There’s something unparalleled about the pageantry of college football. When I learned that Alabama would be facing Notre Dame for the National Championship and it was being played only a couple of hours away from where I was for the winter, I decided that I’d have to take in the festivities. Being a cultural documentary photographer the norm is to turn our cameras outwards, to document cultures far different from our own. This time I was to document the culture as an insider. In the interest of full disclosure I was raised on the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The first stop was to hear Coach Nick Saban speak at a bowl preview show at the Fountainebleau Hotel. Coach Saban answered questions from fans and appeared relaxed, yet focused as ever. When one fan’s question related to the talk swirling around about the coach possibly returning to coach in the pro’s, he indicated that there was nothing for them to worry about. It appears he’s at Alabama to stay.
We didn’t know it at the time, but Saban’s Alabama team would finish the season #1
Coach Saban spent some time signing autographs for fans
Coach Nick Saban appeared relaxed leading into the game
The event took place at the Fountainebleau Hotel, where wearing really high heels is apparently elegantly and stylishly fashionable
The tailgating before the game is always lively. Both team’s fans are full of optimism and expect their boys to win. The Notre Dame fans seemed to far outnumber those wearing crimson and white, the colors of the Alabama team. Notre Dame had last won a national championship in 1988 and were expecting to knock off Alabama and return to glory. It was rumored that they’d brought over 600,000 fans to Miami. It sure seemed like it. Alabama, the winner of 2 of the past 3 national championships was hoping for an historic evening. A win would catapult them into the status of a dynasty as they’d own the national title in 3 of the past 4 years, something Notre Dame did in the 1940’s and Nebraska did in the 1990’s, but no team since. Win they did. From the first hand-off to running back Eddie Lacy the tone was set and Alabama was to smash Notre Dame in a most dominating fashion. For those who wear crimson it was a thing of absolute beauty. Alabama’s storied history has written a modern day chapter that few could have envisioned. It seems destined to grow.
This blog will take a look at the pre-game festivities and the tailgating that occurred throughout the game in the parking lot of Miami Garden’s Sun Life Stadium. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and Roll Tide! Alabama beat Notre Dame 42-14.
The Notre Dame fans came out in huge numbers
Notre Dame fans will have to be content with looking back on the glories of previous decades
A Bama fan’s boots do some talking
A freshly painted stencil
The color green was out in abundance
The night was certainly apocalyptic for Notre Dame fans, the shirt makes reference to the famous Four Horsemen of Notre Dame
A Tide fan sports elephant ear rings
Notre Dame entered the game ranked #1
This fan probably understand differently about halfway into the first quarter of play
Apparently Santa hung around long enough to take in the game before heading back to the North Pole
Crimson Tide fans
Leprechaun’s were ubiquitous
Golden leggings for the Golden Domers
Another leprechaun takes on the fighting Irish pose
An Alabama fan in houndstooth
The Bama band came marching through
And when you turned around there was yet another leprechaun
The Bama band heads towards a pep rally
Clearly from Notre Dame
Just as clearly from Alabama
Notre Dame fans were buying every available ticket
And some wore fur, it is winter in South Florida
Bama girls
Dapper
Seeing the bagpipe players come out was a real treat, the Notre Dame faithful loved it
Alabama’s athletic director Mal Moore arrives at the stadium. His hiring of Saban to coach Alabama was an act of brilliance
Alabama
A Tide fan streaks through the Notre Dame band
Is a caption really necessary?
When Lee Corso picked Notre Dame to win, it portended good things for Alabama
Those who couldn’t afford the $900-$1750 ticket watched from the stadium parking lot
There were enough fireworks from Alabama in the first half to put the game out of reach. It was 28-0 at the half
Bama fans continued to party in the 3rd quarter
By the 4th quarter it had turned to dancing
Most Notre Dame fans didn’t want their photos made after the game, but these folks were still having fun, perhaps because they hadn’t spent $1000 to watch their team be decimated
By the time the night was over Alabama was holding another crystal football. You get the feeling it won’t be Alabama and Saban’s last. Roll Tide!
Thanks for dropping by, over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at those exotic foreign cultures again. I was thankful this week to get to appreciate my own.
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Thanks, mano….I could feel the sun and smell the BBQ.
Thanks bro
Great shots Russ. That was really fun! Wish I had seen you at the hotel, we were staying two hotels north! You picked a good place to spend the winter!
Wasn’t that a great game! Sorry to have missed you…
These are great, and I am usually one to avoid football games at all costs, but your pictures made it look fun. 🙂 Glad your team won! The bagpipers, though, are WAY cool. Were they good?
They were quite good, although my discernment of good bagpipers may not be stellar…
Russ, like I already said wish I had seen you but you captured all the images. Awesome!
Thanks brother!
Love the story in pictures. Probably the only time I’ll cheer for Alabama, but I did enjoy watching them win! Thanks for documenting the experience. Nice job!
Hey Lil,
Thanks for the kind words and for pulling for the Crimson Tide this time! (It could have easily been the boys from Georgia, we know that)
Great photos. Looks like a fantastic time. Here in Europe we don’t really do tailgating at sporting events….never understood why not!
And you are so right about forgetting things, be they places, events or culture, closer to home….we all do it.
Tailgating is the best, I can’t imagine the World Cup without it.
To make it even worse tailgating here as a whole different meaning!
oh. better be careful, one of the cultural little oddities.
Love the “dapper” photo! Looks like a blast.
It was a fun pre-game for everyone!
Such an unbiased and straightforward photojournalistic account. Well, at least the mighty Bama has to admit that their almost perfect season will be forever marred by a loss to a Texas team playing their first year in the conference.
Live the pic with the blue light and the girls by the bar!
Thanks, it’s a fine hotel…