Wallace Wade, an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, took over the Alabama football program in 1923 and immediately raised it to new heights. His second Crimson Tide team won the Southern Conference Championship with a 5-0 league mark and 8-1 overall. His second squad defended its Southern title by winning all nine of its games to become Alabama's first undefeated team in its 24-year football history. Bama allowed only seven points all season. The two stars of Alabama's team were both backs who would earn admittence to the College Football Hall of Fame. 5'11" 160lb HB Johnny Mack Brown earned the nickname the "Dothan Antelope." Stanford coach Glenn "Pop" Warner called Johnny "one of the fastest football players I've ever seen." Allison "Pooley" Hubert, a 5'10" 190lb senior, played both fullback and quarterback ("quarterback" being the blocking back in the single-wing system that was popular at the time). He came to Alabama as a 21-year-old freshman after serving in World War I. "Papa," as his teammates tagged him, was outstanding on both sides of the ball, scoring three or more touchdowns in six different games during his career and ranking as one the best defensive backs in the country. As a result, he was voted the Most Valuable Player in the Southern Conference. Pooley played without a helmet. An Alabama graduate, Champ Pickens, was a big booster for his alma mater whose name was on the cup awarded annually to the Southern Conference champion. He told author John McCallum how he lobbied the Rose Bowl to pick Alabama. Washington's "Wonder Team," which led the nation in scoring, was quickly installed as a 2-1 favorite over the little-known Tide. Southern football was nationally rated as inferior to the game played in the East, Midwest, and West Coast. The general regard for Alabama's chances was summed up by syndicated newspaper columnist Will Rogers when he referred to Alabama as "a team from Tuska-loser." But Alabama's starters had played together for three years and would not be intimidated by the biggest stage in college football at that time. Also, as a California writer put it, "Washington is about as welcome as the plague in this part of the country. All of Southern California was pulling for Alabama ..." The Alabama delegation traveled to Los Angeles by train, the journey taking four days and nights. They arrived December 24 and were immediately the Toast of the Town. They hobnobbed with movie stars, were taken to dinner by transplanted Southerners, and toured the sites until Wade shut it all down. He conducted hard, closed practice sessions.
The West Coast press continued to provide motivation fuel. One writer predicted Washington would win by 51 points. Another said the Huskies would "blow the country team back across the continent." The game was a Tale of Two Halves, with a rough tackle by Washington's All-American HB George "Wildcat" Wilson and then his departure with an injury helping the "plucky" Tide turn the tide after intermission.
Perhaps the Southerners were too fired up or maybe they were intimidated by the crowd of 50,000. In any case, the Purple Tornado built a 12-0 first-half lead.
First Quarter
Receiving the kickoff, Bama drove to the UW 15 with Johnny Mack Brown's 15y sweep and Pooley Hubert's 29y pass to Grant Gillis the big gainers. But the Tide went backwards from there, and George Wilson intercepted a desperate fourth-down pass and ran it out to the 15.
Washington marched from there to a touchdown. Wilson's 11y run over right tackle gained a first down. The Huskies went for it on 4th-and-5 from their 45. Wildcat connected with QB George Guttormsen who went out of bounds on the Alabama 15. Three snaps later, George crashed around left end to the 1' line, warding off three potential tacklers along the way. Harold Patton, the other halfback, was given the honor of carrying the ball over the goal line.
However, Guttormsen missed the drop-kick for the extra point. In those days, the team that scored a touchdown got to select whether to kickoff or receive. The Huskies chose to receive. But Alabama forced a three-and-out, and Brown ran the punt back to his 35. As was often done in those days, Gillis quick-kicked 65y into the UW end zone. Second Quarter
Wilson also made possible Washington's second touchdown. First, he boomed a punt 65y into the Bama end zone. On the ensuing series, Wilson tackled Brown and twisted Johnny's leg violently. The enraged Crimson Tide vowed to get revenge. When Gillis punted back four plays later, the Huskies started from their 42. Wilson ripped off a 33y gain to the 22. Then the All-American hurled a pass to E John Cole in the back corner of the end zone. Guttormsen's drop kick for the PAT hit the crossbar - a second failure that would doom the Huskies. 12-0 UW.
