BamaGradinTN said:
Big_Fan said:
RollTideinGA said:
But put me down as a proponent of discontinuing RJ...for all the reasons listed above and then some...not the least of which is "we have never won a national championship in a season during which we did Rammer Jammer."
Its true.
No, it's not. You're too young. I distinctly remember the Rammer Jammer my last two years at UA, which included the 1978 season (NC #10). And back in those days, we did the Rammer Jammer before the game as well..."Hey Auburn...we're GONNA beat the...""
Considering Dr. Ferguson didn't start it until his last year at Bama, I don't see how you could remember it. He retired a year after Bryant if I remember correctly. Bryant would not have allowed it...taunting was a pet peeve of his.
I have quite a few games on video from those seasons, and there is no RJ.
I'm not too young, but I would not discount you being senile.
According to sources I found, Dr. Ferguson did not start the RJ, but did change the cadence to resemble Ole Miss's. Furthermore, he is credited with having done this when he arrived at Bama in 1971.
"The university briefly forbade the Million Dollar Band from playing it, on account of its taunting nature and its use of the word "hell".[1] The move was was met with a significant amount of criticism. In a vote at Homecoming 2005, the question was posed to students of whether the cheer should be banned. 98% of students voted in favor of keeping the cheer.[2] Before the university's attempt to remove the cheer it was played before kickoff and at the end of the game...Also, when the cheer was played before kickoff, fans would replace the lyrics "We just" with 'We're gonna.'...Also, when the cheer was played before kickoff, fans would replace the lyrics "We just" with "We're gonna."
The lyrics originate from "The Rammer-Jammer," a student newspaper in the 1920s, and the yellowhammer, Alabama's state bird.
The cadence of the cheer was adapted from the Ole Miss cheer "Hotty Toddy" after then Ole Miss marching band director Dr. James Ferguson was appointed director of the Million Dollar Band. The cheer was long referred to as "Ole Miss", and today the drum major's signal is still the motioning of one arm in a full circle (an 'O')."
And as far as Bryant not allowing taunting, near the end of our 1978 blowout of Auburn, the Bama cheerleaders struck up a chant, "What Bowl, Auburn?" Kind of stupid and didn't last very long. And when we opened the Super Dome in the first Sugar Bowl played there, vs. Penn State on 1-1-1976, Bama male cheerleaders put on T-shirts that said "Happy Fiesta Nebraska" and got on national TV with them...a dig at the Cornhuskers, as the 11-1 #3 team in the country getting shipped out to an early Fiesta Bowl to face the WAC Champion instead of getting to go to a major bowl like the Sugar Bowl (Penn State had 2 losses and was #8). Nebraska did not accept the Fiesta Bowl until a second invitation was issued. Husker fans were whining, and our cheerleaders got in a pretty good dig at them on national TV. Bryant may not have liked taunting, but he wasn't always in a position to prevent it.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2079314/Alabama-Rammer-Jammer-Cheer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alabama_traditions
http://texasyank.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-i-love-fiesta-bowl.html