There have been many blowout victories in Alabama football history, but none in the last 100 years more decisive than the Crimson Tide’s 1951 season-opener.
In a game played before a modest crowd of 9,000 at Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl, Alabama throttled visiting Delta State 89-0. Crimson Tide coach Harold “Red” Drew reportedly had his fifth string on the field by game’s end, and even used a dozen freshmen against the hapless Statesmen of Cleveland, Miss.
Alabama ran for 473 yards in the game and passed for 78, limiting Delta State to 168 yards and forcing nine punts. The game was played in a heavy downpour for most of the second half, perhaps the only thing stopping the Crimson Tide from surpassing the 100-point mark.
Star halfbacks Bobby Marlow and Bimbo Melton played only briefly in the first and third quarters for the Crimson Tide, but still accounted for two touchdowns each. Sophomore fullback Tommy Lewis — who would achieve a degree of infamy a few years later in the Cotton Bowl (which we’ll get to later in this countdown) — had the longest play of the day with a 66-yard touchdown run.
Halfback Larry Chiodetti scored two long touchdowns on a 43-yard run and a 27-yard reception from George McCain, and also had a 54-yard punt return to set up another score. Chiodetti — described as both “fleet-footed” and “swivel-hipped” by Montgomery Advertiser sports editor Max Moseley in his account of the Delta State game — later gained fame (at least in this writer’s household) as the subject of a comedy routine by the legendary Jerry Clower, who once played football at Mississippi State:
Freshmen Corky Tharp and Bobby Luna each scored twice in the second half. (NCAA rules against freshmen playing on the varsity were relaxed in 1950 and 1951 due to manpower shortages brought on by the Korean War.)
“Everybody Scores but Waterboy” crowed a sub-headline in the next day’s Montgomery Advertiser. An official participation chart published in the same paper listed 46 players as having seen action for Alabama, an astounding number in the days of “iron man” football — when everyone played both ways.
(The 1951 game vs. Delta State IS NOT the highest-scoring game in Alabama football history, however. That honor goes to the 1922 outfit, which bludgeoned Marion Military Institute, essentially a junior-college program, 110-0, in its season-opener.)
No Alabama team since 1951 has come close to matching the scoring output of the Crimson Tide on that day vs. Delta State. The most points Alabama has scored in a game in the last 74 years is 77 vs. Virginia Tech in 1973, a 77-6 victory at Tuscaloosa’s Denny Stadium.
The largest shutout win for the Crimson Tide since 1951 is 66-0, also in 1973, in the season-opener vs. California. Alabama most recently hit that number in a 66-10 win over Chattanooga in 2023.
However, that 1973 Alabama team won a national championship. The 2023 team won the SEC title and participated in the College Football Playoff.
The 1951 Alabama team, however? Turns out, it wasn’t that good.
That blowout of Delta State (whose full name at the time was Delta State Teacher’s College) ended up being far and away the high point of the Crimson Tide’s 1951 season. Alabama preceded to lose its next four games — to LSU, Vanderbilt, Villanova and eventual national champion Tennessee — before beating Mississippi State, Georgia and Southern Miss to even its record at 4-4.
Losses to Georgia Tech and Florida followed, however, clinching Alabama’s first losing season since 1903. The Crimson Tide did finish the year with a 25-7 victory over Auburn (led by first-year coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan), but ended up with a 5-6 record and in a tie for seventh place in the 12-team SEC.
Alabama rebounded in 1952, going 10-2 and pounding Syracuse 56-6 in the Orange Bowl. The program slipped again after that, however, falling to 6-3-3 in 1953 and 4-5-2 in 1954 before Drew was ousted as football coach (he remained on as the Crimson Tide’s track & field coach until 1964).
Drew was replaced by J.B. “Ears” Whitworth, whose 3-year Alabama tenure resulted in a record of 4-24-2 and his firing after the 1957 season. (Whitworth’s successor was, of course, Paul “Bear” Bryant. You might have heard of him.)
That 1951 Alabama season, however, began with a great deal of promise. At least for one day in Montgomery against an overmatched opponent from Mississippi whose roster was populated by future teachers, the Crimson Tide appeared to be invincible.
