Back in the day, I thought Archie Manning was about as good a quarterback as had ever lived, and in reality, he probably was.
With junior quarterback Archie Manning leading them, the Ole Miss Rebels went into the 1969 college football season ranked 9th. After they thumped Memphis in game one, 28-3, they climbed in the polls to number 8.
But, then, the strangest thing happened.
This quality Ole Miss team with one of the greatest quarterbacks of this era, lost to lowly Kentucky by one miserable point. This version of the Kentucky Wildcats football team only won two games all year long. They were terribly bad.
Their only other win came against a bad Virginia Tech squad and that game was also a one point
victory. Kentucky was just bad and how they held the legendary Archie Manning and his offense to a grand total of 9 points is beyond me. Ole Miss said afterwards that they wanted to beat Alabama so bad that Rebel coach Johnny Vaught, another legend of the time, refused to let Ole Miss run any of their best plays. That makes sense, but it also cost the Ole Miss Rebels a ball game.
Archie truly was an outstanding player and he was about to show America in a brand new kind of way at the time.
The Ole Miss Rebels fell to the 20th spot in the Associated Press Poll.
Next up, was always deadly Alabama and it’s own legendary figure, Bear Bryant.
Alabama was unbeaten, but the pollsters new this wasn’t Bear’s greatest team at Tuscaloosa. They were ranked 15th in the country and had barely beaten that same bad Virginia Tech team that also lost to Kentucky. The Crimson Tide got by the Hokies, 17-13, and that’s hardly rolling for the Tide. They did follow up by crushing Southern Mississippi, 63-14, but nobody was impressed because Brett Favre was not the quarterback for the Golden Eagles just yet.
The younger generations of college football fans don’t know just how great they have it today, sometimes. College football was just not televised back then like it is these days. There was no ESPN, or Fox Sports. ABC usually showed a weekly game, but it was one game and only one game.
This was the first really prime time football game on a Saturday night.
Ugh, if you are old enough you might remember that Lawrence Welk came on ABC on Saturday night. Naturally, Lawrence Welk ruled Saturday evenings and the game had to wait and come on after all that singing and toe tapping was over with. Don’t even get me started on Lawrence Welk, I remember when I was basically run out of the room while watching an NFL playoff game because folks had to see Lawrence Welk.
At Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama the big game finally got going.
Speaking of Legion Field, I just saw it for the first time a few months ago and would love to dedicate a blog post to the Old Gray Lady. It was amazing to actually see it and a guard let us walk inside and look around. I stood there and imagined the larger than life figure of Paul Bear Bryant walking around as Alabama used to play there a lot back in the day. I think a lump formed in my throat.
So many huge games played there, but now Alabama always plays in Tuscaloosa at Bryant Denny Stadium and Legion Field only hosts the University of Alabama Birmingham home games.
It’s kind of sad, really. No more Iron Bowl games in Legion Field.
Moving this game turned out to be a wise decision by ABC because this game was a great one. It was one of the most outstanding games of the season. I vaguely remember this game because I recall being impressed with Archie Manning even though I was just a little guy at the time.
In spite of Alabama only leading 14-7 at the half, the second half was when the game really went crazy. Archie Manning threw 2 second half touchdown passes and ran for another 2, but Alabama’s own quarterback Scott Hunter attempted to go toe to toe with him.
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Hunter had a really good night, as well, maybe his best as an Alabama quarterback connecting on 22 out of 27 passes for 300 yards. Scott Hunter was a 6th round draft pick by the Green Bay Packers who wanted to find another Bart Starr that also came out of Alabama.
Manning also ran for 105 yards and became the first quarterback to ever pass for over 300 yards and run for over 100 yards in the same game.
But, it wasn’t quite enough as Alabama won in thrilling fashion 33-32. But, that conclusion did not happen until Ole Miss took a 20-14 lead in the third quarter and Alabama came back to take the lead. The lead changed hands several times in the second half with both teams scoring every time they touched the ball. I’m sure Bear Bryant and Johnny Vaught’s defensive coordinators were sweating
bullets and wondering where they may be working the following week because defense ruled the time period and shoot outs like these were rare.
Back in that time period, Chris Schenkel was the top play by play announcer and he called this game the most exciting he had seen in 20 years.
The teams went in different directions after this game with Alabama losing the following week to Vanderbilt, of all schools. The Commodores beat the Tide, 14-10. Following that game was 7th ranked Tennessee and the Vols just crushed the Tide, 41-14, dropping Alabama out of the polls for the rest of the year.
The Tide rebounded to beat Clemson and Mississippi State, but they were both terrible in 1969. 12th ranked LSU beat Alabama next, 20-15, with the Tide coming back and destroying a really bad Miami team the following game, 42-6.
12th ranked chief rival Auburn was next at Legion Field and behind the talents of sophomore quarterback Pat Sullivan, the Tigers beat Alabama, 49-26.
The 6-4 Crimson Tide were invited to the Liberty Bowl to play the 7-3 Colorado Buffaloes. The Buffaloes finished off a very bad Bear Bryant season with a 47-33 beat down. This was the first of two bad seasons in a row for Alabama before they switched over to the Wishbone formation and the Bear got things rolling again. But, on December 13th, 1969 Alabama fans were not very happy with their legend.
Johnny Vaught’s Ole Miss Rebels turned things around and beat 6th ranked Georgia the following week in Jackson, Mississippi, 25-17. The simply obliterated Southern Miss next, 69-7, and Golden Eagle fans suffered again.
SEC fans were puzzled that Ole Miss lost to Houston the following week, but that Houston veer was hard to deal with and the Cougars were actually really good in 1969. They finished 9-2 and the team was composed of such stars as Robert Newhouse and Elmo Wright. The 25-11 Houston win evened Ole Miss up at 3-3 on the season.
The Rebels beat 8th ranked LSU the following week, 26-23, as they worked their way back into the polls as number 17.
Next up was 3rd ranked and unbeaten Tennessee. The Volunteers had devastated everyone in their
path including 17th ranked Auburn, 20th ranked Alabama and 11th ranked Georgia. The Vols came into Jackson, Mississippi as a heavy favorite and they were destroyed by the Ole Miss Rebels, 38-0. It was one of the greater accomplishments in Ole Miss football history.
In the Egg Bowl against rival Mississippi State, the Rebels pulled off another big victory, 48-22.
LSU banned bowl games in the 1969 season because they felt they should have been invited to the Cotton Bowl to play top rated Texas. So, Ole Miss was more than happy to take their spot in the Sugar Bowl. Now ranked 13th, the Rebels shocked 3rd ranked Arkansas, 27-22.
The once left for dead Ole Miss Rebels at 3-3, finished the season with an 8-3 record.
It was a fitting end for the junior season of southern folk hero Archie Manning.