Daily Dose of Crimson Tide: Pooley Hubert

The January 11, 1926 issue of "Time Magazine" said this about the first Rose Bowl to feature a Southern team:

“Pasadena was flooded with sunshine. Businessmen swelled with pride, policemen with importance. Through the streets it was raining roses—white ones, red ones, pink ones, yellow ones, in bunches and basketfuls, automobiles full, motor trucks full. To the gay Rose Bowl went Pasadena, 300 gorgeous floats and a hilarious walking multitude, for the 37th annual Tournament of Roses on New Year’s Day.

“Out upon the chalk-lined sward trotted the eleven purple-banded ‘Huskies’ of the University of Washington. They slapped their padded thighs, they pranced their cleated feet. Came the slighter, nimbler Dixie boys of the University of Alabama, flitting through signal practice, twitching their pigskin this way, that way.

“It was the old, old contrast, the thunder and the lightning.”

Led by Allison “Pooley” Hubert, Alabama was the lightning, which helps explain why Coach Wallace Wade supposedly told him before kickoff: “Run the game any way you want to, Pooley, but don’t run the football yourself or they’ll kill you.”

With nothing to lose, Wade finally unleashed Hubert in third quarter. He punched in one touchdown and Johnny Mack Brown caught two touchdown passes, one from Hubert, as Alabama won 20-19. With the victory, Hubert capped a prolific career as Alabama’s field general, with 35 touchdowns including six games in which he scored at least three.

“Pooley was the greatest team leader and playmaker that I ever coached in my long career,” Wade said.

Hubert was a proficient defensive back and defensive leader as well, which prompted Southern sportswriters to refer to him as “the greatest defensive back ever to appear on Grant Field in Atlanta.”

Pooley also helped lead Alabama to a couple of the program’s other great victories, including one for Coach Zen Scott during the 1922 season. Although Southern football was still considered inferior to what was being played in the Northeast, where the game originated, it faced off against Penn on November 4, and most expected the game to be a blowout.

With a field goal by Bull Wesley and center Shorty Propst’s recovery of Hubert’s fumble in the end zone, Alabama pulled of a jaw-dropping 9-7 victory in Philadelphia, that led to the team parading in the streets before heading home. With thousands greeting them at the Tuscaloosa Train Depot, it served as a precursor to the Rose Bowl game that would change college football in the South and nation.

During Hubert’s career, Alabama teams went a combined 31-6-2, and he was an All-Southern selection in both 1924 and 1925, when the Crimson Tide also won its first conference titles. In 1924, Georgia was rated the No. 1 team in the region before getting pounded by Alabama. Hubert threw touchdown passes in the 33-0 victory.

“Undoubtedly one of the greatest football players of all time,” Wade said.

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