Auburn scored 49 points against Alabama on 29 November 1969, and did it without a single touchdown pass.
Seven touchdowns, all rushing
Oran Buck’s 32-yard field goal put Alabama ahead 3-0 in the first quarter. Wallace Clark then ran in touchdowns from one and three yards for Auburn, Hunter Husband replied with a four-yard run for Alabama, and Auburn led 14-10 at the interval. Pat Sullivan ran in from four yards and Mickey Zofko from one in the third quarter. George Ranager returned a kickoff 100 yards for Alabama. In the fourth Zofko scored from nine yards, Clark from three, and Connie Frederick broke an 84-yard run; Scott Hunter’s seven-yard touchdown pass to David Bailey ended the scoring at 49-26.
Auburn’s seven touchdowns were all rushing touchdowns. Sullivan, a sophomore who would win the Heisman Trophy two years later, scored one of them with his legs and threw for none.
The scale of it
Forty-nine points was the most Auburn had scored against Alabama since 1900, when they won 53-5 in a version of the sport with different rules and different scoring values. In the modern series, nothing had come close; Auburn’s previous high since the 1948 renewal was the 40 they scored in 1957.
The result also ended a five-game Alabama winning run in the fixture and was Auburn’s first win over Alabama since 1963.
Two seasons in decline and ascent
Alabama finished 6-5, unranked, and lost the Liberty Bowl to Colorado 47-33. It was the worst Alabama season of Bryant’s tenure to that point and the second of three ordinary years before the wishbone arrived. #12 Auburn finished 8-3 and twentieth in the final Associated Press poll, losing the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl to Houston 36-7.