No matter who wins Saturday's rivalry game between Alabama and Tennessee, the winners will be smoking cigars.
Why? Because it's a tradition the two schools share in this long-standing rivalry. Alabama and Tennessee have played each other 101 times, with the first game starting in 1901. But the cigar tradition started much later than that.
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In a deep explainer of the rivalry, the Tuscaloosa News places the origin during the 1961 matchup:
The story most commonly told traces the tradition to the late Jim Goostree, a longtime Alabama athletic trainer who graduated from Tennessee. Going into the 1961 game, Alabama hadn’t beaten Tennessee since 1954 (there was a 7-7 tie in 1959). Goostree told the team he’d dance naked in the locker room if Alabama won.
The Crimson Tide secured a 34-3 win at Birmingham’s Legion Field. Goostree danced while smoking a cigar. Players wanted a cigar to celebrate, too. Longtime Alabama assistant Ken Donahue, another Tennessee alumnus, arrived in 1964 and further stoked the rivalry.
The article also explains the athletic department would provide cigars for the players, but kept it secret from the NCAA due to concerns it would be punished for providing players with extra benefits and allowing tobacco products in the locker room. Alabama publicly reinstated the tradition in 2005, and has since reported it as a secondary violation to the NCAA with every win. But surprisingly, the NCAA makes an exception for this.
And while the tradition started with Alabama, Tennessee has taken part in the festivities as well.
Unfortunately for Vols fans, their team hasn't been able to partake in the cigar smoking in recent years. Alabama has won 12 straight games dating back to 2007, the longest win streak in the rivalry. But even though Nick Saban has dominated this rivalry, don't expect to see him smoking a cigar after the game.
The coach doesn't smoke, and doesn't want to start just because it's tradition. But he won't stop his players from celebrating.
"I know it's something that a lot of people really enjoy," Saban said in 2013. "It's not a tradition I started. It's a tradition that was here that the players have continued. I think it's something they have fun with. I'm happy that they do. Not really something that I'm interested in."
The tradition was ramped up even more in 2018 after former Tennessee coach Butch Jones — then an Alabama assistant — had a picture taken of him smoking a cigar in the aftermath of Alabama's 58-21 win, despite never getting to do so as the Vols' coach.
You know what’s still hilarious
— Kirby Smart is Nick Saban’s son (@BuiltBySaban) October 16, 2019
That Butch Jones has smoked more cigars than Tennessee has in the last 10 years #TennesseeHateWeek pic.twitter.com/Z5fa84HrG1
We'll see who is smoking Saturday night as Alabama and Tennessee face off once more.
