Mattingly: Legion Field football aura was special

There was a sad story recently on Tony Basilio's radio show when Steve Irvine of the Birmingham News reported UAB was drawing 20,000 fans, maybe, to games at Legion Field.

Legion Field, sometimes known as "Legion Field Stadium," was the site of Tennessee and Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Tech, and Alabama and Auburn, the latter duo in the famed "Iron Bowl," squaring off on that historic greensward. Marvin West recalled Birmingham being a great football city in its day.

When Tennessee and Alabama squared off, there was the sight of Tennessee orange on the press box sideline and Alabama crimson on the east sideline. It was football exactly the way the gods decreed it.

For Vol fans, there are the memories of Saturday morning trips from Knoxville to Chattanooga, thence down I-59 and U.S. 11. In the early days, more of the trip was on U.S. 11 than I-59.

The Tennessee team charter always seemed to take the great circle route into Birmingham. The plane flew southwest past the airport until the pilot banked to the left, flying directly over the stadium formerly known as the "Football Capitol of the South." Then came a left turn northward. After doing so, the south-north runway came into view, and the plane landed, occasionally with a slight bounce on impact.

The stadium was a marvel, despite those troublesome support posts under the east upper deck. A day or so before the upper deck would open in 1961, some local bureaucrat decided it was unsafe to have fans occupying those seats, resulting in unhappy ticket holders strewn across available open space, mostly around the north end zone. Alas, the east upper deck came down in 2004.

Several significant events changed all that. Bear Bryant died. Auburn had the temerity to want to play its "home games" against Alabama in Auburn, starting in 1989. Later, Dennis Franchione moved the Tide bench from the east side, Bryant's side, to the west side. That was absolute heresy. Shortly afterward, Alabama moved its home games back to campus. Somehow, Legion Field didn't fit in their plans.

The "ghosts" of Legion Field are still with us.

There was an unmistakable sound when the Tide was making a run goalward, to reclaim or expand the lead. In the fourth quarter of the 1967 Tennessee game, for example, Snake Stabler lofted a pass in the direction of wideout Dennis Homan. The ball was on Homan's fingertips for a fleeting moment as the crowd noise swelled. When the pass fell incomplete, the crowd hushed, except for fans in orange.

There was the time late in the 1971 game the Vols, trailing 22-15, started on the 20, south end, and moved the ball to the 30, after going for it on fourth down. There was a measurement, and the Vols somehow came up short, not just by inches, but considerably. The ball went over on downs, and the Tide, thus emboldened, put the game away, 32-15. It could only happen in Birmingham.

Then there was Dec. 2, 1972, when Auburn trailed Alabama 16-0 early in the fourth quarter. Auburn moved the ball goalward, but couldn't punch it in. Shug Jordan called for a field goal. At 16-3, Auburn could score twice and take the lead without having to go for two. There were some doubters, some faint hearts, in the crowd, mostly wearing orange and blue, wondering if Shug had taken leave of his senses.

The kicking game settled the contest. Bill Newton, a one-time walk-on, blocked two consecutive punts, and David Langner scored twice as the ball twice took a fortuitous bounce. Radio tapes of the game are still hot sellers down on the Plains, as are aging bumper stickers with the inscription, "Punt, Bama, Punt."

There were times in the 1960s and 1970s ABC had each team's starters introduce themselves. Players would run to an assigned spot, look into the camera, and say: "Condredge Holloway, Huntsville, Alabama." In 1973, Bear Bryant had his special teams introduce themselves, and the key play of the game was a 64-yard punt return for a score by Robin Cary that broke a 21-21 tie.

On their way home after Vol victories, Vol fans flashed their headlights at other Vol fans. If not, there were the "one-finger salutes" and the now-famous bed sheets hung on overpasses, extending final "greetings" to Vol fans.

There also was the precision of the Birmingham police leading the team buses through the post-game snarl of pedestrians, cars, and motor homes, policemen on motorcycles with lights flashing, parting the waters enough to get the visitors to the airport.

Legion Field may be long past its prime these days, but those of us who saw games at 400 Graymont Avenue will always remember the good times at a great venue.

Tom Mattingly saw 23 games against Alabama or Auburn at Legion Field 1967-97. He is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in September 2008, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog on govolsxtra.com is called "The Vol Historian."