In 1925, Southern football was an afterthought to the rest of the country. Wallace Wade's Alabama team went unbeaten that fall and gave up just one touchdown all season, but the Rose Bowl still went looking elsewhere for an opponent. Several schools turned the invitation down before the committee settled on Alabama, which had never played in a bowl game.
A long way from home
Getting there was its own ordeal. Wade told his players they'd give up Christmas at home, practice for weeks longer than usual and ride a train for days across the country. Along the route, crowds and bands turned out at the stations to see them off. Nobody had said it out loud yet, but they weren't just representing Alabama anymore.
Twelve down
Washington looked like the better team for a half. Its star, George Wilson, ran the Huskies down the field, and they led 12–0 at the break. Both of their extra points had missed, which nobody thought much about at the time.
Then Alabama found its footing in the third quarter and scored three touchdowns in less than seven minutes. Pooley Hubert ran one in from the 1. Grant Gillis hit Johnny Mack Brown for a 59-yard touchdown. Hubert threw 30 yards to Brown for another. The last extra point missed, so Alabama led 20–12.
Wilson answered with a 27-yard touchdown pass late, and this time Washington made the kick. That left the Huskies one point short, and it stayed that way. In the closing seconds, Brown made the tackle that ended Washington's last chance. He was named the game's most valuable player.
What it meant
The win gave Alabama its first national championship and its first perfect season. Back home it meant far more than that. Tuscaloosa held a parade for the team that ended on the Quad. People still call it the game that changed the South.
The Rose Bowl kept coming back for more. Southern teams played in 13 of the next 20 Rose Bowls, and Alabama made more of those trips than anyone. Brown went on to a long career as a Hollywood cowboy star, but Alabama fans remember him for that afternoon in Pasadena.