Washington again received the kickoff but moved to three first downs. Then Wilson tried to turn left end but was smashed by the Tide and had to be taken off the field with injured ribs. A 15y holding penalty thwarted the advance, forcing a punt that Brown ran back 40y to the UW 46. Hubert connected with Brown for 14y as the quarter ended. Third Quarter
Wade decided to change his offensive strategy to utilize Brown's pass catching ability. With Wilson still out of action the entire third period, the Tide scored on three straight possessions.
After a punt exchange, Hubert, "the seasoned and mature team leader," kept calling his own number after the Tide gained possession on the UW 41. Pooley scampered 26y to the 15. Then he tore off ten more before bucking the last five to put the Tide on the board. Bill Buckler kicked the PAT to cut the deficit to 12-7.

Bama kicked off and soon had the ball back. On the second play, Grant Gillis heaved a 45y pass that Brown took in stride "like Tris Speaker catching a fly ball" (to quote one reporter) and sprinted the remaining 20y to pay dirt. Buckler again converted and just like that, Alabama led for the first time, 14-12.
Louis Tesreau, playing in place of Wilson, fumbled, and Alabama recovered at the 30. Hubert, smelling blood, immediately called an audacious play. He dropped back and lofted the ball downfield. Brown grabbed it on the five and zipped over. Buckler missed the point, but with the two-point conversion 34 years in the future, the Tide still had a two-score lead, 20-12. The Wilson-less Huskies couldn't make a first down before the period mercifully ended for them.
Fourth Quarter
Four plays in, Wilson returned to the field with Bama on UW's 32. A few plays later, Hubert failed by an inch to make a first down at the 12. Then he misfired on a fourth down pass.
"Wildcat" then led an 88y touchdown drive. He started with an 18y sweep around left end. Patton followed with a 20y gallop around the other side. Three plays later, George passed to Guttormsen for to move the chains to the UA 31. After a 4y run, Wilson fired "a long low pass" to Guttormsen for a touchdown. Eugene Cook booted the point to make it 20-19.
Receiving the kickoff, the Tide used its version of "Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside" to move into UW territory behind Brown's end runs of 15 and 14y and Hubert's center thrust for 23 to the 23. But Pooley tried a pass that went right into Cole's hands.
But time ran out before the Huskies could mount another threat. Washington coach Enoch Bagshaw left the field without shaking Wade's hand.
Afterward, Wilson complained, "The crowd beat us. We'll never play in Los Angeles again."
Coach Wade: "Washington was undoubtedly one of the greatest football teams I have ever seen, and I am filled with much gladness that we won. The fact that the crowd at the game gave our team such wonderful support made the triumph a still more joyous one. The people here have been mighty courteous to all of us and I, as well, as the rest of the party, certainly appreciate it. Our team was in the best shape Friday it has ever been. They all fought hard and gave their every ounce–I am mighty proud of each and every one of them." The Alabama team was hailed across the Deep South. In Montgomery, a spontaneous parade of thousands formed after the game at the central square. When the train from Pasadena pulled into New Orleans several days later, nearly one thousand Tulane students greeted the Crimson Tide. In other towns from there to Tuscaloosa, crowds gathered to express their pride and joy in the Rose Bowl triumph. When the train arrived in T-Town, the entire student body and most of the town turned out for a raucous parade. The team rode in wagons pulled by students. The celebration ended with speeches and tributes on the campus Quad. President Denny declared a school holiday.
The school fight song, "Yea Alabama!," includes the lyric, "Remember the Rose Bowl, we'll win then."
Historians consider the 1926 Rose Bowl the most important game in Southern football history. Andrew Doyle, a history professor at Winthrop University, wrote, "It was a sublime tonic for Southerners who were buffeted by a legacy of defeat, military defeat, a legacy of poverty, and a legacy of isolation from the American political and cultural mainstream."