Sept. 22, 2017
Bill Traughber —
“VU 14-10! How Sweet It Is,” read the Tennessean’s sports headline the day after Vanderbilt upset Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Crimson Tide at Dudley Field.
“This was what I remember the most about my two years at Vanderbilt,” former Vanderbilt tailback Doug Mathews said about the Oct. 11, 1969 game. “It was a total team win. Our defense played really well. Our offense played well and our kicking game was good. Everybody got the ball. There wasn’t one guy making one big play; we had a lot of guys make big plays.”
This gridiron match stands as the last Commodore win against Alabama in Nashville. Head Coach Bill Pace was in the midst of a 0-3 record entering the game.
Cookeville’s Watson Brown, Vandy’s sophomore quarterback, was in his first season of varsity football and was instrumental in the glorious victory. He was the Commodores starting quarterback, but split time behind center with fellow sophomore, Denny Painter.
The Tide was injury-ridden with star tailback Johnny Musso on the sideline unable to perform, but Alabama’s offensive leader was celebrated junior quarterback Scott Hunter. Hunter entered the game leading the nation in passing accuracy, completing an amazing 75.4 % of his passes. The Crimson Tide was undefeated (3-0) and ranked 13th nationally. The betting line showed Vanderbilt as 17-to-20-point underdogs.
The packed stadium of mostly 34,000 loyal Vandy fans anxiously awaited the 7:30 p.m. kickoff on a cool evening with rain-threatening skies. The Commodores opened the game kicking off to Alabama, but an inspired Commodore defense forced the Tide to punt on the first series. On the ’Bama punt, Commodore Neal Smith fielded the football at his 16-yard line and dodged one Tide defender after another, racing into the end zone for an apparent 84-yard return. The unexpected return brought the crowd to its feet.
However, on the return, a penalty was called on Mathews, who called for a fair catch on the play, and the touchdown was nullified. Mathews was a senior tailback who came from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Junior College. The penalty would be the first of 10 against Vandy, which significantly handicapped the offense.
Each team was unable to sustain a lengthy drive until just before the end of the first quarter, when an Alabama drive stalled at the Vanderbilt 2-yard line. Mike Dean connected on a 19-yard field goal to give the Tide an early 3-0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Commodore John Valput returned the ball 42 yards to the midfield stripe, giving the Dores a first down in excellent field position. The highlight of the drive was a halfback pass from Mathews to wingback John Ingram for 38 yards. That play set up another unexpected halfback pass by Mathews from six yards out, this time to wingback David Strong, who was standing all alone in the end zone.
“We were running a veer option offense at that time and later changed to the I-formation,” Mathews said. “I had been a quarterback in junior college, and in high school for that matter, so we had the halfback pass put in and threw a good bit off it.”
Jay Wollins, a walk-on, booted the extra point, capping the 50-yard drive and erasing the Tide’s early advantage. The defenses for each team stiffened and the halftime score read: Vanderbilt 7, Alabama 3.
Vanderbilt opened the second half with possession of the football. Mathews was hit hard and fumbled. Alabama’s defensive end, Wayne Rhodes made the recovery at the Vanderbilt 19-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, George Ranger swept around the right end for a Tide touchdown. With just 1:35 elapsed in the third quarter, Dean’s conversion gave Alabama a 10-7 margin.
In the third quarter, Vanderbilt, combining a short passing and running game, consumed nine minutes off the clock in a 25-play drive. With the ball resting on the 1-yard line, the Commodores failed to stick the ball into the end zone. Wollins was called upon for a field goal attempt, but the ball sailed to the left of the uprights.
The Commodores defense, led by Pat Toomay, put pressure on Hunter throughout the game and the secondary, consisting of Mal Wall, Greg O’Neal, and Christie Hauck disrupted the Alabama passing game.
Early in the fourth quarter, Alabama drove deep into Commodore territory with Hunter looking to put the game out of reach. But Hauck intercepted an erratic Hunter pass at the 8-yard line, killing the drive. Vanderbilt began its march to the winning touchdown with 7:30 left in the game. Painter began the drive at quarterback for Vanderbilt and hit Curt Chesley on passes of 18, 6, and 17 yards to get the drive rolling, then a key pass to David Strong of 19 yards extended the drive.
Brown, who turned down a scholarship from Bryant, came into the game for Painter in a first-down situation at the Tide’s 21-yard line. On Brown’s first play, he handed off to Mathews who bulled his way for 11 yards down to the 10, but on the next play, Daniel Lipperman failed to gain a yard on a running play, setting up a second-and-long situation. Brown turned to his right, faked a handoff, suddenly turned and threw a strike to tight end Jim Cunningham. Cunningham, who had stayed on the line of scrimmage, caught the ball and sprinted into the end zone.
Pandemonium broke out in the stands as the crowd reacted to the dramatic finish. Wollins’ conversion was successful and Vanderbilt took the lead, 14-10.
However, there were still two minutes on the clock, plenty of time for gunslinger Hunter to move the ball into scoring range. The stubborn Vandy defense forced Alabama into a fourth down situation on its own 21-yard line. On Alabama’s final desperation pass attempt, Commodore defender Les Lyle broke through the line and slammed Hunter to the ground for a sack.
The Vanderbilt fans believed the game over, but a flag was thrown on Lyle for being offsides. Alabama still needed two yards for a first down, however, as the offsides penalty did not give Bama the much-needed first down. On the next play, defensive tackle, Buzz Hamilton exploded through the line crushing Hunter and forcing him to throw an underhanded pass that landed harmlessly on the ground. Vanderbilt held onto the football long enough to win the game, 14-10.
“Coach Bryant, before the game, walked by and was cutting up with me,” Brown said in a 2007 interview. “He said, ‘you couldn’t throw when I recruited you, you can’t throw now and you’ll never be able to throw.’ He just kept walking and patted me on the head. Then after we won the game, he found me in all the melee and it was melee. He gave me a hug and didn’t say anything and strolled into the locker room.”
“When I couldn’t play anymore and decided I wanted to coach, Coach Bryant really got me started and I called him for advice on every job I was offered until the day he died. He kind of took me under his wing and said, ‘I’ll help you go here, maybe don’t go here.’ It was real neat that I didn’t play for him, but he took care of me until he passed away.”
Vanderbilt also won the statistics battle, gaining 473 total yards to Alabama’s 201. Hunter was able to connect on only four of 25 passes for 91 yards. The passing duo of Brown and Painter completed 22 of 34 for 265 yards. Vanderbilt also controlled the line of scrimmage, totaling 28 first downs against just 10 for Alabama. Brown led all rushers with 68 yards.
Bryant said on his television show the next morning. “They not only beat us, but they embarrassed us. Vandy was highly motivated; they out-gained us, out-hit us, out-ran us, out-passed us and out-caught us.”
Vanderbilt concluded the season with a 4-6 record, while Alabama closed out a disappointing 6-5 campaign with a loss to Colorado in the Liberty Bowl. Mathews led the Southeastern Conference in rushing that season with 849 yards, the only Commodore to ever lead the conference in rushing.
“It was a shot in the arm for the program when it really needed it, because nobody expected us to win,” said Mathews. “Some games you win that maybe you shouldn’t, but we out-played them the whole ball game and the score could have been worse than 14-10. We clearly out-played them.”
The photo accompanying this story is quarterback Watson Brown leading the Commodores to the winning fourth quarter touchdown against Alabama in 1969.
If you have any comments or suggestions, you can contact Bill Traughber via email WLTraughber@aol.com.
