Remembering Tuscaloosa from 2003, thinking of those fine folks today
Published: 4/29/2011 12:06 PM
Last Modified: 4/29/2011 12:08 PM
President Obama arrived in Tuscaloosa this morning. Sadly, he isn't there for the same reason I was eight years ago.
He isn't there to see a bucolic college town bursting with energy over a bigtime football game. He isn't there to see tree-lined streets leading visitors to a bustling campus packed with some of the happiest people you can imagine.
That's what I encountered Sept. 6, 2003, on what remains my favorite road game day in the 10 years I have covered Oklahoma football.
It was a prime time kickoff, so I used the morning and afternoon to immerse myself in Alabama football. GameDay broadcast from campus, and I watched that for a while. I watched Crimson Tide fans watch, actually, and noticed how respectful they were during the show. Noisy, but definitely respectful.
I worked my way through the tailgating community that had overrun the section of campus known as the Quad. I took notes as I walked so I could get a head start on my pregame duties for the Norman Transcript. Several of the tailgaters noticed, figured I was both a reporter and a visitor, and invited me under their tents for food, drink and talk.
All of them sat back and enjoyed the gorgeous late summer day.
I ended up in the campus bookstore. I bought my 4-year-old son a pennant and my 6-year-old daughter a figurine of an elephant in a white cheerleader's outfit adorned with a crimson A. Big Al, Alabama's elephant mascot, is a big deal in Tuscaloosa, I discovered, but nowhere near as important as Bear Bryant. As I checked out of the bookstore, Bryant talked (it being the Bear, he actually mumbled) to me over the speakers.
I also heard "Sweet Home Alabama" that day. A thousand times, I think. And while I've never been a fan of that song, I sort of enjoyed it in Tuscaloosa. It was probably because no matter where I went and how often I heard it, folks sang along as if listening to an old favorite for the first time in years.
Eventually, evening arrived and I walked over to Bryant-Denny Stadium. I remember bumping into a pack of Norman friends outside, and them telling me how wonderfully they had been treated. I'd hear a lot more of the same after returning home.
Night fell, the Tide ran through the Million Dollar Band and the stadium erupted in a pandemonium that somehow sustained itself over the next 3½ hours.
The game itself was terrific, but the experience was even better. All of it. The campus, the music, the stadium, the colors, the weather. The football.
And most of all, the people of Alabama. The people in Tuscaloosa that day.
I'll be thinking a lot about those folks this weekend as they start the process of putting their community back together. If you were there that 2003 day, or you know someone who was, or you have simply heard about it in the eight years since, I'm sure you'll be thinking of them, too.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
