EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.
At least in the modern era, no Alabama team has looked more futile on offense than the 1988 squad did vs. Ole Miss.
On Oct. 8 of that year at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide lost 22-12 to Ole Miss. Quarterbacks Vince Sutton and Jeff Dunn — filling in for the injured David Smith — failed to complete a pass, going 0-for-11 with three interceptions.
It was the first time since 1971 Alabama had gone through a game without completing at least one pass. And it hasn’t happened since.
Still, Alabama led 12-7 heading into the fourth quarter. The final 15 minutes, however, were horrendous for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama’s last two possessions ended in a missed field goal and a fumble. Ole Miss scored two touchdowns in the final 2:53, including an 18-yard scoring run by Gardendale native Joe Mickles with 15 seconds remaining to give the Rebels their first victory over the Crimson Tide in the state of Alabama.
Alabama players, coaches and fans were left stunned by the turn of events. Defensive coordinator Don Lindsey had to be restrained from going into the stands to confront one abusive spectator.
“There’s really nothing to say about that game,” Alabama coach Bill Curry said afterward. “We got whipped. Ole Miss was a better football team. (Ole Miss head coach) Billy Brewer did a better job than I did. Their coaches did a better job than our coaches. And their players did a better job than our players.”
That day’s performance led to perhaps the low point of the Curry era, and one of the more embarrassing moments in program history. At some point between the game’s end and the next morning, someone threw a brick through Curry’s office window at the Alabama football complex.
The story has been a controversial one over the years, with some Alabama fans wondering if it really happened after all. Still others believed that the brick was an “inside job;” that is, Curry or someone on the Crimson Tide staff threw the infamous projectile.
That appears to be something between a myth and wishful thinking. Curry has been adamant over the years that the brick incident really did happen.
And anyway, there was another witness. In 2018, Eddie Franks admitted in an interview with AL.com to being the man who found the brick.
Who is Eddie Franks, you ask? In 1988, he was the 30-year-old Alabama Football Building Manager.
Part of Franks’ duties were to open the building early on Sunday mornings, so that a video crew could come in and tape Curry’s weekly television show for the video to be sent back to Birmingham in time to air that afternoon.
Franks entered Curry’s office at around 4:30 a.m. and found a brick lying in a pile of broken glass.
“It was just a brick,” Franks said. “Seems like it was three-quarters of a brick. But it came all the way through (the window). It was laying in the floor there.”
Vince Sutton (10) was one of two Alabama quarterbacks who combined to go 0-for-11 passing vs. Ole Miss in 1988. (Birmingham News file photo by Mark Almond)The Birmingham News
Curry arrived a short time later, and the mess was cleaned up before the TV crew entered the office. He and Franks agreed not to discuss the incident with anyone.
But the story got out anyway, even though the glass in the window had been replaced by the time media members arrived on campus for Curry’s Monday press conference. Players learned about the incident through the media.
Then came the jokes.
“We didn’t complete a dadgum pass against Ole Miss,” Alabama center Roger Shultz said years later, recounting one of the quips he’d heard. “So you know it wasn’t any of our quarterbacks. Because that was a completion.”
Alabama fell to 3-1 after the loss to Ole Miss, but managed to turn things around the rest of the way. Smith returned from injury and the Crimson Tide won six of its last eight games, including victories over Tennessee, Penn State, Texas A&M and vs. Army in the Sun Bowl.
All-world linebacker Derrick Thomas probably deserves a lot of credit for that, however. He almost singlehandedly won a few of those games for Alabama, finishing with an incredible 27 sacks and 44 tackles for loss.
Alabama lost close games to LSU (19-18) and Auburn (15-10) to finish 9-3 overall. It was an improvement over the previous year’s 7-5 mark, but the third straight Iron Bowl defeat — second under Curry — put all kinds of pressure on the Crimson Tide headed into 1989.
Alabama would win its first 10 games of that season to rise to No. 2 in the national polls, before losing 30-20 to Auburn in the first Iron Bowl played at Jordan-Hare Stadium. A 33-25 loss to Miami in the Sugar Bowl — which clinched a national championship for the Hurricanes — wound up being the last game Curry coached in Tuscaloosa.
Curry left soon after for Kentucky, where he spent the next seven years amid futility at the bottom of the SEC. His final record of 26-10 at Alabama looks OK in retrospect, but the three straight losses to Auburn were viewed as unforgiveable.
The late 1980s were definitely a time of ups and down for Alabama football, and it never got any lower than the 1988 Ole Miss game.
Coming Wednesday, our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 87, a breakthrough win against an historically tough opponent.