The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize

by Keith Dunnavant

Book Overview

"Keith Dunnavant''s triumph is that he takes us into the heart of Alabama, into the darkness and the light, and there we see Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler, Ray Perkins, and their band of brothers play football for Bear Bryant the way life should be lived, at full throttle, indomitably." - Dave Kindred, author of Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship The Missing Ring is more than a football book. It is both a story of a changing era...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312336837
• ISBN13: 9780312336837
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A Different and Fascinating View of a Difficult Time

We like to think of sports as being something pure and simple, but of course it isn't. From Hitler determined to show the world the superiority of the Aryan race (and being foiled by Jessee Owens) to the boycotts of the Summer Olympics by the United States in 1980 and by the Soviet Union in 1984, real world politics has intruded into the sports arena. In this book Mr. Dunnavant writes about the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide coached by Bear Bryant and having arguably the best football team in the country. Despite having an undefeated season, they were not awarded the national championship. The reason, according to Mr. Dunnavant was that the university got caught up in the integration battles of the time. Alabama had an all-white segregated team. And they were denied the championship. True? Quite possibly. Fair? Depends upon your point of view. You have to ask, if you were an African-American how would you have voted. And I note that in the pictures in the middle of the book there is not one of George Wallace refusing to admit negro (the word at the time) students to the university. A fascinating book looking at that time in our history through a different set of glasses.

Truly A Winner

Having worked as a sports writer for some 30 years and a graduate of The University of Alabama I enjoy reading books about Coach Bryant and his great teams. However, few of these books live up to what I experienced as a student intern on Coach Bryant's staff. This book is truly the exception. Keith Dunnavant has produced a WINNER !! Not only does this book take you into the locker room and the huddle from the off season workouts to the practice field and on the field for many thrilling victories but it also takes you above the action where a much larger view teaches you about the social conditions and how they denied a championship team their just rewards. I grew up in a Catholic family in the North and was steeped in the Notre Dame mystique. I watched every play of the epic 1966 Michigan State - Notre Dame battle. I left that game with a sad and empty feeling. Why would a great University play for a tie ? That question plagued me until I became a student at The University of Alabama in 1969 and dug behind the scenes to get the answer. When it was revealed it was a shocker. This great book will help you understand why also. It's much more than a book about football. It transcends the playing field and reveals the true story of how a team and a region were distained. Not because they didn't deserve a title but because politics denied a group of young men and their coaches something they toiled for, sweated for and bled for. Truly a Winner, Dunnavant has delivered his best work to date. Anyone who is a football fan, a fan of politics or a student of social justice must read this book.

Political Correctness was the Real Champion of 1966

Alabama was snubbed in 1966 for one simple reason: it was,by preference, a segregated football team. The emerging leftist politics of the time could not tolerate it. It mattered not who was the best team, who had the best record, who played the best schedule, or who had won the most games, any of which criteria would have made the Tide no. 1, it only mattered that the fractious state of Alabama was still insisting on a segregated football team and a largely segregated society. The Tide had eleven wins (to ND's and MSU's eight apiece); the ONLY perfect record in the nation; the best QB in the country (Ken Stabler, compared to Hanratty of ND or Jimmy Raye of MSU); a blowout 35 to 6 bowl victory over a fine Nebraska team (neither ND or MSU even played in a bowl that year); and, of course, the best coach in America. But the polls said they could not be no. 1 because they had no black players. One could argue (meekly) that even this overwhelming preponderance of evidence cannot actually prove that Bama was the best team, but lacking a national playoff to decide it, we can only go on the evidence of who DESERVED it, and on that issue there can be no room for doubt. The true national champion that year, unfortunately, was political correctness. And if Bama and ND had actully pklayed? My bet is on the Tide, by two or three touchdowns, This was the University of Alabama's greatest team ever. As a footnote, and in fairness, Alabama didn't deserve the national championship of 1964; Texas beat Bama in the Orange Bowl that year, and Arkansas, the only team to beat Texas, beat Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, thereby becoming the only team in '64 to complete a perfect season.

I Played On This Team

I am a member of the 1966 Alabama football team. I strongly recommend reading this book. The author is to be commended for his accurate account of the factual information presented. For me, the book iterated 40 year old memories of the '66 season in a manner that seemed as though they happened yesterday. Once I started reading the book, I could not put it down. Keith Dunnavant's research and presentation of the story is complete and impeccable. He brought a ball club from a FOOTNOTE to the SPOTLIGHT!! Mike Hall

Excellent and Long Overdue

Does a #3 ranked football team from 40 years ago deserve an entire book devoted to it? Absolutely! Any college football fan who is old enough to remember the 1966 season knows the story. Paul Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide of Alabama had won National Championships in 1961, 1964, and 1965. The Tide entered the 1966 season with the chance to become the first college football team to win three consecutive National Championships. This was not to be, however. By late October Notre Dame was ranked #1 and Michigan State #2. The two teams played to a 10-10 tie on November 19, 1966, in what was billed as the game of the century. The tie delighted Alabama fans, but amazingly neither team dropped in the polls. Notre Dame and Michigan State finished their seasons with no loses and one tie. Meanwhile, Alabama, led by quarterback Kenny Stabler and a defense that was almost impossible to score upon, completed a perfect season and defeated a good Nebraska team 34-7 in the Sugar Bowl. In the end Alabama's perfect record (the only perfect record that year) was not good enough. Alabama placed third in the final polls. The Missing Ring is the story of the 1966 season, the year that haunts Alabama fans to this day. The book is not a diatribe about not winning a championship. Author Keith Dunnavant tells us how Coach Bryant molded a group of young men into one of the most dominant college football teams of all time. Along the way Dunnavant exposes some truths that will cause the politically correct crowd to squirm uncomfortably in their faux-leather recliners. Alabama was not awarded the National Championship for a variety of reasons, none of which had anything to do with football. We will never know if Notre Dame and Michigan State were better teams than Alabama. It doesn't matter, there was only one undefeated and untied team in the nation in 1966. Alabama was the defending National Champion, started the season #1, and never faltered. Since the origins of preseason polling, no team has ever started #1, finished the season undefeated, and not been named the National Champion, except Alabama in 1966. After reading The Missing Ring you still won't know which team was best, but you will know which team deserved the 1966 National Championship. Dunnavant's well-researched and excellent book will appeal to all serious fans of college football, not just Alabama fans.