5 Living

HAZY History

Smoke rises from the student section like a cloud hanging over a Grateful Dead concert. Fumes roll out of the locker room as fans whirl desperately to keep up.

It’s the Third Saturday in October, and there are victory cigars to be smoked. The tradition isn’t just for Alabama or for Tennessee, but for the winner of the annual rivalry game. It isn’t just for players and coaches, but for fans, too.

“When we came here it was an educational process of trying to educate our players of what it means, from the date in October to cigars to everything that goes into it, everything that’s been associated with it, and then getting back to making the rivalry relevant again,” said Butch Jones, Tennessee’s fifth-year coach. “This rivalry means so many things to so many people.”

Hazy history

There was a rivalry long before the cigar tradition began. This weekend’s game in Tuscaloosa will be the 100th meeting of the two teams. Most of the origin stories about the cigars don’t begin until about 50 years ago.

Hootie Ingram, who played for Alabama from 1952-54, said the cigar tradition had not begun when he played. Alabama was 1-1-1 in the rivalry in his three years, beating Tennessee in his senior season.

The story most commonly told traces the tradition to the late Jim Goostree, a longtime Alabama athletic trainer who had graduated from Tennessee. Going into the 1961 game, Alabama hadn’t beaten Tennessee since 1954 (there was a 7-7 tie in 1959). Goostree told the team he’d dance naked in the locker room if Alabama won.

The Crimson Tide secured a 34-3 win at Birmingham’s Legion Field. Goostree danced while smoking a cigar. Players wanted a cigar to celebrate, too. Longtime Alabama assistant Ken Donahue, another Tennessee alumnus, arrived in 1964 and further stoked the rivalry.

Judging by social media images posted after the game, the naked dancing has long since died off. The cigars have lingered for decades. It was well established by the time Ingram returned as athletics director in 1989, though the athletic department didn’t have an official role.

“It was just something that happened,” Ingram said. “It wasn’t any kind of organized deal. It carried over with some of the players.”

That remains the case. The athletic department previously procured cigars for the game and handed them out to players, reporting it as a secondary violation to the NCAA. That’s no longer the case.

Coach Nick Saban has said previously that he doesn’t smoke a cigar after the game. Ingram didn’t celebrate wins over Tennessee with a cigar when he returned as athletics director. Several players keep the cigar as a trophy rather than smoke it.

Bryant-Denny Stadium and the university campus have been smoke-free since January 2015. But no amount of security could have prevented thousands of fans from lighting up last time Alabama won the game in Tuscaloosa.

No one stops the players, either. The football program comes prepared in case of a win with upright fans and blowers to ventilate the locker room.