Dogs, a donkey were Alabama mascots long before Big Al (2024)

By now, Big Al is part of the fabric of Alabama football. The furry costumed elephant is everywhere the traveling Crimson Tide circus goes.

By Saturday, he'll be into hijinks on the sideline of Jordan-Hare Stadium for the next chapter of this Iron Bowl saga.

In the grand scheme of things, however, Big Al's a relative newcomer. Alabama's been playing Auburn since 1893 and the official costume didn't debut until the dawn of the 1980s.

The history of Alabama mascots extends well beyond the modern era of Big Al.

And it gets a little weird.

A deep look through old newspaper clippings, Bryant Museum files and interviews help paint the picture of the seemingly untold history of Alabama's sometimes obscure and occasionally comical mascots that represented roamed the sidelines.

The early days

The story of the elephant is fairly well known at this point. Sports writer Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal in 1930 wrote a line about a game that said the crowd cheered "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming." It took off from there.

Still, an elephant was not the first animal to represent the school.

A yellowing news clipping in the Alabama library collection dated Nov. 4, 1894 told the story of a win over Sewanee. At the bottom, it states Alabama players found a dog on the street and adopted it as its mascot. A crowd of 300, including the pooch, saw Alabama win 24-4.

A one-paragraph story in the April 19, 1921 issue of the Tuscaloosa News broke a sad story. "THE MASCOT IS DEAD," read the headline. It told the story of Pat, "a fine English bulldog" and mascot of the university. He passed away after having "given so much pleasure to the students of the University," the story read.

No other evidence of Pat's existence could be found.

A decade later came another four-legged live animal.

A donkey.

Alabama alumni in Phoenix presented the football team "a little burro" in 1931, according to multiple newspaper clippings. The team was traveling west for the Rose Bowl game with Washington State when the mascot was given.

"His name is Thomas Heflin!" the Anniston Star reported as if to add a punchline to a joke. Heflin was also the name of a Democrat who was serving in the U.S. Senate from Alabama.

The Arizona Daily Star referred to the donkey's name as "Poison." The paper made quite the comment about Washington State's caged cougar mascot's reaction to Thomas Heflin/Poison.

"Poison probably will arouse 'Butch' as he has not been stirred since arrival here from the northwest," the sentence read.

Alabama won, 24-0.

The Bryant Museum had a photo of Alabama cheerleaders posing with a donkey, but it's unclear if it is Heflin/Poison.

This was a considerably different era in college football mascots. The Anniston Star later in 1931 featured a photo of the mascot from a football game between the United State Naval Militia team and convicts from the Sing Sing prison. Representing the prisoners was a pony painted with black and white stripes.

A return to the Rose Bowl in 1938 refined Alabama mascots. Instead of a donkey, Atlanta-born actress Dixie Dunbar was appointed the "California mascot" by governor Bibb Graves.

Live elephant years

The mascot action picked up in the 1940s. The decade after getting the elephant label, Alabama got an actual elephant. Alamite, followed by Alamite the Second became part of the school's tradition. He played a big role in homecoming festivities since the homecoming queen would triumphantly ride him into the stadium.

It wasn't without controversy, according to a 1950 story in the Crimson White student newspaper. "Coaches agree: Elephant impractical as Bama Mascot" read the headline on Page 3 of the Nov. 21, 1950 paper.

"I see no reason, though, the team couldn't be called the Red Elephants along with the Crimson Tide as the two have become almost synonymous," football coach Red Drew said.

Athletics director Frank Thomas told the paper that others in the athletic department were concerned since elephants are "associated with a heavy, cumbersome team."

Thomas didn't want a mascot of any kind but conceded that students want one, especially for homecoming.

The elephant situation became a punchline at the University of Miami when Alabama visited for homecoming in 1954. A Miami News story referred to Alabama's mascot "if that's what you can call it!" while stating theme ideas centered around pink elephants. The Hurricanes won, 23-7.

By 1957, another Crimson White story said alumni were considering buying a baby elephant. It would be named "Mem" and would live at the Birmingham Zoo.

Two years later in 1959, campus spirit group The Jasons bought a four-year old elephant, the CW reported on Page 3 of the Feb. 12, 1959 paper. It weighed approximately 700 pounds, stood four feet tall and cost $3,500 (nearly $30,000 today adjusted for inflation), according to the news clipping.

"The elephant came straight from the jungle," the story stated as fact without attribution. Yet photo of an elephant, named Mem, appeared in the 1959 yearbook.

Also in 1959, a December CW story stated a costumed red elephant head was purchased to be worn by cheerleader Eddy Pettijohn.

This was a year after Bear Bryant returned as Alabama's football coach. And it turned out Bryant wasn't a huge fan of costumed humans as mascots. Melford Espey also tried to start that tradition in the mid-1960s. He wore a crimson fiberglass elephant head that was frankly nightmarish.

"Oh, terrible," said a chuckling Jacob Mosella, a current Big Al. "... I couldn't imagine getting close to a kid in that thing."

Espey, who died in 2010, told the Tuscaloosa News that Bryant said "never to let that big rat get anywhere near me."

A 1972 letter to the editor in the CW again called for a mascot citing "a sultry piece of poultry," down at Auburn.

Though nobody seems to know what or where it came from, there are photos floating around of a white costumed bear on the sidelines of the 1972 Iron Bowl.

Another crude attempt at a crimson elephant appeared at the 1975 Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Penn State. It was all crimson with a boxy head. Alabama won 13-6

It would be a few more years until anything now recognizable appeared.

Big Al is born

Bryant, still resistant to mascots in the late 1970s, got another pitch from students. This time it worked and Disney was commissioned to make the suit.

"We gave the artists instructions--not too cartoony, but not too ferocious--and after a few rounds we had a mascot," former cheerleading sponsor Kathleen Cramer said in a 2009 news release. "Coach Bryant loved it. 'Just keep him off my field' was his only request."

Big Al debuted at the 1980 Sugar Bowl. Hugh Dye was the first to wear the now-iconic outfit as Alabama beat Arkansas 24-9 to win the national title.

It looks fairly similar to the version of the suit Mosella wears today. He said pictures of the original Big Al included the cheek vents still used in the 2017 Big Al.

At one point, mascot fights were a big deal and Big Al was involved in one of the more famous tussles. His extended conflict with the Southern Miss golden eagle in 2002 still exists in video form. A 1998 Birmingham News story stated Big Al wrestled with Tennessee's mascot in the SEC women's basketball championship game.

Today, there's somewhat of a gentleman's agreement to avoid physical contact between the masked adversaries within the SEC.

"I'd say the mascot community is tight knit," Mosella said. "We all have the same struggles so when you go to an opposing field, the last thing you want is to make their life any harder, especially when you know what it's like to walk through an opposing student section."

Big Al of the 21st century is a long way from the stray dogs of the 1890s, the donkey of the 1930s and the actual elephants of the 1940s and 50s. It has a carefully crafted image that's become a dominant symbol not just for the football program, but the university as a whole.

The original Big Al costume now stands, fittingly, in the museum named for Bear Bryant. Flanked by photos of a few early attempts, the exhibit honors the late 20th century of Alabama mascots.

For now, Pat, Thomas Heflin/Poison, the Alamites and Mem are footnotes in the story of Alabama's winding path to mascot glory.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter

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