On November 18, 1901, the University of Alabama and the University of
Tennessee first locked horns on a football field. At the contest's end,
the score was tied, nothing had been resolved, and about two thousand
fans were on the field at Tuscaloosa, fighting.
Since that day the Tennessee-Alabama game has developed into one of the
premier football rivalries in the nation. To many of the faithful, it is
much more than a game -- it is a crusade. The intensity with which these
games have been waged makes victory as satisfying as the warm crimson
and orange leaves that dance in Knoxville's cool Smoky Mountain breezes.
Defeat, however, is more bitter than the choking smoke of Birmingham's
steel mills.
Beginning in 1928, the annual game has been played on the third Saturday
in October, and the contest has produced enough heroes to fill several
books. Third Saturday in October tells the story of each game. From
Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Red Drew, Paul Bear Bryant, Ray Perkins,
Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, and Mike Dubose of Alabama, to Robert
Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle, Johnny Majors, and Phil
Fulmer of Tennessee, the game has been directed by legendary coaches and
played by heroic young men who have risen to greatness on the third
Saturday in October.
Third Saturday in October is filled with memories and reflections of
players, coaches, reporters, sportscasters, and fans. The people who
were there, who made or failed to make the key plays, tell what happened
in their own words. More than two hundred historic photographs
illustrate the lively text. This second edition contains reports of the
games from 1987 through 2000.
