🏈 Members of the OFC, this won't make you feel any better today...
- Thread starter TerryP
- Start date
rocknthefreeworld
Member
No such thing as feeling bad when you are thinking back on great Alabama football teams. I feel sorry for you young whippersnappers who never got to see this guy play and probably don't even know who he is. He was an important member of another NC team. Anyone know when he played and who he is?
@psychojoe Yes, I know. But, I'm a whippersnapper in the OFC.
rocknthefreeworld
Member
PJ I know who that is his name is.....hey I have that SI mag. OFC club did that get move to here?
No such thing as feeling bad when you are thinking back on great Alabama football teams. I feel sorry for you young whippersnappers who never got to see this guy play and probably don't even know who he is. He was an important member of another NC team. Anyone know when he played and who he is?
Blazing speed and sticky hands served Dennis Homan well.
But his most valuable asset?
Loose lips.
During a close game against Mississippi State in 1965, Homan, a still largely anonymous sophomore, found himself standing on the sideline within earshot of Paul “Bear” Bryant. Far down the depth chart, he had never caught a pass in a varsity game, and few Alabama fans knew his name.
Homan tended to talk to himself in those days, so after noticing a vulnerability in the State defense, he blurted out, without realizing, “That cornerback can be beaten inside! He’s playing too far outside!”
Apparently recognizing the same weakness, Bryant grabbed Homan by the jersey, jolting him out of his trance. “Go in there and do it!”
After running onto the field and substituting himself for receiver Tommy Tolleson, Homan told quarterback Steve Sloan what he had seen—and how Bryant wanted to exploit the coverage. Moments later, Sloan faded into the pocket and drilled a bullet toward him, catching the cornerback, as expected, out of position.
“I was so wide open it looked like I was out to practice early,” said Homan, who has spent more than three decades as a medical salesman, living in the Florence area. “I remember watching the ball coming toward me like it was in slow-motion, thinking to myself: There’s no way you can drop this ball!”
“Looking back, it was probably a real good thing I didn’t know how to keep my mouth shut,” Homan said with a chuckle many years later, marveling at the intersection of nervous habit and history-altering opportunity.
-----
Keith Dunavant wrote this back in 2012. Those of you that have read books and different story's about the Tide will recall this story (while you may not have recalled who Homan was with PJ's question.)
But his most valuable asset?
Loose lips.
During a close game against Mississippi State in 1965, Homan, a still largely anonymous sophomore, found himself standing on the sideline within earshot of Paul “Bear” Bryant. Far down the depth chart, he had never caught a pass in a varsity game, and few Alabama fans knew his name.
Homan tended to talk to himself in those days, so after noticing a vulnerability in the State defense, he blurted out, without realizing, “That cornerback can be beaten inside! He’s playing too far outside!”
Apparently recognizing the same weakness, Bryant grabbed Homan by the jersey, jolting him out of his trance. “Go in there and do it!”
After running onto the field and substituting himself for receiver Tommy Tolleson, Homan told quarterback Steve Sloan what he had seen—and how Bryant wanted to exploit the coverage. Moments later, Sloan faded into the pocket and drilled a bullet toward him, catching the cornerback, as expected, out of position.
“I was so wide open it looked like I was out to practice early,” said Homan, who has spent more than three decades as a medical salesman, living in the Florence area. “I remember watching the ball coming toward me like it was in slow-motion, thinking to myself: There’s no way you can drop this ball!”
After the 65-yard touchdown strike, which lifted the Crimson Tide to a 10-7 victory on way to the 1965 national championship, suddenly every Alabama fan knew Dennis Homan’s name.“Looking back, it was probably a real good thing I didn’t know how to keep my mouth shut,” Homan said with a chuckle many years later, marveling at the intersection of nervous habit and history-altering opportunity.
-----
Keith Dunavant wrote this back in 2012. Those of you that have read books and different story's about the Tide will recall this story (while you may not have recalled who Homan was with PJ's question.)
Pretty good group of skill players in 65. Tolleson, Homan and Perkins as receivers, Sloan and Stabler as the QBs.
Much has been made of this team having a loss and a tie but winning the NC. It took a good bit of luck on New Year's day to bring it off, Still, the loss against UGA, had it happened today, would have been controversial to say the least. The play that UGA fans regard as among their greatest ones, a supposed catch by one receiver and lateral to another who sped for a game winning TD on the game's last play should not have been a touchdown. Even the replays of 1965 showed that both knees of the first receiver were on the ground when the catch was made. If the contention was that it was tipped back to the second receiver, the rules of the day said that on a forward pass if an offensive player touched but did not catch the ball, then a second offensive player could not catch and advance the ball unless a defender touched it in between. So either way, no TD and Bama wins. The events of New Year's day were poetic justice.
Much has been made of this team having a loss and a tie but winning the NC. It took a good bit of luck on New Year's day to bring it off, Still, the loss against UGA, had it happened today, would have been controversial to say the least. The play that UGA fans regard as among their greatest ones, a supposed catch by one receiver and lateral to another who sped for a game winning TD on the game's last play should not have been a touchdown. Even the replays of 1965 showed that both knees of the first receiver were on the ground when the catch was made. If the contention was that it was tipped back to the second receiver, the rules of the day said that on a forward pass if an offensive player touched but did not catch the ball, then a second offensive player could not catch and advance the ball unless a defender touched it in between. So either way, no TD and Bama wins. The events of New Year's day were poetic justice.
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