The Iron Bowl Research Paper

1016 Words5 Pages

Part I: The history behind the great American sport, football, is a very important subject to me as I have played the game since I was eight. As I continued playing while getting older, leagues got more competitive and injury seemed to be more prone to some than most. I can’t even recall the amount of times the game has been stopped due to someone getting the wind knocked out of them, head-to-head collisions, sometimes even broken bones. The slide about rules evolution within the College Football realm resonated with me due to the fact that during this time football was being played, people were dying from injuries and the numbers of deaths were only rising. In 1905, eighteen players died and in 1908, that number increased to thirty-three. …show more content…

The name Iron Bowl was made famous by a former Auburn coach Shug Jordan who’s credited with coining the nickname after being interviewed and asked about his season not being able to reach a bowl game. Jordan responded, “"We've got our bowl game. We have it every year. It's the Iron Bowl in Birmingham." Birmingham was famous for it’s steel production so that’s what Jordan was referring to when he called it that. The name has stuck though, and it has become a very important game each year for both Alabama and Auburn with home field advantage for Auburn every odd numbered year and Alabama having home field every even year. The rivalry has become one of the most important in college football and still continues to divide the state to this …show more content…

Al Capone reportedly bet 50,000 on Dempsey because he was the favorite to win and in Dempsey’s mind, he believed it was going to be fixed. The Long Count Fight was held on September 22nd, 1927 at Soldier Field in Chicago. It’s controversial due to the fact that the count was delayed while Tunney was down because Dempsey wouldn’t get to his corner. This happened multiple times, although we’ll never know if it affected the fight or not. Tunney won by unanimous decision however, and was the new champion taking Dempsey’s