Alabama Crimson Tide football , 1920 – 29 1920 . Xen Scott ' s spectacular success with the 1919 Tide carried over as Alabama set a record for the second consecutive year for most victories in a season . Bama didn ' t give up a single point in its first six games . In the opener against Southern Military , Alabama didn ' t allow a single first down . In the seventh game Alabama finally let an opponent score , but gutted out a 14 – 7 win over Vanderbilt in which the Commodores threw an interception on 4th and goal at the Alabama 3 in the fourth quarter . However , two games later against Georgia , Alabama ' s school - record 11 - game winning streak was snapped . The Bulldogs did not score a single point on offense but won a bizarre 21 – 14 victory by scoring three touchdowns on a fumble return , a blocked punt return , and a blocked field goal return . Alabama rallied from that disappointment to win its last two games and finish 10 – 1 for the season . Starting with Xen Scott every Alabama coach has won 10 games in a season at least once , with the exception of the disastrous tenure of J . B . Whitworth ( Mike Price was fired before ever coaching a game and Joe Kines served as interim coach for one game ) . Riggs Stephenson , star back on the 1920 team , became a Major League Baseball player after his football days were over and compiled a . 336 lifetime batting average over 14 seasons in the big leagues . 1921 . After going 18 – 2 over the previous two seasons , Alabama struggled in 1921 . In the opener , Bama spotted Howard a 14 – 0 first quarter lead before rallying to win 34 – 14 . A 17 – 0 loss to Sewanee kicked off a six - game winless streak . Against LSU the Crimson Tide dominated play , racking up 23 first downs to LSU ' s six , but could not translate that into points and had to settle for a 7 – 7 tie . Alabama tied Mississippi State by the same score after a Tide pass into the end zone late in the fourth fell incomplete . Scott and the Tide avoided Alabama ' s first losing season since the 1903 team went 3 – 4 by pulling out a 14 – 7 victory over Tulane that featured a wild fourth quarter . After the first three quarters were scoreless ( Alabama once fumbling the ball away at Tulane ' s 3 - yard line ) , the Green Wave scored early in the fourth to take a 7 – 0 lead . Alabama answered by driving 65 yards for the tying score . After a punt Bama drove to the Tulane 15 - yard line but fumbled the ball away again . After another Tulane punt Alabama drove down the field again and scored to take a 14 – 7 lead . As the clocked ticked away the final seconds Tulane had the ball at the Alabama 40 . Tulane appeared to score a possible game - tying touchdown on a 40 - yard pass completion , but the referee ruled that time had expired and he had blown the whistle before Tulane snapped the ball . The Tulane fans rioted and stormed the field and the referee required a police escort to escape . 1922 . 1922 was the first season of football play for the new Southern Conference . Alabama was one of twenty members of the old thirty - team Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association which joined to form a new conference . Alabama ' s 110 points scored in the season - opening victory over Marion Institute is the all - time single - game Alabama record for points scored , and is the only time in school history that the Tide has broken 100 points in a game . Alabama dominated against Sewanee , holding the Tigers to six yards rushing and one first down , but had to settle for a 7 – 7 tie after Sewanee blocked a Tide field goal attempt , recovered five Alabama fumbles , and scored its only touchdown on an interception return . Against Texas Alabama again lost five fumbles , and this time suffered a 19 – 10 loss . The Tide overcame more turnover problems — two fumbles , an interception , and another interception returned for a touchdown — and beat Georgia 10 – 6 . The Georgia game was Alabama ' s first ever game in Cramton Bowl in Montgomery . The Tide would use Cramton Bowl as another home stadium off and on until 1954 . The game of the year was Alabama ' s Nov . 4 road trip to Philadelphia to play Penn . The Tide was a heavy underdog against an undefeated , powerhouse Quakers team coached by legendary John Heisman . In fact Penn , seeking a breather one week before their showdown against archirival Pitt , had scheduled Alabama as an easy opponent . Grantland Rice predicted a 21 – 0 Quaker victory . However , Coach Scott had gotten good scouting reports from fellow coaches he knew that had faced Penn . Alabama struck first in the second quarter with a field goal , but Penn responded with a touchdown after a short punt gave the Quakers the ball on the Alabama 35 . In the third quarter Alabama took the lead after Pooley Hubert fumbled on 3rd and goal and teammate Shorty Propst fell on the ball for a touchdown . The extra point failed , leaving Alabama up 9 – 7 . Twice in the fourth quarter Alabama missed field goals , leaving Penn with a chance to win late . The Quakers drove to the Alabama 30 in the final moments but on fourth down Alabama came up with a sack to clinch a 9 – 7 victory . Alabama had pulled off the shocking upset . " The Plain Dealer " called the game " intersectional history " . Xen C . Scott coached the 1922 season while dying of oral cancer . Scott spent the whole season suffering from the effects of his illness , losing weight , barely able to speak , coaching against the advice of a doctor who told him to quit immediately , and bedridden except when attending practices and games . After the Oglethorpe game Scott tendered his resignation , effective at the end of the season . Xen Scott died in April 1924 at age 41 . 