Auburn beat Alabama 48-0 in Tuscaloosa on 23 November 1895, the first meeting between the two on the Alabama campus and the heaviest defeat Alabama had taken in the series.
The man on the Auburn sideline
This was John Heisman’s first season at Auburn. He coached there through 1899, went on to Clemson and then to Georgia Tech, and the trophy awarded each year to the outstanding player in American college football carries his name. His Auburn career began with, among other results, a 48-point win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Eli Abbott was in his third season for Alabama. W. R. Shafer captained Auburn, H. M. Bankhead Alabama.
48 points, and what they were worth
A touchdown was four points and the kick after it two, so 48 points was a very large number under that system — the equivalent, in modern terms, of scoring eight converted touchdowns. The margin equalled the largest Auburn have ever beaten Alabama by; they matched it in 1900 with a 53-5 win, and no Auburn side has bettered that 48-point margin anywhere in the series.
Then nothing for five seasons
This was the last meeting of the 1890s. The schools did not play again until November 1900.
No surviving account explains the gap. It was not that either programme stopped: Heisman kept coaching Auburn through 1899 and Alabama fielded teams every year. The two simply did not schedule each other for five seasons. The well-documented rupture in this rivalry is the one that came after 1907, and the causes recorded for that break — money, squad sizes, officials — are not documented as the cause of this one.