Alabama SI Cover Tournament: Namath Eyes Super Bowl vs. Terry Davis Dazzles LSU

It’s time to kick this off.

BamaCentral is holding a 48-field single-elimination tournament to determine the best Alabama Sports Illustrated cover.

Vote on Twitter (@BamaCentral) or Facebook (@AlabamaonSI). The voting closes at midnight CT each night and the result added to this original post on BamaCentral.

First round

Nick Saban Regional

Game 1: Namath Eyes the Super Bowl vs. Terry Davis Dazzles LSU

Namath Eyes the Super Bowl

Story headline: A Champagne Party for Joe Weeb

Subhead: It's crazy, sure, so don't run out and bet all your money it will happen, but Edwin Shrake, in a moment of sheer fantasy, writes a letter to a friend describing how Joe Namath (see cover) and the New York Jets set the sporting world on its ear.

Excerpt from Edwin Shrake: Max, you have never seen a group of people happier to go to Miami than the Jets. The AFL owners and officials could not conceal their pleasure, either. For years they had wanted a winning team in New York and now at last they had one. Half the population of this city went down to Miami for the Super Bowl, or tried. There was not a seat to be had on plane, train or bus, and hotel rooms were scarcer than Giant fans.

Terry Davis Dazzles LSU

Story headline: It's Alabama in a Runaway

Subhead: When last seen, Terry Davis and his Crimson Tide were rolling on, while bits of LSU were strewn over the field

Excerpt from the SI Staff: Terry Davis, the quarterback of unbeaten Alabama, is too small for the pros. His arm and statistics are ungodlike and he has the countenance of a Norman Rockwell boy who thinks he might go cane-pole fishing after a while.

But last week in Birmingham, the football capital of the South, Davis passed and ran and pitched and faked and handed off, and just generally executed so thoroughly that hitherto undefeated LSU rarely knew what to expect from him.

Alabama won 35-21, which leaves it sitting pretty, bowlwise and pollwise. Saturday night the streets of Birmingham ran red with the school colors and the flushed faces of Crimson Tide enthusiasts yelling "Hooo Lordy" and "Roll, Tide.

"Those bards who celebrate legendary Confederate quarterbacks must surely have whipped together a "Ballad of Terry Davis" plus an aggressive bumpersticker or two. And after the game Coach Bear Bryant went so far as to say, "I don't know how you get consideration for that Heisman, or whatever it is, but Terry Davis hasn't lost a regular season game."

Result

Joe Namath Eyes the Super Bowl won, carrying 76.5 percent of the vote.