1923 . 1923 marked the first season for new head coach Wallace Wade , a former assistant at Vanderbilt . One year after Alabama ' s triumphal trip to Penn , the Tide went on another northeast roadtrip with a different outcome , losing to Syracuse 23 – 0 . The Sewanee game was scoreless until the last two minutes , when Johnny Mack Brown intercepted a pass , giving the ball to Alabama at the Tiger 48 . Pooley Hubert scored with seconds left and Sewanee had time to run only two plays before the game ended . Against Georgia Tech , Alabama was very lucky to escape with a 0 – 0 tie . Tech had 18 first downs to none for Alabama , and the Tide never advanced the ball beyond its own 27 - yard line . A driving rain and sixteen punts from Grant Gillis helped Bama to hold Tech scoreless . Tech drives stalled on the Alabama 2 , 8 , and 11 - yard lines . A season - ending 6 – 16 upset loss to coach James Van Fleet ' s Florida Gators cost coach Wade and the Tide the Southern Conference championship . 1924 . In 1924 Wade and the Tide returned to the level of success enjoyed by Xen Scott ' s powerhouse teams of 1919 and 1920 . Alabama was hardly challenged in its first seven games , six of which were shutouts . The closest was Alabama ' s 14 – 0 victory over Georgia Tech . Tech drove the ball to the Alabama 6 in the third with a chance to tie the game up but was stopped on 4th and 1 , and another Tide TD in the fourth clinched the victory . The perfect season was ruined when Centre College , which had previously tied a Kentucky team that Alabama beat by 35 points , traveled to Birmingham and ambushed the Tide 17 – 0 . Alabama bounced back to crush Georgia 33 – 0 and wrap up the Crimson Tide ' s first Southern Conference championship . 1925 . The 1925 Alabama Crimson Tide was one of the most dominant teams in the history of the program . Alabama ripped through its regular season without mercy , finishing 9 – 0 . Only one team scored : Birmingham - Southern managed a touchdown after recovering a fumble at the Alabama 25 and benefiting from two Alabama offside penalties . Two games were close calls . Alabama beat Georgia Tech 7 – 0 on a Johnny Mack Brown punt return for a TD . Tech turned the ball over on downs at the Alabama 28 and again at the Alabama 21 . The Tide then beat Mississippi State 6 – 0 , scoring after a short punt set Bama up on the MSU 26 and later intercepting a Mississippi State pass after the " Maroons " ( now the Bulldogs ) drove to the Tide 16 . The season was not finished . Alabama received a surprise invitation to head west and play in the Rose Bowl . It was Alabama ' s first bowl game ever and the first time a southern team had ever been invited to play in what then was college football ' s only bowl game . Its opponent was the Washington , who had gone 11 – 0 – 1 , been just as dominant as the Tide , and were regarded as heavy favorites by the press . Through one half , that prediction looked accurate . Washington ' s star halfback George Wilson intercepted a pass in the first quarter and then led his team 63 yards for a touchdown and a 6 – 0 lead . In the second quarter Wilson ran for 36 yards and then threw a 22 - yard touchdown pass , and Washington went up 12 – 0 . Both extra point tries failed . At the half , Wade changed his game plan , telling Pooley Hubert to run more often . Possibly more importantly , George Wilson sat out the entire third quarter due to sore ribs . It was in that third quarter that Alabama struck . A short punt set up Alabama on the Washington 42 and the Tide quickly capitalized , Hubert scoring on a 1 - yard run to make the score 12 – 7 . The Huskies couldn ' t move the ball without Wilson and punted . Shortly thereafter Hubert hit Brown on a 59 - yard touchdown pass and suddenly Alabama led 14 – 12 . Not long after that Washington fumbled the ball and Alabama recovered at the Husky 30 . Hubert found Brown for another touchdown pass on the very next play . The extra point failed , but Alabama still led 20 – 12 . Bama scored three touchdowns in seven minutes of clock time . Wilson returned in the fourth quarter and threw a late touchdown pass , but the two missed extra points in the first half proved decisive , and Alabama won 20 – 19 . Alabama had completed its first real perfect season in school history . ( Bama was undefeated in 1897 when the Tide played and won one game . ) The NCAA retroactively deemed Alabama to be the consensus " national champion " for 1925 due to its selection by a majority of authorities . Johnny Mack Brown and Pooley Hubert were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . Brown capitalized on his Rose Bowl exposure in southern California by signing a motion picture contract with MGM and beginning a 40 - year career in the movies . 