Daily Dose of Crimson Tide: Woodrow Lowe

There aren’t too many players who can say that destiny many have had a hand in their landing at Alabama, but Woodrow Lowe was an exception in more ways than one.

Lowe grew up in Phenix City, just a few miles from Auburn, and was set to attend a game there and check out the Tigers with a friend, but fate intervened with a flat tire. He never made it.

“It’s not just one thing; It’s not one single thing,” Lowe said about playing for the Crimson Tide. “It’s more of a temperament, a mindset. You have to throw words like tradition and legacy into that equation. When you are a member of the University of Alabama football team, I don’t care where you are, people know you. I’ve been in California, Mexico, and Japan, you’d be surprised at the people that know about the Crimson Tide.

“We have a tradition here in the state of Alabama, I think, for the most part, that if you are a Crimson Tider or you played for the University of Alabama, you pretty much know what football is all about. That association is an honorable thing to be tied to. I don’t care how old I get or how long I live, it certainly is an honor to have played for the Crimson Tide. It really is.”

Lowe is one of only two Crimson Tide players to be a three-time All-American selection, which he earned from 1973 to 1975. Statistically, his best year was as a sophomore, when he had 134 tackles, including six for a loss, and three interceptions to help lead Alabama to the national championship.

“There were a lot of great players on that football team,” he said. “We had a lot of great defensive players in Leroy Cook, Mike Christian, Skip Kubelius, Mike Washington, and Tyrone King. We had a great, great offensive team. We only lost one game that year. For the most part, the best I can reflect upon, there was no individualism. We were a team and we had high expectations. We were never without high expectations. You hear it early, when you first get on campus, what football meant to the great state of Alabama and to this university. That part of it was a given. The expectation level was very high.

“One of the games I remember back then was the game we lost. We lost to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship. It’s ironic. That ballgame was decided by them being able to return a kickoff. I think we dominated pretty much everything else. We split in the national championship, but that right there was the game that I remember the most.”

During his four years, Alabama never failed to win the Southeastern Conference championship, and played in two Sugar Bowls, one Orange Bowl, and a Cotton Bowl.

“We had a very prolific offense, running the ball and throwing play-action passes and we were a great defensive team too,” Lowe added. “When we went on the field, we just expected to win.”

Drafted in the fifth round by the San Diego Chargers, Lowe played 11 years in the National Football League. He started more games for the Chargers than any other defensive player in team history (151 out of a possible 165), and was made a team captain.

But two things in particular about Lowe have stood the test of time.

First, although it took a little longer than expected, Lowe was enshrined in the College Football Fall of Fame in 2010. His class included 16 players and coaches John Robinson and Dick MacPherson. Among them were two Heisman Trophy winners, Notre Dame’s Tim Brown and Miami’s Gino Torretta — whom Alabama beat in the 1993 Sugar Bowl to win a national championship.

“He was consistently excellent throughout his playing career and his induction into the Hall of Fame is very appropriate,” said athletic director Mal Moore, who was an assistant coach during Lowe’s career. “He put together a career that set a standard that carries on to this day.”

Finally, the 134 tackles still stands as the Alabama single-season record, even though the Crimson Tide plays more games nowadays. No one is more surprised than the former player himself.

“We have some great football players who have attended the University of Alabama for the last 30 to 40 years,” Lowe said. “My idol before I got to the university was Lee Roy Jordan. I knew if I could just live up to his expectations, I would be okay and be halfway decent. For that record to stand as long as it has, that means there have been a lot of great defensive players at the University of Alabama in regards to no one single individual player on the team. Even back in 1973, we had a lot of great players on the defensive side of the football.

“I never thought the record would last this long. It’s an honor, I must say. The game has changed a lot since then, its more wide open and spread out. They don’t run the ball as much as they used to run when I was a player. You also get the opportunity to make a lot of tackles that way. With today’s passing game, the spread offense and now the pistol, it’s harder for defensive players to rack up that many tackles, or just make big plays. I do know this: the part of the game that has not changed is the impact a good defense can have over the offense. I know you have heard the saying that ‘Offense wins games and defense wins championships.’ I am believer in that.”

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