The Year After We Beat the Bear: the First Top 10 Match-up in Tuscaloosa

“I WAS THERE WHEN WE BEAT THE BEAR” was a popular bumper sticker in the aftermath of Mississippi State’s historic 6-3 win over the number one Alabama Crimson Tide in 1980. Officially, there were 50,891 in attendance at Jackson’s Veterans Memorial Stadium, but over the years the number of folks claiming they were there is probably double the official number.  And yes, I was there.  Really.

But what about the following year? Have you ever heard anyone claim they were at that one? And what exactly happened in that 1981 Alabama-Mississippi State game that followed up MSU’s historic 1980 win?

Well, I was at that one too. It wasn’t my first visit to Bryant-Denny Stadium, previously known simply as Denny Stadium prior to 1975. My family regularly made the trip from Starkville to Tuscaloosa during the 1970’s for the State-Bama game, although the results were never to our liking.  But the campus was nice, the weather was usually beautiful, and my Mom always packed a wonderful picnic lunch we would enjoy somewhere on the Alabama campus before the game – a kind of forerunner to today’s tailgating.

This game was different. For the first time in my life, MSU was facing Alabama coming off a win in the previous year.  Much like this year’s match-up, State entered the game as the higher ranked team, sporting a #7 ranking versus the Tide’s #8. Optimism surrounded Bulldog Nation, and many, many State fans made the 90 mile trek east on Highway 82 in support of their Bulldogs. I still remember walking to the stadium with my friends and encountering a well-known psychology professor from State who was loudly smack talking out his car window to the Tide fans near us.  Clearly State fans believed this was one the Bulldogs could win.  It was a chance to prove the previous year had not been fluke, and that Mississippi State was ready to become a big time player in the world of college football.

State was coming off an emotional come-from-behind win at Auburn the previous week and sported a 6-1 record.   Alabama was 6-1-1, with a loss to Georgia Tech and tie with Southern Miss as the only blemishes on their record.  It had all the makings of a very closely contested football game.

And close it was. The Bulldogs scored first in the opening quarter with quarterback John Bond’s one yard plunge.  The Tide answered with a 27 yard field goal from Peter Kim, and then grabbed a 10-7 lead in the second quarter on a one yard run by Joe Carter. Dana Moore’s 32 yard field goal for State tied the game 10-10 at halftime.

Defense would dominate this day as neither team would score again until the fourth quarter, when a 28 yard field goal put Alabama up 13-10. Mississippi State could manage only 258 yards in total offense for the game, while the Crimson Tide was not much better with 337 total yards.  In the end, it came down to a last minute drive by the Bulldogs to determine the game’s outcome.

With time winding down, Bond hit wide receiver Danny Knight with a 50 yard pass reception that very nearly won the game for the Bulldogs. Knight caught the ball and dragged a Bama defender attempting to tackle him for about ten yards until he was finally brought down inside the ten yard line.  After two running plays failed to produce a touchdown, the Bulldogs went to the air on third and goal, but the ball was deflected at the line of scrimmage, and All-American safety Tommy Wilcox intercepted the errant pass to secure the win for the Crimson Tide.

It was a crushing defeat for the Bulldogs, who dropped two of their next three and had to settle for a berth in the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham against Kansas. MSU won that game 10-0 and finished the season a very respectable 8-4, but to those of us who lived through that 1981 season; it was obvious that the loss to Alabama really took a toll on the 1981 Bulldogs.