Shula still knows how to celebrate

By Chris Stewart
It’s the one football game I’ll probably never forget attending.

Some details always become sketchy over time, but certain images never leave your memory. 1985. Alabama-Auburn. The Iron Bowl - my first one. The last one for the 50/50 ticket split between schools. The back and forth seesaw battle had become legendary, long before the final play was made. There was a constant roar from at least half the crowd the entire day.

From my view in the north end zone, I could clearly see Gene Jelks turn the corner on what would be a 70-plus yard touchdown run early in the 4th quarter. It would be answered in the final moments by the Tigers, setting the stage for some more drama from the men in the crimson helmets.

Alabama had just seconds left to turn things around. Their calm, steady quarterback, Mike Shula, would be involved in three lasting images from those final seconds. On a fourth down play, Shula would throw an incredible block to spring Al Bell for a first down on a reverse that kept the drive alive.

He would then complete a pass to little Greg Richardson, who somehow carried an Auburn defender all the way to the boundary, stopping the clock and setting up the game winning field goal by Van Tiffin.

This is where Shula would come in to the picture again – literally. Shula often jokes these days about how he was the slowest quarterback in Alabama football history, but on that Saturday night at Legion Field, he proved he could outrun most of his teammates.

That fact became clear once Tiffin’s kick sailed through the uprights. One of the first people to reach the hero was Shula himself. His sprint from the sidelines, to the dog pile that was quickly forming on top of Tiffin, was perhaps the fastest he’s ever run.

Saturday in Oxford brought back those memories in a hurry. A last minute drive, culminating in a last-second field goal, gave Alabama a 13-10 victory over Ole Miss. Sure, it was Ole Miss instead of Auburn. The game near The Grove was nowhere near as well played as that classic on Graymont. And as big as Jamie Christensen’s kick was, the attempt itself certainly didn’t carry the degree of difficulty that accompanied Tiffin’s try.

However 20 yards and 20 years can’t hide one obvious link from those two great moments - Mike Shula can still get from the sidelines to a kicker pretty quickly. To paraphrase a line from Toby Keith, “He ain’t as fast as he once was, but he’s as fast once as he ever was.”

It was a great site to see. Alabama’s players mobbed Christensen after his 31-yard game winner, and there to join in the celebration was Shula.

Wins like Saturday’s certainly are not as much fun while they are happening. You can relax and enjoy victories such as the one over Florida, where the smiles started early and continued throughout the day. Yet a grind-it-out gut-wrencher, like the one over Ole Miss, can make a good season a great one. It not only salvaged the game, it gave the Tide confidence it can win down the stretch.

Alabama stands at 6-0 for the first time since 1996. A number five national ranking in the BCS has kids across the state putting bowl trips ahead of bicycles on their early wish lists for Santa.

The Tide has three major roadblocks ahead in Tennessee, LSU, and Auburn. Alabama has to follow the old clichés, and take them one at a time and not get too high or too low.

Mike Shula has always done a good job of that as both a player and a coach. Almost as good as he celebrates game-winning kicks.

Chris Stewart is the pre and post game host for the Crimson Tide Sports Network's coverage of Alabama Football. In addition, he hosts a talk show each weekday morning from 7 until 9 on Tuscaloosa's Sports Radio 1420, The Tusk. Stewart is also the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Alabama men's basketball.   Bama Fever is a company devoted to providing University of Alabama Crimson Tide merchandise. We have stores in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa  and Huntsville and have now created an online catalog for Crimson Tide fans all over the world searching for that hard to find merchandise. We carry over 7,000 items in our stores and have posted many of these items right here in our online catalog.

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Read all of Chris's 2005 Game Recaps