How the 1973 Sugar Bowl Between Alabama and Notre Dame Became a Central Component in My Rebellion Against Family and Southern Culture

As far as I can recall, the 1973 Sugar Bowl pitting Alabama versus Notre Dame was my first explicit act of open rebellion against the specific will of my family and the general expectations of my geological locale. Simply because we lived in proximity to the neighboring state, we were expected to find in the mushmouth ramblings of Paul "Bear" Bryant something that helped to define our identity.

I rejected this contention by putting my support behind Ara Parseghian and his shiny panted Yankees from Indiana. You cannot fully appreciate the depth of this insurrection unless you have found yourself rooting against the SEC team in a room filled with Southern college football fans Add in the fact that every one of those fans was a blood relative and the 1973 Sugar Bowl becomes an event ingrained into my memory for reasons that have far less to do with football than with the genesis of a cultural consciousness ultimately denounced institutional racism and actively sought ways to cut loose certain bonds based on blind acceptance of tradition or genetic predisposition.

The game was tightly contested and turned on the foot of Alabama placekicker Bill Davis and the arm of Notre Dame quarterback Tom Clements. What sticks out in my memory most about the actual football game also manages to play into the temperament of rebellion against expected conventions. The last play to result in scoring took place with about four minutes left in the game. A field goal put Notre Dame in the lead by a single point. Afterward, the Crimson Tide failed to achieve a first down and were forced into punting situation in which a roughing the punter penalty was declined in favor of making Notre Dame begin play from their one yard line that soon resulted in their facing third down from the two yard line.

The entirety of Dixie was palpable with the prospect of Notre Dame playing it safe and being forced into a punting situation that unquestionably would result in a redemptive game winning field goal for Davis. The revolution taking place behind the doors of my perception was televised in the form of a brilliant tactical call by Parseghian that resulted in the completely unanticipated sight of Tom Clements standing five yards deep in his end zone and cocking his arm to throw a pass. What could possibly be a more apt football play to embody the sense of rebellion I only barely registered on a conscious plane than having the single most important play of the game be a third down pass from one of Notre Dame's least celebrated quarterbacks that required no athletic feats of greatness to catch, produced no points and ended without the necessity for a tackle. As far as football heroics go, the single greatest moment of my most memorable college Bowl game is utterly lacking. Nevertheless, it remains perfectly aligned with the emotional construct of everything else that I remember from the night.

Alas, it would take another couple of decades for rebellion to reach completion as I finally lost all interest in college football. And if you have never visited the South, you will never realize just how rebellious that is.