CRAMTON BOWL 100 YEARS: Jeff Davis, Lee crown anniversary of first football game
Cramton Bowl in 1922 was primarily a baseball stadium but football would take over with the first game on Sept. 30, 1922. (Contributed)
By TIM GAYLE
Perhaps it is fitting that Jeff Davis and Robert E. Lee played their annual grudge match Friday, the 100th anniversary of the first football game at Cramton Bowl.
The Volunteers and the Generals have a storied tradition that includes some of the greatest games ever played at Cramton Bowl, although this year’s version of the rivalry wasn’t as memorable. Jeff Davis improved to 2-4, with a come-from-behind 26-20 win. That left Lee winless at 0-6 and likely headed toward a winless season.
While Cramton Bowl no longer is the host site for college football games or Major League exhibition matchups, the venue has seen a lot in its history.
There are stadiums that are older, baseball venues such as Rickwood Field (1910), Fenway Park (1912) and Wrigley Field (1914), college football stadiums such as Bobby Dodd Stadium (1913), Davis Wade Stadium (1914) and Camp Randall Stadium (1917) or even the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1909). Few, however, have incorporated the concept of high school, college and professional baseball along with high school and college football all in the same venue.
When the idea of building a municipal stadium in Montgomery started taking shape in early 1921, the thought of building football stadiums such as Legion Field in Birmingham (1927), Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium (1929) and Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium (1939) hadn’t been considered when Cramton Bowl opened a few months ahead of the Rose Bowl Stadium.
Mayor William A. Gunter put Haygood Paterson in charge of a seven-man committee who would survey the city both for the best plan for a multipurpose stadium and the best way to finance that plan. Ultimately, more than $33,000 was raised by selling bonds to sports-loving citizens who could pay off the one, two and three year notes at the Exchange National Bank. The land was donated by Fred Cramton as the city focused on building a stadium that would serve primarily as a baseball facility for the city’s minor-league team.
The stadium included a seating plan at ground level (which would become the lower part of the West stands), seating along the third-base side (the North end zone) and temporary bleachers set up on the East side of the stadium for football games. The concrete grandstands that were constructed for 5,000 fans were in place for the first-ever sporting event, a college baseball game between Auburn and Vanderbilt on May 1.
Cramton Bowl would transition to football in early September and held its first-ever football game on Sept. 30, 1922 between Sidney Lanier and the University of Alabama’s freshman football team. Lanier managed just one first down against the Crimson Tide, losing 21-0 on touchdowns scored by Andy Cohen, former Lanier star Ben Hudson and Johnny Mack Brown.
Those 21 points were the only points surrendered by Lanier in 1922. As the Montgomery Advertiser reported:
“Despite the inability of the Poets to put over a touchdown, Lanier’s showing against the Alabama first year team was better than many had believed they could make.
“On the other hand the picture of a smashing crew of Freshmen giants faded into a partial visionary object. The Freshmen had a noticeable edge on the Poets in weight, and at times they outgenerated the Montgomery lads, but as a whole they did not appear as Goliaths by considerable.
“Lanier fought desperately to stave off defeat and notwithstanding the stubborn obstacle that held them away from any promising striking position they never weakened in spirit as fate began to check up victory for the opposition. In fact Lanier seemed to grow more determined in the last quarter and it was here that the only Poet first down was realized.
“It was brought about when Captain Jimmy Gregg inaugurated and executed a fifteen yard spurt. Ben Hudson, former Lanier student and a mainstay on the Poet’s team last season, intercepted a forward pass a moment later which dampened the progress of the locals. Gregg was also forced to retire from the field at this juncture because of a slight injury to his leg.
“Contributing factors in the success of the invaders included advantageous end runs and short passes. They gained effectively through the Lanier line on only a few occasions.”
Several of the players on Alabama’s freshman team were contributors on the 1925 national championship team that defeated Washington in the Rose Bowl, including Brown, quarterback Hoyt “Wu” Winslett (who played as Tom Anderson’s backup that day in Cramton Bowl) and starting linemen Claude Perry, Bill Buckler and Bruce Jones (along with 1922 reserve Ben Enis), who were all starters on the 1925 championship team.
The stadium moved all baseball games across the street to Paterson Field with that stadium’s construction in 1949 and stopped holding college football games involving Alabama and Auburn in the early 1950s. By 2012, the Turkey Day Classic had been moved to Alabama State’s new stadium, leaving just high school football games in the facility.