Alabama, the Crimson Tide. And he uses his own experiences and his own absolute devotion to "his" team as a springboard for finding out what it is in humans that makes us pick a side and then pour our heart into being a follower. What is it about the contest itself? The chance of winning? What are the intricacies of fan interaction and that "crowd mentality" that makes you hug or cry with complete strangers?

Truthfully, I was so worried about having to read this one and there is no doubt that some scenes of football action were skimmed, but overall, this was one entertaining and fascinating read. It reminded me a lot of the book Confederates in the Attic, which examines Civil War re-enactors. Rammer Jammer introduces us to some of the really interesting characters of Alabama fandom - his die-hard love of the Crimson Tide was his ticket to places and people that made this such an intriguing read. Especially all those RV fans, the ones that travel around to tailgate and watch - it's like it's own little culture.

I think honestly what I liked best is that he (our author) DID have a team. Even while looking at all these fans, he was psychoanalyzing HIS OWN SELF. Trying to figure out where the rush of absolute joy or the cloud desolation that can come from the outcome of a GAME. There was a great mix of his own experiences, history and sociology. I feel like my mind has been opened up to an entire new world - and I'm a fan of that.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warren St. John had me at,

"A recent poll by the Mobile Register found 90% of the state's citizen's described themselves as college football fans. 86% of them pull for one of the major football powers there, Alabama or Auburn, and 4% pull for other teams-Florida, Notre Dame, Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan, or smaller schools like Alabama A&M or Alabama State. To understand what an absolute minority nonfans are in Alabama, consider this: they are outnumbered there by atheists."

...Don’t dismiss this book as a just another ode to BAMA & its history. It explores the devotion of sports fans all over...what makes them crazed about the teams...why the emotional highs & lows revolve around wins & losses...what drives fans to follow sports with such devotion...St. John uses the anecdotal stories of the famed BAMA "RV tailgate caravan culture" that loyally follows Tide Football, along with current physiological, sociological & psychological research, in an attempt to explain this very human sports phenomenon...this ranks right with Roger Kahn & David Halberstam, but a whole lot funnier!!!

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. I wanted to like this book more than I did.

Recently my workplace decided to boost morale by having a kind of NFL day, where all of us had to wear a sports jersey celebrating our favorite team. I was one of two people (among a relatively large staff) who not only didn't own a jersey but didn't follow a team. The one other nerd in my position decided with me that we would be the 'Reading Team," and designed T-shirts for us to wear celebrating our love of reading. Fellow goodreaders, I know you were all with me on this one but I must say, it was hard to fight the feelings of loneliness in our little handmade T-shirts.

So I picked up this book, hoping it would demystify for me, once and for all, why anyone would want to follow sports and why people seem to feel I'm practically unpatriotic for not having a favorite team. Did it? Well, not really.

I mean, sure, there were some funny, over-the-top anecdotes about people who arrived late at their daughter's wedding because it conflicted with a game, a man awaiting a heart transplant who traveled outside of his required radius to attend games (because life ain't worth living if you can't go to the games), people (including the author) who invested in RVs so they could arrive several days early at Saturday games, park in the lot, and hang out with fellow sports-besotted fans, etc., etc.

It was also kind of interesting to contemplate the parallels between the rituals associated with football fandom and organized religion. The attachment to time-honored traditions. The superstitions. The sacrifices. The sense of community, as well as the us-against-them.

Otherwise, though, the book left me cold. I never felt I received the information (research-based or otherwise) that would help me comprehend this phenomenon. And as talented an author as Warren St. John was, his descriptions of the games he watched failed to captivate me.

I'm giving it three stars because I did admire St. John's writing, because there were some pretty funny stories and characters, and because I'm pretty sure a sports fan would enjoy it a lot more than I did. I have to say, though, that I disagree with those who felt that you don't have to be a sports fan to appreciate this book. As a curious non-fan, the book wasn't what I hoped it would be.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly topic written in a sophisticated way… ROLL TIDE!!

[Dan Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does a beautiful job of depicting what fandom truly means. I saw a ton of similarities between the Bama RV culture and my years as a Bills season ticket holder. Great book for any sports lover.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

funny travel novel in a similar vein to bill bryson. totally not a college football fan, but this book caught me up in the spirit of the game and bama fandom. also: roll tide.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a cliche, but it really is hard to put this one down.
I finally finished this easy read in the opening weeks of the fall 2010 semester in China, and it was an interesting perspective, too.
I like this one quite a bit, and recommend it for any sports fan, or amateur psychologist -- and, a for a lot of other people, too.

