Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Rammer Jammer: Rose Bowl Number

As the Alabama football team prepared to travel to California to play Stanford in the 1935 Rose Bowl against Stanford, the school's humor magazine, Rammer Jammer, published a football-themed issue to commemorate the occasion (Vol 12, No. 3; Dec. 1934). 

Filled with bawdy humor and bad jokes and campus gossip ("Endplaying Paul Bryant thinks occasionally of one Rosa Brooks, who, it has been said, thinks that 'Bear is so cute.'") the book also features an extended and decidedly irreverent take on team an their trip west. A good example is the suggested list of reasons to attend the contest in California.
REASONS FOR GOING TO THE "BOWL"
(For Personal Use)
  1. To get drunk.
  2. To eyeball the sweet jobs of the Sunshine state.
  3. To be qualified to take an active part in fireside ox casting for the ensuing years.
  4. To see the game (recommended for coaches, sports writers, photographers, etc.)