I’ll never forget coming home from football practice in high school and the excitement of a rare Monday night college football game. It was to be the 2nd ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and Bear Bryant against the unranked Missouri Tigers in Birmingham, Alabama. But, it didn’t matter, college football was college football.
There was just something magical about a game at old Legion Field back in those years. Even if It would be a mismatch with the Alabama Crimson Tide rolling all over the Missouri Tigers, this game still promised to be special.
Alabama was coming off another great season and an 11-1 finish and a crushing 11-13 loss to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. They were eager for redemption. Missouri looked like they were perfectly set up to be the victim.
Bear Bryant was one of my all time favorites and I was so eager to sit and relax and watch some good football. The Alabama Wishbone offense was going to run all over the Missouri Tigers.
But, something went wrong, at least for Alabama.
The unranked Missouri Tigers had come to play, especially their defense.
Big Mizzou running back Tony Galbreath had been a star for them in 1974, but he was new to most of the nation on that Monday night. Galbreath ran for 120 yards against a good Alabama defense on 32 carries and helped the Tigers out to a 20-0 half time lead. 89 yards of his total rushing yardage came in the dominating first half. Galbreath was a big back running at about 6-0, 225 and he looked pretty scary.
But, it was the Missouri defense that whipped Alabama that night, holding the Crimson Tide to 31 yards rushing on 34 carries. Teams just didn’t do that to Alabama under Bear Bryant.
Missouri Tiger defensive tackle Keith Morrissey had 3 quarterback sacks in the second half and just humiliated the Crimson Tide all night long.
Alabama finally got on the board in the second half when legendary tight end Ozzie Newsome caught a lucky pass, that bounced off somebody else, for a touchdown to make it 7-20.
The season had just begun and we had the first major upset.
I was not the only one stunned that Monday night so many years ago. The Missouri Tigers jumped from unranked to number 5 in the polls. While Alabama dropped to number 14.
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They climbed back down to number 4 in the polls while earning a Sugar Bowl berth against 8th ranked Penn State and Joe Paterno. Alabama beat Penn State to finish up another season with an impressive 11-1 record.
The Missouri Tigers, on the other hand, were an enigma. Coached by Al Onofrio, we all saw a powerhouse that night.
But, it didn’t turn out that way.
The Tigers had a killer schedule. After beating Alabama, they beat Big 10 also rans Illinois and Wisconsin. But, then, they got clobbered by 12th ranked Michigan, 7-31.
The Pollsters still liked Missouri and they only fell to the 12th spot before playing 14th ranked Oklahoma State and winning big, 41-14.
12th ranked Colorado was next on the schedule and a trip to Boulder ended in a 20-31 loss for the Tigers. The then ranked 15th Tigers had something of a week off with a 35-3 beating of a weak Kansas State team years before Bill Snyder came to town.
But, it didn’t get any easier for Missouri with 3rd ranked Nebraska coming to town. The Cornhuskers obliterated the Tigers, 7-30, dropping Missouri to 19th with a 5-3 record. Beating Alabama still carried a lot of weight.
After beating Iowa State, 44-14, Missouri had 6th ranked Oklahoma next. The Sooners beat Missouri by one point, 27-28, and this was a really good Oklahoma team that won the national championship that season.
The Tigers closed out their season with a battle against bitter rival Kansas with the Jayhawks surprising Missouri, 24-42.
A season with so much promise, after beating Alabama, ended with a disappointing 6-5 record and no bowl game.
But, on that Monday night on September 8th, 1975, the Missouri Tigers were as good as anyone.