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Confessions of an Alabama football season ticket holder | KEN ROBERTS
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Confessions of an Alabama football season ticket holder | KEN ROBERTS
(This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.)
For a hundred bucks, I could have bought a couple of new Members Only jackets. Or I could have purchased a few cases of Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers and thrown a totally awesome party.
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I could have gone to the movie theater and seen "Back to the Future" more than a dozen times, with enough money left over to splurge on popcorn and Diet Coke.
In the summer of 1985, I was a freshly minted University of Alabama graduate, and I received a UA football season ticket application in the mail. The cost was $15 per ticket, with shipping and handling bringing the total close to around hundred bucks (FYI, UA season ticket prices are a little more expensive these days and $100 is equivalent to around $300 in today's economy).
I've been a season ticket holder for Alabama football since 1985. Here's the view from my upper deck seat at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The letter from the UA athletics department said as a recent graduate, I was welcome to apply for football tickets. The application included six games: three at Legion Field in Birmingham and three at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
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I had a decent-paying job and as Randy Owen sings in "Dixieland Delight," I had a little jingle. But I knew I wasn't exactly as rich as J.R. Ewing, the oil baron on "Dallas." I had to think carefully about the first big entertainment expenditure of my adult life.
Back when Paul W. "Bear" Bryant was the coach and I was a kid, I'd been to a couple of Alabama games, either with my father or grandfather, and then a handful of games as a college student. Most of my Alabama football experience involved listening to the radio as John Forney and Doug Layton described the action. Only a few Alabama games were televised each season in the era before 24-hour sports channels.
The opportunity to see every Alabama home game in person was seemingly too good to pass up.
But what about buying gas ($1.12 a gallon in 1985) to get my little red Toyota Corolla from my Montgomery home to the game? I would need to budget for hot dogs and soda at halftime. How about a new Alabama hat and a Roll Tide T-shirt? Definitely.
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I decided the whole deal was a bargain, sent a check and a few weeks later the tickets arrived in my mailbox.
An old shoebox holds tickets and other mementoes from my 39 years as a University of Alabama football season ticket holder
The next thing I know, it's 2024 and I'm still going to Alabama football games.
I joined Tide Pride, UA athletics' donor program, and I was able to keep the same seat each year through a PSL (personal seat license). I've been sitting in the front row of the upper deck on Bryant-Denny Stadium's west side since 1988, the year the upper deck was built.
A lot has changed in my 39 years as a season ticket holder. Tickets now arrive through my smartphone. Alabama no longer plays games in Birmingham. Bryant-Denny Stadium has expanded from around 60,000 seats to more than 100,000. Every game is televised.
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The players have gotten bigger, stronger, faster and — thanks to name, image and likeness deals — richer. The arrival of the transfer portal means players can switch teams with dizzying frequency.
Attending a University of Alabama football game with my daughter Simone at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
I've watched a parade of coaches — Ray Perkins , Bill Curry , Gene Stallings , Mike DuBose , Dennis Franchione , Mike Shula (Do I count Mike Price ?), Nick Saban and now Kalen DeBoer .
A lot has changed in life, too. In the past 39 years, I've lived through seven presidential administrations, three Van Halen lead singers, bull markets and recessions, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union's collapse, wars in the Persian Gulf, 9/11, the 2011 tornado , George Floyd, COVID ... am I starting to sound like Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire?"
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I got married in 2001 and I had to explain to my wife, Monique, who isn't a football fan, that I was keeping my season tickets even when we moved to Florida for six years. I still made it to a couple of Alabama games each season during those years, thanks to Southwest Airlines and Monique's understanding nature.
We welcomed two daughters into the family and then moved to Tuscaloosa just when the Nick Saban era began.
Attending a University of Alabama football game with my daughter Nadia at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
I've seen seven national championship teams (1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020), one 6-6 year and three losing seasons.
I've witnessed a steady stream of great players, including Derrick Thomas , David Palmer , Shaun Alexander , Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa , along with dozens of players who went on to have successful NFL careers. I've seen Alabama go from zero Heisman Trophy winners to four: Mark Ingram , Derrick Henry , DeVonta Smith and Bryce Young .
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Like the opening of ABC's "Wide World of Sports" says, I've experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat while observing the human drama of athletic competition.
A few of the thrills:
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Beating Auburn and Bo Jackson with a last-second Van Tiffin field goal in 1985.
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Clinching the 1992 national championship in the Sugar Bowl with a convincing victory over an impossibly cocky Miami team.
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Going to the Rose Bowl for the first of Saban's six national championships at UA.
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Cheering at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta as Alabama beat Georgia in overtime for yet another national title.
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Finally seeing Alabama beat Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2023 when Jalen Milroe threw the "Gravedigger" touchdown pass on fourth down and 31 yards to go. I'd attended four losses (1989, 1993, 2017 and 2019) at the Loveliest Village on the Plains and had started to believe I was a bad luck charm.
The wall of my home office is decorated with front pages from my time at The Tuscaloosa News, along with a couple of other mementoes.
A few of the agonies:
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The 1988 loss to Ole Miss on homecoming when Alabama failed to complete a single pass. Someone was angry enough to throw a brick through the head coach's office window the next day. It wasn't me. Honest.
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Any time Alabama lost to Auburn. The 1989 loss, the first time I'd seen an Alabama-Auburn game played in Auburn, ended dreams of an undefeated season. I remember the sting of the 2000 Auburn loss in the freezing rain in Tuscaloosa, when the UA program seemed to be in an irreversible decline. The Cam Newton comeback in 2010 hurt and I can still hear the Auburn fans' celebration ringing in my ears. I don't even want to acknowledge the 2013 Auburn loss, which I watched on TV from my couch.
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Losing to Louisiana-Monroe in 2007 and telling everyone: "Hiring Nick Saban was a mistake."
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Two losses to LSU that ended long home winning streaks: one in 1993 and the other in 2019 with then-President Donald Trump in attendance.
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Deciding not to attend the last home game of 2023, because Saban will be back next year, right?
Saban's retirement serves as a reminder that life holds no guarantees. I look forward to my 40th season as a UA football season ticket holder in 2025, but will I be there for season 50 or 60? Dare I hope to experience season 70? Maybe by then I'll have a transporter and I'll be able to beam up to my seat, like Captain Kirk in "Star Trek."
I guess the only thing I have left to say is Roll Tide!
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Reach Ken Roberts at ken.roberts@tuscaloosanews.com .
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: My 39 years as an Alabama football season ticket holder | KEN ROBERTS
