Alabama Crimson Tide football , 1970 – 79 The 1970s were the most successful in the history of the Alabama football program . During the decade the teams won 3 national championships ( 1973 , 1978 , 1979 ) and dominated the SEC in an unprecedented manner , winning 8 titles in 10 years . The school posted back to back undefeated regular seasons in 1973 and 1974 and ended the decade in the midst of a school record 28 game winning streak . Alabama participated in a bowl every season during the decade , part of a school record 25 straight bowl appearances . 1970 . Alabama started the 1970s much as it ended the 1960s , going 6 – 5 – 1 after going 6 – 5 the year before . Southern Cal traveled to Birmingham for the opener and pounded the Tide 42 – 21 , racking up 484 yards rushing . Auburn and LSU beat Alabama again , and Tennessee beat the Tide for the fourth year in a row . In the Tennessee game , quarterback Scott Hunter threw five interceptions and the team threw eight , both all - time Alabama records . 1971 . Two big changes came to Alabama football in 1971 . The first were Wilbur Jackson and John Mitchell . Jackson , signed in 1969 and a member of Alabama ' s freshman team in 1970 ( freshman in those days were not eligible for the varsity ) , was the first ever black player given a football scholarship to Alabama . John Mitchell , who made the team as a junior in 1971 , was the first to actually play , eight years after the Alabama student body was integrated . The second was the wishbone offense . In the wishbone , a variant of the triple option , the quarterback lines up with a fullback and two tailbacks behind him , and on any play may keep the ball , hand off to the fullback , or pitch to a tailback . Passing is deemphasized . In the summer of 1971 Bryant flew to Texas to learn the wishbone from Darrell Royal , who won national championships in 1969 and 1970 after his offensive coordinator Emory Bellard invented the formation in 1968 . Bryant came back to Alabama less than a month before the 1971 opener and announced that Bama was shifting to the wishbone . The change was a closely guarded secret , to the extent that the Tide switched back to practicing the passing game whenever a member of the media was present . Bama ' s switch to the wishbone came as a complete surprise for the opener against Southern Cal , which had humiliated the Tide one year before . Alabama won the game , 17 – 10 , and started the greatest run of success in the history of the program . Over the next eleven seasons , 1971 – 1981 , Alabama won nine SEC titles and three national championships , and lost only four Southeastern conference games . Alabama tore through the 1971 season to finish 11 – 0 , with the Southern Cal win and a 14 – 7 win over LSU as the only close games . The season finale matched up a 10 – 0 Tide with a 9 – 0 Auburn team , the first and only time that both teams have come into the Iron Bowl with perfect records . Alabama scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to break the game open and win 31 – 7 . However , the perfect season was ruined when Alabama took a 38 – 6 beating from the national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl . 1972 . Alabama won its first ten games of 1972 in just as dominant a manner as it did in 1971 . The Tide had only one close game , on Oct . 21 against Tennessee , when they scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull out a 17 – 10 victory . Then came the season finale against Auburn . Auburn also had a very good team in 1972 ( the Tigers had lost only once and were ranked ninth going into the game ) but Alabama dominated play , allowing Auburn only seven first downs and 80 yards of total offense for the entire game . With about five minutes to go , leading 16 – 3 , Alabama lined up to punt . Bill Newton broke through and blocked Greg Gantt ' s punt , and Auburn ' s David Langner gathered up the ball and ran it in for a touchdown . That made the score 16 – 10 . Alabama could get only one first down on the ensuing possession , and with 90 seconds to go lined up to punt again . Again , Newton blocked the punt , and again , Langner scored the touchdown . Auburn won 17 – 16 , and the game went down in infamy ( from a Crimson Tide standpoint ) as the " Punt Bama Punt " game . Auburn would not beat Alabama again for ten years . Bama followed that loss up with a loss to Texas in the Cotton Bowl Classic and finished the season 10 – 2 . 1973 . In 1973 Alabama football enjoyed one of its most dominating seasons of all time . The Tide went 11 – 0 in the regular season , never winning a game by fewer than 14 points and scoring 35 points or more in eight of 11 games . On September 22 Coach Bryant made his first trip to Lexington since leaving the Kentucky Wildcats after the 1953 season ; Alabama won 28 – 14 . Against Georgia , the Tide trailed 14 – 13 in the fourth quarter before rallying to win 28 – 14 . Tennessee and Alabama were tied 21 – 21 going into the fourth quarter before Bama scored three unanswered touchdowns in the final period to win . In the Iron Bowl , Alabama earned a measure of revenge for the Punt Bama Punt game by beating Auburn 35 – 0 . Alabama was voted national champion by the UPI coaches poll on December 4 , the Tide ' s fourth wire service national championship . Through the 1973 season , UPI voted before the bowl games , and Alabama still had the Sugar Bowl to play against undefeated Notre Dame . The game turned out to be a classic . Notre Dame checked into the locker room at halftime up 14 – 10 , the big play coming on