On November 18, 1901, the Universityof Alabama and the Universityof Tennessee first locked horns on a football field. At the contest's end, the score was tied, nothing had been resolved, and about two thousand fans were on the field at Tuscaloosa, fighting.
Since that day the Tennessee-Alabama game has developed into one of the premier football rivalries in the nation. To many of the faithful, it is much more than a game — it is a crusade. The intensity with which these games have been waged makes victory as satisfying as the warm crimson and orange leaves that dance in Knoxville's cool Smoky Mountain breezes. Defeat, however, is more bitter than the choking smoke of Birmingham's steel mills.
Beginning in 1928, the annual game has been played on the third Saturday in October, and the contest has produced enough heroes to fill several books. Third Saturday in October tells the story of each game. From Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Red" Drew, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, and Mike Dubose of Alabama, to Robert Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle, Johnny Majors, and Phil Fulmer of Tennessee, the game has been directed by legendary coaches and played by heroic young men who have risen to greatness on the third Saturday in October.
Third Saturday in October is filled with memories and reflections of players, coaches, reporters, sportscasters, and fans. The people who were there, who made or failed to make the key plays, tell what happened in their own words. More than two hundred historic photographs illustrate the lively text. This second edition contains reports of the games from 1987 through 2000."
