Alabama’s 1962 season was a disappointment in many ways, with a late-season loss to Georgia Tech preventing the Crimson Tide from repeating as national champions.
But on the first day of 1963, fifth-ranked Alabama — and one player in particular — capped the season in spectacular fashion. In the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day vs. No. 7 Oklahoma, All-America linebacker Lee Roy Jordan logged an astounding 31 tackles in a 17-0 Crimson Tide victory.
“I probably got credit for more tackles than I made, but I didn’t turn them down when the game was over,” Jordan told AL.com in 2018. “I had a lot of teammates that surely helped me with those tackles and took up a lot of blockers. That gave me a chance to fill those holes and make a lot of stops.”
It was the capper to an outstanding career for Jordan, arguably Alabama’s greatest defensive player of the Paul “Bear” Bryant era. A three-year starter at linebacker (and occasionally at center in that two-way era), the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Excel native was a unanimous All-American as a senior in 1962.
Moreover, Jordan was considered the ideal model for a Bryant-era player. His choice certainly spoke highly of him every time he got the chance.
“I can remember nothing bad about Lee Roy: first on the field, full speed every play, no way to get him to take it easy,” Bryant wrote in Bear, his 1975 autobiography. “I can’t ever recall him missing a practice. Or being hurt, for that matter.”
Jordan was never better than he was on New Year’s Day 1963 vs. Oklahoma, which featured three first-team All-Americans of its own — senior guard Leon Cross and senior center Wayne Lee, plus junior halfback Joe Don Looney. Nevertheless, Bryant had all but predicted a big day for his star linebacker when he told reporters in the days leading up to the game “as long as they stay in bounds, Lee Roy will get a piece of them.”
Jordan rubbed shoulders with history even before the opening kickoff, when as Alabama’s team captain he was invited to participate in the pre-game coin toss. President John F. Kennedy — a close friend of Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson — was in attendance, and Jordan joined Oklahoma co-captains Lee and Cross in the stands to watch Kennedy flip a commemorative silver dollar (security concerns prevented the ceremony from taking place on the field as it normally does).
Alabama won the toss, so Jordan got to keep the coin. He told AL.com in 2018 he still had it in his possession some 55 years later.
“I have it right here looking at me right now, I have pictures of the coin and everything,” Jordan said. “I’ve kept that coin for forever. That’s the last thing I’ll discard before I go meet the maker.”
With Jordan and the Alabama defense pitching a shutout, the Crimson Tide offense had plenty of margin for error. Sensational sophomore quarterback Joe Namath led a pair of first-half touchdown drives, ending in a 25-yard pass to Richard Williamson and a 15-yard run by Cotton Clark.
The rest of the day belonged to Jordan, who was credited with 15 solo tackles and 16 assists, along with a forced fumble. Oklahoma ran only 60 offensive plays in the game, meaning Jordan was credited with a tackle or an assist on more than half of them.
“It was the best game I’ve ever seen anybody play,” former Dallas Cowboys scouting director Gil Brandt — who was in attendance that day — told AL.com in 2018. “It seemed like every time that the pile unpiled, Lee Roy was at the bottom of the pile. Yeah, we felt very good about having drafted him.”
Indeed, the Cowboys had selected Jordan with the No. 6 overall pick in the NFL draft in December. The AFL’s Boston Patriots also took him at No. 14 in those pre-merger days when the two leagues held separate drafts.
So Jordan had a decision to make, Dallas or Boston? He eventually chose Dallas, with perhaps Brandt and Cowboys head coach Tom Landry making their final sales pitch during the next week’s Senior Bowl in Mobile. Jordan went on to be a Cowboys legend, earning a starting job as a rookie and playing a total of 14 years in Dallas. He played in three Super Bowls, earning five Pro Bowl berths, totaling a franchise record 743 tackles and earning a spot in the team’s Ring of Honor (he is in the College Football Hall of Fame, but has not yet been selected to the Pro Football version).
“He’s one of 100 million is what he is,” Brandt said in 2018. “Pound-for-pound, ounce-for-ounce, all those things that they say … I don’t think there’s ever been anybody that’s been a better linebacker. He could run, he could back-pedal. He had a great sense of finding the ball. I can’t talk highly enough of the guy.”