a 93 - yard kickoff return for a touchdown . Each team scored a touchdown in the third quarter , leaving the Irish up 21 – 17 going into the fourth . Alabama took a 23 – 21 lead on a fleaflicker touchdown pass from running back Mike Strock back to quarterback Richard Todd , but kicker Bill Davis missed the extra point , leaving Alabama up by two . Notre Dame drove the ball downfield and kicked a 19 - yard field goal to go up 24 – 23 with 4 : 26 to go . Bama could not answer , but the punt left Notre Dame backed up to their own goal . With time ticking away and Notre Dame facing a third and eight , Alabama had a chance to get the ball back in excellent field position , but Irish QB Tom Clements threw a 35 - yard pass to tight end Robin Webber and Notre Dame held on to win the game and the AP national championship . Game notes . LSU . Alabama ' s 500th victory in school history . 1974 . 1974 saw Alabama go through the regular season undefeated for the third time in four years . Strangely , Bama ' s closest game came against a Florida State team that entered their matchup with the Tide as losers of sixteen games in a row . The Seminoles scored a touchdown in the first quarter and in the fourth quarter still had a 7 – 3 lead , but a safety and a field goal allowed Alabama to escape with an 8 – 7 victory . The FSU game , a 21 – 16 victory over Maryland in the season opener , and a 17 – 13 win over Auburn were the only close games the Tide played all season . The season finale was a rematch against Notre Dame , this time in the Orange Bowl . Notre Dame , ranked ninth going into the game , beat Alabama again , 13 – 11 . For the third time in four years , Bama followed up their 11 – 0 regular season with a bowl game loss . The Orange Bowl defeat left Bryant and the Tide 0 – 7 – 1 in their last eight bowl games . 1975 . For the first time since 1970 , Alabama lost its season opener , falling 20 – 7 to Missouri in a game where the Tide had only 118 yards total offense . Bama bounced back from that loss and won every other game of the 1975 season by double digits . The Tide won its fifth straight SEC title ( an all - time conference record ) and ran its conference winning streak to 22 games . Alabama ended the campaign with its first bowl victory in nine seasons , beating Penn State 13 – 6 . 1975 also saw the renaming of Alabama ' s on campus stadium , after the Alabama state legislature voted to amend the name to " Bryant - Denny Stadium " in honor of Coach Bryant . 1976 . Alabama was not quite as dominant in 1976 as it had been the previous five years . The season - opening 10 – 7 loss to Mississippi was Alabama ' s first conference loss since the Punt Bama Punt game in 1972 . On October 2 the Georgia Bulldogs held Bama to 86 total yards ; the 21 – 0 loss was the first time Alabama had been shut out since 1970 . For the first time since that same 1970 season , Bama failed to win the SEC title . Highlights of the 1976 season included a 38 – 7 victory over Auburn and a Liberty Bowl win over UCLA . Game notes . Tennessee . Alabama scored the winning touchdown with less than six minutes remaining , set up by two QB Jack O ' Rear ' s 15 - yard runs , one to start the drive and one prior to Calvin Culliver ' s touchdown . The score came just moments after failing to punch it in from the Tennessee one . The winning drive covered 43 yards in five plays after forcing the Vols to punt from deep in their own territory . It was Alabama ' s sixth straight win versus Tennessee . 1977 . In 1977 Alabama returned to its former place atop the SEC standings , going 11 – 1 on the year . The only blemish was a 31 – 24 loss to Nebraska in which quarterback Jeff Rutledge threw five interceptions . On October 8 , Alabama beat Southern Cal 21 – 20 , turning away a Trojan two - point conversion in the fourth quarter to seal the victory . Bama beat Tennessee for the seventh year in a row and Auburn for the fifth year in a row , and finished up with a 35 – 6 victory over Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl . Game notes . Sugar Bowl . 1978 . The only blemish on Alabama ' s record in 1978 was a loss to Southern California . Bama turned the ball over six times in that game . The next week ' s 51 – 28 victory over Vanderbilt started what became an all - time school record 28 - game winning streak . The 1979 Sugar Bowl against Penn State would go down as a classic . Alabama scored in the second quarter , then Penn State answered in the third , then Alabama took a 14 – 7 lead on a touchdown set up by a 62 - yard punt return . Penn State had a chance to tie in the fourth , but quarterback Chuck Fusina threw an interception into the Alabama end zone . Then Alabama had a chance to put the game away , but fumbled the football back to Penn State at the Nittany Lion 19 - yard - line with four minutes to go . Penn State drove to a first and goal at the Alabama eight . On third and goal from the one , Fusina asked Bama linebacker Marty Lyons " What do you think we should do ? " , and Lyons answered " You ' d better pass . " On third down , Penn State was stopped inches short of the goal line . On fourth down , Penn State was stopped again , Barry Krauss meeting Mike Guman and throwing him back for no gain . Alabama held on for a 14 – 7 victory . The Crimson Tide split the national championship , winning the AP poll while Southern California won the UPI Coaches ' poll . It was Alabama ' s fifth wire service national championship . Alabama ' s costumed " Big Al " mascot officially debuted this season , appearing at the Sugar Bowl .