As Tiger fans take a break during the team’s bye week, students are gearing up for what many consider to be the rivalry football game of this season against the University of Alabama next Saturday. Many LSU fans are preparing insulting signs about former LSU football coach Nick Saban, who now coaches the Crimson Tide. But some LSU students are taking aim at a more symbolic and legendary icon of Alabama football.
“There is no better idea than to put purple and gold on a Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant hat and have the whole student section wearing them,” said Nathan Roy, business junior.
Roy, along with two friends, Mustafa Mohammad, political science junior, and Hussien Mohammad, communication studies senior, purchased 60 houndstooth hats – an iconic symbol of Alabama’s most beloved football coach, Bryant – and are decorating them with LSU fanfare.
Roy said he is trying to sell the hats on Facebook.com marketplace for $25. He said he hopes the entire student section will follow suit and wear LSU modified hats to put a spin on an Alabama tradition.
“[Bryant] is by far the most famous coach at Alabama and one of the most famous in the country through history,” said Ken Gaddy, director of the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the University of Alabama’s campus.
Gaddy said the Bryant Museum honors all Alabama football teams from 1892 to the present and contains Alabama football memorabilia and an archive of game footage.
Gaddy said Bryant’s influences are present today – years after he retired. Bryant was the head football coach of the Alabama team from 1958 to 1982 and led the team to six national championships.
Gaddy said Bryant started wearing the houndstooth hat after winning the 1965 Orange Bowl. He said New York Jets owner Sonny Werblin negotiated with Bryant to get him to coach the professional football team. After turning down the offer, Bryant and Werblin developed a friendship and Werblin sent Bryant a houndstooth hat. Gaddy said when Bryant started wearing the hat to games, Werblin would continue to send him a new houndstooth hat every few months.
“It became a tradition for [Bryant] to wear those hats on the sideline and became one of his trademarks,” Gaddy said. “When you see that today, people think ‘Coach Bryant.'”
Gaddy said the houndstooth pattern has become so strongly connected to Alabama football that the design has been adapted to an array of other items, including shoes, purses, school binders and tailgating tents. Regardless of what the houndstooth pattern is on, people associate it with Alabama football, Gaddy said.
Caroline Gwaltney, senior sports writer for Alabama’s student newspaper The Crimson White, said houndstooth hats and Bryant’s legacy are important to all Alabama fans.
“People really take the houndstooth seriously,” Gwaltney said. “It’s just a symbol of tradition, excellence, pride and class that goes with the university. And as soon as they see purple and gold [on the houndstooth hats], it may actually offend some people. It should be interesting to see their reaction.”
Gaddy said this is the only instance he is aware of that involves incorporating a different team’s colors to the houndstooth hat.
“It’ll be a good way to get people’s attention,” Gaddy said. “There might be some fun ripping going back and forth, but I think it’ll be a good conversation starter.” Gwaltney said the jabs LSU fans will take at both Bryant and Saban will be sensitive to Alabama fans. “They’re both going to be a slap in the face,” Gwaltney said. “Whereas we see ‘Bear’ Bryant as a symbol of the past, everyone sees Saban as the ‘Bear’ Bryant of the future. Both of them – to an Alabama fan – represent something big.”
Roy said their Facebook group “LSU vs Alabama” has attracted some attention from trash-talking Alabama fans who are angered by their adaptation to the Crimson Tide’s tradition. He said at least 30 Alabama students were in the group before he banned them for creating a fuss.
“The word got to Alabama fans, and they’re going crazy,” Mustafa Mohammad said. “They said something about discoloring a legend’s hat with purple and gold.”
Hussien Mohammad said he carries a model hat in his car to show people and has been spreading the word by talking to other fans. He said he decided to sell the hats in hopes of having more fans wear them because some people would not want to make their own. He said they are not trying to make a profit and students who would like to purchase a hat can contact him via Facebook.
“If you so much as look at that hat and make a comment of it, some people get really offended,” Hussien Mohammad said. “My roommate is a huge Alabama fan, and when I showed him the hat, he looked at me with a look of disgust.”
Roy said the response from LSU fans has been positive.
“We wore [the hats] to the Taste of Tiger Tailgating the week before the season started, and a lot of people liked it,” Roy said. “A guy taking a bus [of people to the game] said he wanted them for this whole bus to wear. Everybody loved them. It’s what LSU fans would do. It’s what we’re known for.”
——Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]