I'd planned on taking the morning off, but Tito reminded me that there was some important polling going on over at ESPN.com. They are asking some hard-hitting questions about sports in each of the 50 states, and since part of my dual citizenship includes Alabama, I chose to answer the Yellowhammer State's questions. The somewhat predictable results (and SoT commentary) can be found below the cut:
| 1) Most memorable sports moment? (If you've live in Alabama for any amount of time, you know that the answer to this is "17-16") | |
| 25.6% | Alabama routs No. 1 Miami 34-13 in Sugar Bowl to win national title (1993) |
| 16.4% | Alabama beats Penn State in Sugar Bowl thanks to famous goal-line stand, wins national title (1979) |
| 15.5% | Alabama plays at Auburn for first time 1948 and Auburn wins 30-20 (1989) |
| 13.3% | Auburn's Bo Jackson rushes for over 1,700 and wins the Heisman Trophy (1985) |
| 10.6% | Mobile's Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth to become baseball?s all-time home-run king (1974) |
| 7.0% | Paul 'Bear' Bryant wins 323rd and final game as college coach (1982) |
| 6.4% | Van Tiffin's 52-yard field in final seconds lifts 'Bama to 25-23 win over Auburn (1985) |
| 3.3% | Dale Earnhardt rallies from 18th place in final 5 laps to win at Talladega (2000) |
| 2.0% | Alabama rolls up 514 yards to beat Nebraska in Orange Bowl, win national title (1966) |
| 2) Favorite sport? (no option for cock fighting? deer hunting?) | |
| 83.3% | Football |
| 4.6% | Auto racing |
| 4.4% | Golf |
| 4.3% | Basketball |
| 3.5% | Baseball |
| 3) Favorite pro team? (interesting results considering the previous question) | |
| 49.3% | Atlanta Braves |
| 20.6% | Miami Dolphins |
| 11.6% | Dallas Cowboys |
| 11.5% | Atlanta Falcons |
| 6.9% | Tennessee Titans |
| 4) Favorite college team? (obviously, there has to be some fraud involved here) | |
| 60.8% | Univ. of Alabama (football) |
| 39.2% | Auburn Univ. (football) |
| 5) Best homegrown product? (I guess they aren't talking about the state's #1 cash crop) | |
| 39.1% | Hank Aaron (baseball) |
| 31.5% | Bo Jackson (football) |
| 7.5% | Willie Mays (baseball) |
| 6.0% | Jesse Owens (track and field) |
| 5.1% | Bart Starr (football) |
| 4.5% | John Hannah (football) |
| 2.7% | Charles Barkley (football) |
| 1.3% | Joe Louis (boxing) |
| 1.2% | Satchel Paige (baseball) |
| 1.2% | Bobby Bowden (football coach) |
| 6) Best college football player in Univ. of Alabama history? | |
| 37.9% | Joe Namath |
| 20.2% | Derrick Thomas |
| 8.0% | John Hannah |
| 7.7% | Don Hutson |
| 7.5% | Bart Starr |
| 5.7% | Lee Roy Jordan |
| 5.2% | Cornelius Bennett |
| 4.0% | Ozzie Newsome |
| 3.9% ME |
Ken Stabler Who cares? |
| 7) Most-hated SEC football team? (I would have voted for Vanderbilt; wasn't an option) | |
| 36.2% | Tennessee |
| 26.8% | Alabama |
| 20.4% | Auburn |
| 8.5% | Florida |
| 4.0% | LSU |
| 3.1% | Georgia |
| 0.9% | South Carolina |
| 8) Favorite personality or historical figure? (Ed: No Harper Lee? No Bo Bice?) | |
| 36.0% | Hank Williams (singer) |
| 29.5% | Helen Keller (educator) |
| 11.6% | Rosa Parks (civil rights activist) |
| 9.7% | George Washington Carver (educator) |
| 7.9% | Nat 'King' Cole (entertainer) |
| 4.4% | Jim Nabors (actor) |
| 0.9% | Lionel Hampton (jazz musician) |
| 9) Best place to watch an event? (Bryant Denny is nice, but Jordan-Hare is much better. Legion Field is a dump and I've never been to Talladega.) | |
| 50.9% | Bryant Denny Stadium (Alabama) |
| 33.7% | Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn) |
| 10.7% | Talladega Superspeedway |
| 4.7% | Legion Field (Birmingham) |
| 10) Have you ever been to Alabama? (Will you ever go back?) | |
| 87.7% | Yes |
| 12.3% | No |
- I think the Crimson Tide would have been the top pro team, if it were an option
- Mildly surprised that Jim Nabors wasn't listed as "musician". Who can forget his work on Goldenthroats, along with Bill Cosby & Bill Shatner?
- I'd had the pleasure of lounging in the bleachers with some UofA fans during College World Series of years gone by. As nice as they were, I have to say that the toiletpaper and "Tide" (detergent) == "roll tide" is one of the stupider things I've seen at a sports event (on balance, the CornHeads at Husker games are no better). Having said that, the most annoying fan-thing remains Hook'em Horns.
Posted by: tito | July 20, 2005 at 12:53 PM
I was the 0.00001 percent who answered "soccer" as my favorite sport and AS Roma as my favorite sports team.
Posted by: david | July 20, 2005 at 03:44 PM