LIFE LIST UPDATE – No. 461: Read “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer”

“Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey Into the Heart of Fan Mania” by Warren St. John is arguably the greatest book ever written about the University of Alabama’s football program and its rabid fan base. Published in August 2004, this 288-page best-seller describes St. John’s adventures as he followed the Alabama football team from game to game in an RV during the 1999 season. St. John met more than a few hardcore, quirky fans during his road trip with the Crimson Tide, and he turns them into the stuff of legend between the covers of this great sports book.

For whatever reason and for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been an Alabama fan, and it kind of irked me that I’d never read this famous book about Alabama football. Everything I’d ever heard about the book indicated that it was great, so I added it to my “life list” last year. A couple of weeks ago, I began reading the book, and I figured that my timing was pretty good given the start of the new football season.

I finished reading “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer” a couple of days ago, and I thought it was great. St. John describes himself as a lifelong Bama fan, although he never attended the University of Alabama, and this two-sided nature of his resume seemed to be just the right mix needed to pen this book. He brought not only respect for Alabama’s football tradition to the table, but he also brought the cool detachment of a Columbia University-trained journalist.

In the spirit of total transparency, I have to admit that even though I’d never read “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer” prior to last week, I had listened to the audiobook version on two previous occasions. For that reason, reading the actual book for the first time made me feel like I was re-reading something I’d already read a couple of times before. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy listening to it on those earlier occasions or reading the book itself for the first time.

Despite the book’s popularity, I did have somewhat of an adventure trying to track down an actual copy of the book. At first, I went to the library in Evergreen, but it turned out that they only had the audiobook version, the exact same one that I’d already listened to at least twice before. When I found out they didn’t have a hardcopy of the book, I drove nearly 30 miles to the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville, where I found a used trade paperback edition of “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer” in the library’s “Alabama Room.”

Before I close this thing out, I also want to mention that this “life list” item is somewhat related to another item on my “life list” that I’d like to scratch off some day – No. 363: Meet Warren St. John. A native of Birmingham, St. John has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Observer and Wired. He’s a living legend among the Alabama newspaper crowd, and I’d love the opportunity to shake the hand of the man who gave us “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.”

In the end, how many of you have read “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Let us know in the comments section below.