Iron Bowl - History

History

Alabama and Auburn played their first football game in Lakeview Park in Birmingham, Alabama, on February 22, 1893. Auburn (then named the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) won 32–22, before an estimated crowd of 5,000. As if a signal of the future, disagreement between the schools began immediately as Alabama considered the game to be the final matchup of the 1892 season and Auburn recorded it as the first of 1893.

Tensions further built when, after both 1906 and 1907 contests, Auburn head coach Mike Donahue threatened to cancel the series if Alabama head coach "Doc" Pollard continued employing his elaborate formations and shifts. The series was indeed suspended after the 1907 game when the schools could not come to agreement over the amount of expenses to be paid players, as well as from where officials for the game should be obtained.

In 1947 the Alabama House of Representatives passed a resolution encouraging the schools to "make possible the inauguration of a full athletic program between the two schools". The schools were disinclined to resume the series despite the passage of the resolution, since it did not have the effect of law. However, the Alabama congress threatened to withhold state funding from the schools unless they DID resume the rivalry. With that threat in mind, Ralph B. Draughon, the president of Auburn (then named the Alabama Polytechnic Institute), and Alabama president John Gallalee decided during the winter and spring of 1948 to end the disagreement and renew the series. The games would be played in Birmingham because it had the largest stadium in the state, 44,000-seat Legion Field, and the tickets would be split evenly between the two schools. Alabama won the first game when the series renewed 55–0, the most lopsided victory of the series.

By 1980 the series had come to be called the Iron Bowl, due to Birmingham's prominence as a center of iron and steel production. The term Iron Bowl was coined by Auburn's coach at the time, Shug Jordan. Alabama's coach, Bear Bryant, said he preferred calling the game the Brag Bowl, since the winner's fans got to brag all year long.

Throughout the 1980s, Auburn made additions to Jordan–Hare Stadium, and in 1987 it eclipsed Legion Field in size. Auburn desired to make the Iron Bowl a "home-and-home" series, and the schools reached an agreement where Auburn could play their home games for the Iron Bowl in Auburn starting in 1989 (except for the 1991 game, which was played at Legion Field), and Alabama would have a "home" ticket allocation for games in Legion Field. On December 2, 1989, Alabama came to Auburn's Jordan–Hare Stadium for the first time in the history of the rivalry. A sellout crowd witnessed Auburn win its first true "home" game of the series, 30–20 over an Alabama team that entered the game unbeaten and ranked #2 in the country.

Alabama continued to hold their home game at Legion Field. In 1998, Alabama expanded Bryant–Denny Stadium to a capacity of 83,818, exceeding Legion Field by a few hundred. Alabama moved their home games in the series to Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2000. A new attendance record for the Iron Bowl was set in 2006 as the latest expansion to Bryant–Denny Stadium increased its capacity to 92,138. The record was reset again in 2010, after another expansion to Alabama's Bryant–Denny Stadium, when a crowd of 101,821 witnessed an Auburn victory with a score of 28–27.

In 2009 and 2010 CBS Sports arranged an agreement between the two universities to have the game played in an exclusive time slot on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The 2009 game was the sixth Iron Bowl to be played on a Friday and the first in 21 years. CBS did not attempt to renew the agreement after 2010 due to criticism from within the state from both fan bases, returning the game to its traditional Saturday date.