Memories of Enterprise: Bama games tough to find on radio

By Ricky Adams
Ledger Correspondent

Published: September 18, 2008

An Alabama football fan of long-standing and broad girth recently checked in with a confession that’ll keep his name out of this space today.
“Sport, I figured out why I’ve got this big belly, a beer gut some call it.”
“Why?”
“Well, if a fellow wants to listen to an Alabama game and all the pre-game and post-game stuff on the radio here, he’s got to take drastic steps. I heard the Tulane game by gettin’ all leant back and wedged in the corner of my couch, with my feet propped on the coffee table and my transistor radio restin’ on my shelf, you know, the top of my belly.
“Then, I grabbed the radio’s antenna in my left hand and held on for dear life. I had a hard time with the dip and chips and beverage of choice, but, hey, a win’s a win!
“I lucked out on the Western Kentucky game, pardner. I’d heard the Tulane game on one station but last Saturday when I tuned in, I picked up Alabama in one ear and Troy in the other: I couldn’t handle it. So I ran through the dial and that’s when I found Bama playin’ on 107.7, a station in Georgiana, ‘servin’ Evergreen, Florala and Andalusia.’
“I’m here to tell you, I’m fixed, long as I can get that station. If gas keeps spiking I ain’t goin’ dove huntin’ so I’ll be tuned in every Saturday, even though Snake (Stabler) ain’t doin’ the color.”
Stabler is serving a “self-imposed,” one-season hiatus from his color commentating duties alongside Eli Gold, resulting from his second DUI arrest in two decades.
Mention of Stabler brought to mind a banner currently hanging on the outside wall of our big box store’s lawn/garden department.
The banner is covered with pictures, Auburn University’s “AU” logo, and words including prominent ones: “Your Game Time Head Quarters” and “A League of Its Own,” legible from two parking spots away, and others too small to be read except under close scrutiny.
The banner “announces” the 2008 partnership between Auburn’s football program, and a corporate sponsor, in small letters.
Care to guess the corporation?
Give up?
It’s Miller Brewing Co., one brewery among many, whose products are off-limits to scholarshipped and walk-on athletes at Auburn, Troy, Enterprise-Ozark Community College, Alabama, and likely every other college with athletics.
Several Crimson Tiders, possibly confused by similar mixed messages, have served penance recently, some likely stemming from supporting such corporate sponsors’ products to excess.
Snake’s transgressions may be understandable.
Stabler, like Enterprise’s own Jimmy Carroll, figured prominently on the 1966 Bama team that, despite going 11-0, was stiffed of a third-consecutive national championship when Notre Dame tied Michigan State, 10-10, to back into the national championship.
Noteworthy, too, is the fact Robert Higginbotham and Mickey Lee, both former Wildcats, were also on that special UA squad that prompted Keith Dunnavant to write “The Missing Ring,” a must read if you cherish the Bama tradition.
Speaking of a missing ring, Kay Hill recently handed over a 1983 EHS class ring, with “HJULT” and “JRB” engraved inside, and a red stone on top.
Supposedly, it doesn’t belong to James Ronnie Brown.
If you know whose it is, leave a message at this newspaper.
Hmmm, who knew Georgiana had a radio station?