ROLL TIDE/WAR EAGLE

Our price: $14.95
UPC:825452508320

It is America’s most venomous rivalry. A story of scandal and salvation. For one-year Alabama and Auburn leapt from sports highlight shows into the national news. A span of success that included BCS titles, Heisman trophies and hundreds of millions of dollars. A span of excess that included pay-for-play allegations, on-campus statues erected and shockingly, a fanatic whose actions outraged even the most zealous on both sides of the madness. Somewhere along the way Alabama and Auburn went off the rails. Only Mother Nature could bring it back. Their rivalry is the beating heart of southern football culture. Two schools with a shared history rooted in legends. The Bear. Broadway Joe. Bo Knows. Cam. Here in the Heart of Dixie a young one’s college football allegiance is decided early in life. Either baptized in a sea of Crimson Tide or delivered from on high by a War Eagle. It’s where autumn Saturdays are submerged in SEC fervor. Where middle-aged men line campus walkways to high five their teenage heroes. In 2010 those heroes came with Heismans at both schools. Success came with unbeaten national title teams for both. Bama’s celebration started the year. Auburn’s finished it. The state’s obsession became the focus of the country. Heated media attention added more fuel to the rivalry’s fire. Twitter and Facebook salvoes assured that the blaze wouldn’t stay contained. Rabid doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s the stuff sports radio was made for. And then one day, it finally went too far. Al from Dadeville called in. Sixty-two year old Harvey Almorn Updyke’s southern ballad was about to begin. He’d get goose bumps at the sight of RVs festooned in team colors. Unfurling their flags turning stadium parking lots into armada-invaded harbors. Among those college battleships Harvey became a pirate. The most deeply entrenched sports rivalry now had a poster boy. Updyke’s disease - as he would tell you - “I just got too much damn ‘Bama in me.” For years Paul Finebaum has had a front row seat at the circus of it all. Some may frame the popular syndicated radio host as the ringmaster. In the winter/spring 2011 Finebaum needed to be the lion tamer as well. Harvey roared in a way others hadn’t. He crossed the line. Criminal action. Hatred. Revenge. Poison. Admission. Arrest. Publicity. Regret. Assault. A state divided now needing a step back. Alabama-Auburn gone nuclear. Then just as quickly as this bizarre mayhem took over something far bigger arrived. Destruction brought redemption.