[Devin Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful, exceedingly well written deep dive into a subculture that I didn’t even know existed. I picked it up thinking it was a football book and I probably would get bored after a few chapters. However, it was more a piece about people, culture, and our obsession with sports. Overall entertaining and comedic. Glad to have read it.

[Jeff Colston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a super fun, casual read to get me ready for college football. Loved it. SEC fans are crazy haha

[Will Ortmayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this one for Christmas and am glad I read it. I was hoping for a little more of actual reasons we get so attached to sports teams but the insight provided was interesting. I really enjoyed hearing about Tuscaloosa 20 years ago and learning about the history of the team, particularly the mythical presence that was Bear Bryant. Not sure if I want to go to every game in an RV but pretty awesome to do it for a season and write a book about it.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first bought this book as a gift for my friend Derrick, a University of Alabama alum. I was fascinated by it and I love college football, and I'm thinking he won't give it back, so I bought my own copy so that I can read it.

*****When I was but a wee, small girl, and thanks to my father's obsession, many of my fall mornings were spent being woken up on Saturday mornings at 5:00 and being dragged, unwillingly from my home in Virginia to Morgantown, West Virginia, home of West Virginia University and the WVU Mountaineers. As a result, I grudgingly, then wholeheartedly embraced college football. This book is for people like us, and anyone who wants to understand people like us. You don't have to be an Alabama fan to fall in love with the eccentric group of RV-ers that St. John joins. I loved this book.

[Cullen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrendous. The sole reason I finished it was my firm refusal to leave a book unfinished, and also to make sure the entire thing was awful and not just the start of it.

I am a student at the University of Alabama that hoped to learn a thing or two about the history of the football program. What I got instead was a memoir from a reporter that followed crazed, RV owning fans that follow the Crimson Tide for a season, tailgating about half the week for every game. The book had relatively little to do with the Alabama football team at all. Maybe 50% is actually about football.

The next worst part about this book is the absolutely poor style. This guy pretends to be reporting on Watergate among a group of freaking RV owners. He acts as though he is undercover among a group that could turn on him at any moment. In actuality they are RV owners literally dedicating their lives to watching football, minding their own business, who likely couldn’t give a damn about his very existence.

On top of his self portrayed James Bond spying among tailgaters, he has to pretend as though he is barely in control of his emotions. When Alabama wins he acts as though he could jump up and click his heels like Dorothy. When they lose he might as well put a bullet through his brain. And according to him these are 100% his real emotions, and not just written out for the book.

He is like a friend at a party that is a good guy but clearly does not belong. His acting is very see through and it is terrible. He should stick up to New York where he belongs and leave the Crimson Tide alone, no matter how much he pretends to ride an emotional roller coaster with them.

This book gets 1 star. The topic, writing, reporting, and story are all horribly lousy. This is the first book I’ve ever even given one star.

Roll Tide from a student who didn’t betray his roots to the South to turn into a yankee reporter.

[Jill McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer by Warren St. John is a nonfiction work that stems from the story of an elderly couple of Alabama fans who skipped their daughter's wedding to go to a football game against Tennessee, though they made the reception. Most people who run across this story are horrified. Most are horrified at the parents' callous treatment of their daughter. Some are horrified at the daughter forcing such a choice on the parents. Mr. St. John wormed his way into the Alabama football fan world to study why they — to include himself as a “‘Bama” fan — are so obsessed. He's written a book that captures why diehard fans are the way they are. The thing about this book that endears it to me is that it provides an indirect glimpse of the answer to this question through the glass of fans who are slightly, charmingly off. It does take some extensive eccentricity to drive around in an RV that costs about as much as your house. Rearranging your life around the activities of a football team is objectively crazy, but the striking thing about the RV crew in the book is that not one of them thinks the lifestyle they're leading is strange in any way whatsoever. Sure, there's a guy in need of a heart transplant who is risking his life to attend Alabama games, but when asked about it, he shrugs off the suggestion that he's crazy: life without Alabama football isn't worth living. At some point towards the end of RJYH it became clear: people need community. And for these people, that community follows around a football team. Obviously, I give it four footballs: 🏈🏈🏈🏈

[Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for someone who isn’t a college football fan of some sort or a student of crowd behavior. And if the phrase “Roll Tide” is like nails on a chalkboard to you, this book is not for you either. But if you have ever enjoyed going to a college game you will enjoy it and laugh a lot. St. John, who grew up as a fan of the University of Alabama in the era of Bear Bryant (if you don’t know who he is, don’t read this book), buys a barely mobile RV and joins the troop of fans who drive their vans, campers and moving motels to Alabama football games. His aim is to see what motivates such ardent fans and basically to just join in their fun. Full of quirky characters like a man who raises “Show” chickens or even another who is awaiting a heart transplant but leaves the geographic radius he is supposed to remain in to remain eligible for a new heart because life isn’t worth living without being able to go to Alabama football games. Written in the late 90s when DuBose was the coach of Alabama.