1926 . Hubert , Brown , Bill Buckler , and other stars from the 1925 team were gone , but Alabama hardly missed a beat in 1926 , sailing through the regular season for another 9 – 0 record , in almost as dominating a fashion as it had the year before . Against Mississippi State , Alabama intercepted seven passes . The Tide held Georgia Tech to two first downs in a 21 – 0 victory . Only one game was close . Against Sewanee , Alabama had multiple scoring chances but could not convert . Once Bama was stopped at the Sewanee 9 , and in the fourth quarter Alabama was stopped at the Sewanee 1 . Sewanee did not move the ball as much as Alabama did but reached the Alabama 6 in the second quarter before a 15 - yard penalty threw them back . The game almost ended in a scoreless tie , but late in the fourth Alabama blocked a Sewanee punt which rolled out the back of the end zone for a safety and a 2 – 0 Tide victory . Alabama ' s win over Sewanee was the last close game in a series that dated all the way back to 1893 , was dominated by Sewanee early ( 9 – 1 – 1 Tiger advantage between 1893 and 1915 ) , and was one of the Tide ' s biggest rivalries . Sewanee was dominant in the South in the early days of college football , but in the 1920s the Tigers were left behind by the growing football powers of the Southern Conference . The Alabama - Sewanee series continued as a series of blowouts periodically through 1938 ; Sewanee now competes in Division III of the NCAA . Again the season was extended as Alabama received another invitation to play in the Rose Bowl . The 1927 Rose Bowl was the first sporting event to ever be nationally broadcast on radio . Alabama ' s opponent was the Stanford Cardinal , also 9 – 0 and coached by football legend Pop Warner . Stanford mounted a 63 - yard drive in the first quarter to take a 7 – 0 lead . Stanford dominated play for much of the rest of the game , outgaining Alabama 305 yards to 98 , but could not score again . Late in the fourth Bama got the big play it needed : Clarke Pearce blocked a punt by Frankie Wilton of Stanford , setting up the Tide at the Cardinal 14 . Five plays later , with only seconds remaining , Alabama punched it in from the 1 to make the score 7 – 6 . The two - point conversion would not become a rule in college football for another 32 years , so Alabama lined up for the game - tying extra point . As the teams came to the line , Emile Barnes of Alabama shouted " Signals off ! " . Stanford took that to mean that Alabama was resetting and relaxed . Instead , Alabama promptly snapped and kicked the extra point to tie the game . Stanford ran only two plays before time expired and the game ended a 7 – 7 tie . The NCAA retroactively named Alabama and Stanford co - national champions for 1926 due to each being chosen by several of the ranking authorities . It was a second consecutive national championship for Wallace Wade and the Crimson Tide . The tie with Stanford snapped a 20 - game winning streak that remains the second - longest in school history , behind a 28 - game winning streak from 1978 to 1980 and another from 1991 to 1993 . 1927 . Against Georgia Tech Alabama did something it had not done since Nov . 15 , 1924 : lose . Alabama outgained Tech 188 – 144 in the game , but Tech scored a touchdown in the second quarter and scored another after recovering a fumble at the Alabama 1 with two minutes to go . It was the first time Georgia Tech had scored points on Alabama since 1922 . Alabama came from behind in the fourth to beat Mississippi State 13 – 7 but limped home with three straight losses to end the year at 5 – 4 – 1 . Four losses were one more loss than Bama had suffered in the previous four seasons combined . The loss to Georgia was the first football game Alabama ever played in Legion Field , which had been constructed the previous year , and which replaced Rickwood Field as Alabama ' s " home " stadium in Birmingham . Alabama would continue to schedule home dates at Legion Field for another 76 years , with the last being a 40 – 17 victory over South Florida in 2003 . 1928 . Alabama ' s October 20 meeting with Tennessee was the first game between the two schools in 14 years . While the game had been played on irregular dates up until 1914 , when the series was renewed in 1928 the game was scheduled for the Third Saturday in October . Alabama and Tennessee have played yearly ever since , except when interrupted by World War II in 1943 , although the game has more frequently been scheduled for the fourth Saturday in October since the SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1992 . Alabama lost this renewal of the series 15 – 13 , victimized by poor special teams play ( a 98 - yard kickoff return for Tennessee to open the game , a safety on a fumbled punt , a missed extra point ) and mistakes ( an offsides penalty that kept a Tennessee drive alive , leading to its second touchdown ) . 1929 . The 1929 season opener against Mississippi College was also the inaugural of Alabama ' s new on - campus football stadium , Denny Stadium , replacing Denny Field and like it named for university president George Denny . In 1975 it was renamed Bryant - Denny Stadium after coach Paul " Bear " Bryant , and it is still in use as Alabama ' s home stadium today . Alabama lost to Tennessee for the second straight time , falling 6 – 0 with a blocked punt setting up Tennessee ' s touchdown and Bama turning the ball over on downs twice inside the Volunteer 10 . The Tide lost in a similar manner to Vanderbilt , going down 13 – 0 after turning the ball over on downs at the Vandy 9 and 2 . Alabama held Georgia Tech to one first down in a 14 – 0 victory .