Football and Southern Pride: Competing with Northern Schools

Radio announcer Ted Husing stated the level of play on Southern college football teams was just as strong as it was in the North.

By the 1920s, football became a major institution and important source of pride at many Southern colleges. It also served as a focal point for a regional sense of identity based on Southern pride. Andrew Doyle points to the University of Alabama’s “stunning upset victory” over the University of Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl as a game that served to “establish the legitimacy of Southern football” and proved that the South could defeat some of the best teams from the rest of the nation. Ten years later, however, there was obviously still some uncertainty about the state of Southern football. An article in the Technician proclaimed that a “Noted Radio Announcer Says Southern Football Ranks With Nation’s Best.” That the authors of the Technician felt it was important to feature such a story indicates that they did not yet feel certain that Southern teams had proven themselves to be equals of Northern ones. Citing an expert opinion confirming this also indicates that it was very important for them to establish that this was the case.