[Ross Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All sports, like politics, I suppose, are local.” - Page 31

“Asking a fan why he or she likes a team is a lot like asking someone why they’re in love with their spouse; all the rational reasons a person can muster don’t explain the bond.” - Page 38

“They like to get there early and, if they win, to stay late. It’s not just the contest, but the spectacle as well.” - Page 76

“Winning never causes the fan to question the pursuit of being a fan, but losing almost always does.” - Page 97

“It’s becoming clear that sports teams are blank screens on which fans project their worldviews - however benevolent or malicious - which means the Alabama of my mind has as little to do with the Alabama of his mind as I do with him.” - Page 207

[Mackenzie McClintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal novel for not just Bama fans- but any fan of college football.

Warren St. John brings one of the most storied fandoms to life in this book from start to finish. I couldn't get enough. Yes, it helps that I'm an Alabama alumna, but the culture and the history this book describes make it so captivating. There are also many humorous moments in the book that make it memorable, relatable, and fun.

This was so good that I immediately made my dad read it so that I could have someone else to talk about it with.

If you like college football, or even sports in general, read this!

[Jacob Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book entertained me although I have serious doubts as to the authenticity of it. I don’t question the things that happened but I do question what the author chose to leave out of the book. In typical sports fandom fashion, the author has a lot of negative things to say about opposing teams and fans and considerably less negative to say about his own. I am not an Alabama fan but I have interacted with them on multiple occasions. How accurate were the one-sided violent and arrogant interactions highlighted in this book? Again, I have my doubts.

[Zach Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once thought I was a crazy fan of my teams and then I read this book

This is just a crazy look at sports fandom, Alabama football in the late 90’s, and people in the south. I get it, college football is all people have in Alabama when it comes to sports. However, missing your daughter’s wedding has got to be the craziest thing someone has done to go see their team play.

Could you imagine Alabama football in 2025 losing to La Tech and Southern Miss in a two year span?

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fun book! I like these kinds of travelogue type books about fan mania in sports, and this one was cool because it was about a down period in Alabama football history. WSJ is a good writer who has a mix of droll detachment from the insanity and his own wild devotion to Bama football. I enjoyed the colorful characters and depictions of SEC football, but I actually would have liked more on the history of Alabama football in a larger historical context.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Challenge Category: Book with your Favorite Color in Title

THis book is a very fun read-- delving into the world of RV tailgating in college football-- specifically at the University of Alabama, Roll Tide. I wish issues of race and class were a bit more examined in the text. But overall, an interesting read.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. As a late in life Mississippi State fan I loved all the history and tales about the SEC and our devotion to football. The author never looks down on anyone or ridicules anyone in a mean way. He’s a fabulous writer and I enjoyed every page. I see now why this book is a classic if you want to understand or celebrate college football in the south.

[Lindsay Hickman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am an avid sports fan and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I was pretty disappointed. I think I would’ve liked the book had there been more character development, more dialogue and interaction with some of the weekly RVer’s.
Overall it is an interesting take on a subculture within college sports.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

It just means more

The popular mantra of the greatest college football conference in the land comes through in this book. At the heart of the SEC is more than just the teams and players on the field, but the fans in the stand,. This book will make you reassure to go and rent your own RV and head down to tailgate this fall.

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is a time long past (thankfully, for Bama fans), the story is still relevant and resonant as St. John chronicles his attempt to get a roadworthy RV and travel to watch Bama's season, complete with its highs and lows. As interesting as the games were the people that he met along the way. A fun read, even if you're not a Bama fan.

[Ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

author writers hears about van life that involves people takin' their rv to alabama football games, as a subculture of life, so he decides to investigate further. he is able to glom onto a ride and experience the experience first hand.

he decides he needs to really experience the experience, so, he buys an rv to attend the games and mingle. insightful, quality word usage.

[Steven Seals · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on how human beings have a natural tendency to pick a team and lose all semblance of reason as a fan. Warren does a good job of both valuing and relating to fans while pointing out the strangeness of it all.

[Beth Knott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. I love that this book about how die-hard Alabama fans can be was written during the "dark ages" between Gene Stallings and Nick Saban. I would absolutely LOVE a follow-up written during the Saban era!

[William Crosswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regardless of where your fandom lies, you’ll love following Warren in his journey through an Alabama season with its ups and downs, but more so of how each fan exudes their passion and pride for the Tide. It’s one I’d read again and again. It’s that good.