100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

Cigar smoke hung over the Memphis State sideline at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Ted Gatewood, the Tigers’ center, paraded across the field with his arms over his head.

“We made history today!” Gatewood exclaimed.

“Stars fell on Alabama yesterday,” Bobby Hall wrote in The Commercial Appeal. “They all wore Memphis State blue.”

The Tigers had just beaten No. 15 Alabama 13-10, the first win over the Crimson Tide in program history, and nothing about it should have been possible.

Memphis State was a basketball school. The Tigers had played for the national championship in 1973 and reached the Final Four in 1985. Football was the other program. Rex Dockery went 1-10 in each of his first two seasons, then built the Tigers to 6-4-1 in 1983. Then Dockery, offensive coordinator Chris Faros, freshman defensive back Charles Greenhill and pilot Glenn Jones, a Highland Hundred booster club member, were killed in a plane crash on Dec. 12, 1983.

Charlie Bailey, the former Florida defensive coordinator, took over before the 1986 season. His first team went 1-10. His second team beat Ole Miss in the opener, then lost three straight at Vanderbilt, at No. 7 Florida State and at Mississippi State to fall to 1-3.

The Tigers were an independent. They scheduled SEC teams because that’s what you did when you were Memphis State. You played the big programs in your region and hoped to survive.

On Oct. 10, 1987, those Tigers were 16-point underdogs against No. 15 Alabama, 4-1 under first-year coach Bill Curry with a Heisman Trophy candidate at tailback. The Crimson Tide hadn’t lost a road game in two years. Memphis State was 0-5 all-time against Alabama. It had lost 37-0 in Tuscaloosa in 1986.

Alabama safety Kermit Kendrick admitted what the locker room was thinking before kickoff.

“We took them for granted,” Kendrick told The Birmingham News. “I don’t think there was a man in this locker room who thought we were going to lose this game.”

Memphis State quarterback Tim Jones, a sophomore from Gordo, Alabama, had a different perspective. Alabama never recruited him.

“They didn’t feel I was good enough,” Jones told The Commercial Appeal. “It was kind of personal vendetta for me. I’m a Tiger now, and I’ve got something to be proud of.”

The game

Alabama scored first on an 8-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. Memphis State answered before halftime when sophomore kicker Johnny Butler drilled a 37-yard field goal as time expired after a pass interference call extended the drive. Alabama 7, Memphis State 3 at the half.

Alabama stretched the lead to 10-3 with a 52-yard field goal in the third quarter. Memphis State’s offensive line responded. Two more pass interference flags kept the tying drive alive, and Gerald White scored from the 3 with 4:56 left in the quarter. Tied at 10.

Wayne Pryor, the Memphis State fullback, led all rushers with 112 yards on 19 carries. Bobby Humphrey, Alabama’s Heisman candidate, had 84 on 22 carries and left the game with leg cramps. He missed the entire fourth quarter.

Alabama appeared to take the lead when Kerry Goode broke free for a 6-yard touchdown run. The officials brought it back for holding. On the very next play, Memphis State nose guard Tory Epps hit the quarterback’s arm as he tried to pass. The ball floated free. Greg Ross, a 260-pound defensive tackle, snatched it out of the air.

“One of our linebackers hit him and I saw the ball in front of me,” Ross told The Birmingham News. “That’s my first interception ever, and I was thinking end zone before they caught me.”

Ross rumbled 24 yards. Backup quarterback Andy Whitwell moved the Tigers to the Alabama 30. Butler lined up for a 47-yard field goal with 8:28 remaining.

It went through. Memphis State 13, Alabama 10.

“When I kicked it, I didn’t even want to look,” Butler said. “I’d never been in position to kick a winning field goal. After it went through, I was amazed at what was happening. We were beating Alabama.”

“We were going for the win,” Bailey told The Birmingham News. “They may get a pass completion downfield, kick a field goal and tie the game. We decided to go for it.”

The defense held. Memphis State had beaten Alabama for the first time, on the same field where Bear Bryant coached his last game five years earlier.

What it proved

“It’s the greatest win I’ve ever been associated with in my whole life,” Bailey told The Commercial Appeal. “I’ll never get over it. This is what we hoped for.”

Epps, who finished with 11 tackles and nine unassisted, had a simpler take.

“What else could anybody ask for?” Epps said.

Pryor put it directly.

“They didn’t believe we could beat them,” Pryor told The Commercial Appeal. “They came out with malice, but before long they knew they were in trouble. Our line knocked open some big holes. I mean big ones.”

Bill Curry said what there was to say.

“They deserved to win, that’s really all there is to it.”

The Ole Miss win in the opener had mattered locally. Memphis State played the Rebels regularly and had beaten them before. Beating No. 15 Alabama made headlines nationally. Alabama had more total yards, 274 to 246. Memphis State didn’t outgain them. Memphis State outfought them.

Memphis State finished 5-5-1 that season after going 1-10 the year before. The next year the Tigers went 6-5, beat Mississippi State and No. 14 Florida in back-to-back weeks and closed with an easy win over Vanderbilt. Three SEC teams in one season from an independent with no bowl tie-in and no television deal.

That momentum began the day the Tide turned in the Liberty Bowl.

Al Dunning, The Commercial Appeal’s sports editor, wrote it best.

“This time it was the other guys whose coach turned into a pumpkin. This time it was ‘Bama chunking interceptions and getting creamed on fourth and short.”