Roll Tide! War Eagle!

I have spoken before about how football is almost a religion in Alabama.  People are born into Alabama or Auburn families and sons of players at one school almost invariably play at the same school.  Most approach this in a rational fashion and take good natured pokes at one another.  As with anything, a few become obsessive to absurd levels.

Today is the first game day of the 2012 season.  Auburn is playing the Clemson Tigers in Atlanta, Georgia and the currently second-ranked Alabama is visiting the Michigan Wolverines in Dallas, Texas. 

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Roll tide

War Eagle flight

The origin of Crimson Tide and Roll Tide:

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California is where the Alabama team won their first four national titles (a total of fourteen.)  The national sports writers spoke of the team looking like a tide of red, a Crimson Tide, pouring onto the field.

The association with an elephant (the mascot: Big Al) began because the sports writers noticed a picture of a red elephant on the personal storage trunks the players brought with them.  The trunks were supplied to the team by a local Birmingham luggage company, Rosenberger's Birmingham Trunk, whose business logo is a red elephant.  The elephant logo refers to the strength of the trunks which they sell.

The origin of War Eagle:

The Auburn Tigers mascot is Aubie the Tiger.  The eagle, also, became associated with the team very early in Auburn history. In 1892, an eagle circled over the football field during a football game and the fans pointed into the air and yelled “War Eagle!”  

Roll Tide in Jerusalem

Here in Birmingham we are often accused of making Alabama and Auburn football into a religion.  It's probably true. We love our football.  You rarely go a day without seeing someone wearing a sweatshirt from one of the two teams (and from other Southeastern Conference schools and numerous other less well known smaller colleges and universities). You'll often see a car with Alabama or Auburn insignia on the side panels or with school flags flapping in the wind.  My favorite is a tiger tail hanging out of a car trunk, as if someone has abducted Aubie, the mascot of Auburn University.

Ashley Makar is a divinity student at Yale University and a Birmingham native.  She is of Egyptian ancestry.  Her father is a cardiologist in Birmingham.  Recently, in Jerusalem, she ran upon a startling sight, the Alabama the Heart of Dixie souvenir shop.  Of course, she had to check this out.

The owner of the shop is Hani Imam, who lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from 1984 to 1994.  At the shop he has Alabama items and decorations but sells Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Holy Land items to religious tourists.  Imam watches Alabama football games on his satellite television and is hoping for them to repeat as national champions.

As Makar left the shop, the Muslim manager, Dia Abdeen, smiled and said, "Roll Tide!"

Makar, Ashley, "Viewpoints: There's a Heart of Dixie and a Roll Tide in Jerusalem," al.com.  http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2010/09/viewpoints_theres_a_heart_of_d.html

Sweaty Football Player on a Bench

My wife was having surgery the other day (a total knee replacement!).  As I sat waiting to hear that her surgery was completed and that she was heading to her room, I saw a man walking down the hall.  He had on a red sweatshirt (crimson, actually. Roll Tide!).  On the front of the shirt was a picture of a lone football player sitting on a bench, his helmet by his feet, head bowed in fatigue, with sweat dripping. 

Hmmmm!???

On the back of the shirt was the slogan: "The true image of a champion is one of a man, sitting on a bench, dripping sweat, with no else around."

This is the attitude Christians need to take in their Bible study and prayer life.  We need to be champions.