Shug Jordan’s first Iron Bowl as Auburn’s head coach was not a success, but it was the beginning of a 25-year presence in the fixture.
Marlow again
Bobby Marlow scored three touchdowns for the second year running. He opened with a seven-yard run in the first quarter, and after James Melton had added a three-yard score for a 13-0 half-time lead, Marlow broke off runs of 39 and 22 yards in the third quarter. Homer Williams got Auburn on the board with an eight-yard run in the fourth. Alabama scored four touchdowns and converted only one of them, which is how four scores produced 25 points.
Two teams going nowhere
Neither side had much to play for. Auburn were 5-4 entering the game and finished 5-5 in Jordan’s first season, a considerable improvement on the winless year before him. Alabama finished 5-6 — a losing record, and Harold Drew’s worst at the school to that point. The 1951 season was the low point of Drew’s eight years in charge, and beating Auburn did not redeem it.
The early ledger
With this win Alabama had taken three of the four meetings since the series resumed in 1948. The pattern would not hold. Within three years Jordan’s Auburn would begin a run of five consecutive victories, and the balance of the rivalry would shift for the rest of the decade.