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Alabama will honor its 1973 national championship squad on Saturday, and former linebacker and center Sylvester Croom reflected on what that team meant to him.
“Well, first thing … is the team came first,” Croom said in an interview with Roger Hoover of the Crimson Tide Sports Network on Monday. “And there were no egos on that team. There were a lot of individuals with a great deal of personal pride, but we really took pride in wearing that Crimson jersey.”
Sylvester Croom on the legacy of the 1973 National Championship @AlabamaFTBL team that will be honored this weekend.@Roger_Hoover's Interview on Thursday's Crimson Drive, driven by @NASCAR at 2 pm on @UA_CTSN : https://t.co/tgBThLFa8p pic.twitter.com/b8MU3EEWAc
— Crimson Tide Sports Network (@UA_CTSN) October 30, 2023
“In our minds, we wanted to be recognized … as the best football team to ever play at Alabama,” Croom said. “When you wear the Crimson jersey, you really don’t have to worry about the opposition, about the other team.”
Alabama went 11-1 and blew through most of the competition, winning by 2 or more scores every time. The Crimson Tide earned national title via the UPI coaches’ poll after a 24-23 loss in the Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame.
While there are 11 unbeaten seasons in Crimson Tide history amid 18 claimed national titles, the 1973 squad left a unique mark for its dominance in the regular season. Only Kentucky, Georgia, and LSU played the Tide relatively close in 2-score defeats. The Tide averaged 37.8 points per game and held opponents to 7.4 points per contest.
