1973 Iron Bowl

1973-12-01

Birmingham, AL (Legion Field)

ALABAMA

Ranked #1

35

WINNER

VS

AUBURN

0

Series Snapshot

#38

Meeting of 90

20-17-1

Series after game

2-2-0

Record in the 1970s through this game

#8

Widest-margin rank

Before this meeting, the archive record stood at Alabama 19, Auburn 17, with 1 tie. The 1973 result moved it to Alabama 20, Auburn 17, with 1 tie.

This was the 4th listed Iron Bowl of the 1970s. Through this game, Alabama had 2 wins, Auburn had 2, and the decade included 0 ties.

The teams combined for 35 points, ranking #51 in total scoring among the 90 meetings in the current archive, with 4 games sharing that total. The 35-point margin ranks #8 by size.

Explore the score, game details and rivalry context for this Alabama-Auburn meeting. In the surrounding chronology, the previous listed meeting was 1972 and the next was 1974.

Decisive Moment

Alabama's dominance on both lines of scrimmage resulting in a 35-0 shutout.

Key Players

Gary Rutledge (Alabama)

Wilbur Jackson (Alabama)

Robin Cary (Alabama)

David Langner (Auburn)

📜

The Game

#1 Alabama beat Auburn 35-0 at Legion Field on 1 December 1973 to complete an unbeaten regular season, and they did it entirely on the ground.

Five rushing touchdowns

Randy Billingsley ran in from seven yards and Gary Rutledge from one in the first quarter, for a 14-0 half-time lead. Rutledge scored again from three yards in the third. Wilbur Jackson went in from fourteen and James Taylor from eight in the fourth. Bill Davis kicked all five extra points. Not a single Alabama point came from a pass or a kick from the field, which is a fair summary of what the wishbone was for.

A crowd of 69,418 watched it.

Two championships, decided differently

Alabama finished the regular season 11-0 and were voted national champions by United Press International, whose coaches’ poll closed before the bowls were played that year. They then lost the Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame 24-23, and the Associated Press, which voted after the bowls, put them fourth.

So the 1973 title is real and it is also partial: one wire service gave it to them on the evidence of the regular season, the other did not. The same split ran the other way five years later, when Alabama took the 1978 championship from everyone except UPI.

The start of the run

This was the first of nine consecutive Alabama wins over Auburn, which remains the longest either side has managed in the series. Auburn finished 6-6 in Shug Jordan’s twenty-third season and lost the Sun Bowl to Missouri.