Former Alabama QB will serve as honorary captain vs. Bulldogs on Saturday
Joe Namath returns this weekend to Tuscaloosa, the place where he first earned national recognition more than 60 years ago.
Enter Namath, whom Bryant had somehow stolen away from the Eastern football powers and brought to the SEC. The story goes that Namath initially planned to go to Maryland but didn’t score high enough on his college board exams, so Terrapins coaches steered him to Alabama in order to keep him away from schools on their schedule who might have less-stringent admissions standards for athletes.
As the season-opener approached, the buzz around Namath grew, and not just locally. The Knoxville News Sentinel’s Tom Siler wrote on Sept. 18 that Namath “is rated with the best sophomores in the land,” while The Associated Press’ Vernon Butler wrote on Sept. 20 that Namath “has the tools to be the finest quarterback Paul Bryant ever coached.”
John Griffith, a former Georgia player and coach under Butts, replaced his mentor as head coach. His first Bulldogs team finished 3-7, losing 32-6 in Athens to an Alabama team on its way to the national championship. Hurlbut replaced Namath under center later in the third quarter, and led a march that ended in Clark’s 4-yard touchdown run and a 2-point pass to Butch Wilson for a 29-0 Alabama lead early in the fourth. Hudson Harris’ 25-yard touchdown run capped the scoring and provided the exclamation point on the Crimson Tide’s worst beating of Georgia since a 36-0 shellacking in 1923.
“At halftime, a melee of college scouts clogged the press box corridor,” Logue wrote. “The groups represented every university in the Southeastern Conference, but two words dominated every conversation: ‘Joe Namath.’” Alabama bounced back to beat Auburn 38-0 and Oklahoma 17-0 in the Orange Bowl to finish 10-1 and ranked No. 5 nationally. Namath ended the year with 1,192 yards and 13 touchdown passes in 10 games, both Crimson Tide program records at the time.
Beyond his football exploits, Namath has achieved a rarified level of fame over the years as an advertising pitch man, movie and television star and quintessential sex symbol of the swinging 1960s and early 70s. Even at age 81, he still draws a crowd, as he no doubt will on Saturday in Tuscaloosa.Of course, the 1962 Alabama-Georgia game has achieved a level of infamy that has nothing to do with Namath.
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