Daily Dose of Crimson Tide: Fred Sington

It’s not very often that an athlete, or a football player, has a song dedicated in is honor. It’s even more unlikely when the player is a tackle, who wouldn’t touch the ball or score touchdowns.

But Fred Sington wasn’t just any player.

“He was alert, fast, aggressive, and in addition he was capable of many outside duties,” legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice said. “Tackles such as Sington rarely come along.”

One of the more memorable stories regarding Sington occurred during his freshman year, when the first-year players would serve as the scout team during practice. Roughly 10 days before the varsity quad would face Georgia, the freshmen teams met and a tired-looking Alabama squad could only manage a 7-7 tie at halftime.

When freshman coach Shorty Propst started to lay into the team during the break, Sington asked if the offense could run Georgia’s plays since that’s what they had been doing in practice. It worked, Alabama blew out the Georgia freshmen in the second half, and Sington got a nice scar on his face for his efforts.

Sington, listed at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, is somewhat overlooked in Crimson Tide history because of his position and that most of his career was played during the 1928 and 1929 seasons, when fans who had been spoiled by Rose Bowl trips were disappointed by 6-3 seasons.

In 1928, Alabama traveled to play a Big Ten school for the first time, a 15-0 loss at Wisconsin, though the season ended with a 19-0 victory against Georgia and 13-0 win over LSU. The 1929 season was highlighted by Sington and back Tony Holm named All-Americans, and Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa was dedicated by Governor Bibb Graves.

The 1930 season was a different, though, when Alabama shut out eight of its 10 opponents, finished undefeated, and crushed Washington State 24-0 in the Rose Bowl. The victory, in addition to the song “Football Freddie” by Rudy Vallee, helped vault Sington into the national spotlight, even though those who closely followed the game were already well familiar with this play.

“He was the greatest lineman in the country,” Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne said about the unanimous All-American selection.

Normally, Alabama coach Wallace Wade wanted his players to be completely focused on football, but Sington was also a member of the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, served as student body president his senior year, and was an All-American baseball player while also a member of the basketball and track teams.

After throwing a no-hitter, Wade pulled him into his office not to offer congratulations, but say, “Son, I want you to know that football is first.”

After graduating, Sington played baseball for the Washington Senators and Brooklyn Dodgers until 1940. During World War II, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and afterward became a prominent businessman and civic leader in the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa area.

Some of this post originated from "100 Things Crimson tide Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die," published by Triumph Books