Camden native was president of the University of Alabama when its first football team was formed

Richard Channing Jones

Like a lot of college football fans across the country on Saturday, I tuned in to watch the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta. As I watched Nick Saban’s No. 1-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide edge out the Georgia Bulldogs for the SEC title, I couldn’t help but be reminded that a Wilcox County native played a big role in bringing football to the University of Alabama in the 1890s.

Camden native Richard Channing Jones served as president of the University of Alabama from 1890 to 1897, and it was during his tenure as president that the university started its legendary football program. Jones, a former state senator and Confederate general, was in charge of the university in 1892 when law student Bill Little of Livingston began teaching students how to play the relatively new game of football. Jones, who also served as a law professor, was at the helm of the university when Alabama’s first football team was formed a short time later with Eugene B. Beaumont as its first head coach.

Alabama’s first football team only had 19 players on its roster, and on Nov. 11, 1892 – again during Jones’s tenure as university president – Alabama played its first official football game, beating a team of Birmingham-area high school players, 56-0, at Lakeview Park in Birmingham. Alabama’s team at that time was known as the “Cadets,” and during Jones’s presidency at the university, crimson and white were officially adopted as the school’s official colors. The team would later be referred to as the “Crimson White” and the “Thin Red Line” until the more popular “Crimson Tide” nickname took hold in 1907 after it was first used by Birmingham Age-Herald sports editor Hugh Roberts.

In addition to the establishment of its football program, the University of Alabama underwent a number of other big changes under Jones’s leadership. During this time, the university established its track and tennis programs, which still thrive today. Also during this period, Jones opened the university to women, allowing the admission of Anna Byrne Adams and Bessie Parker, who were the university’s first female students.

Jones left the university in 1897 and returned to Camden to practice law. Jones lived out the remainder of his days in Wilcox County and passed away at the age of 62 on Sept. 12, 1903. If you visit the historic Camden Cemetery today, you’ll find Jones’s grave a short walk from the graveyard’s entrance, along the fence that runs down beside Fail Street.

In the end, Alabama’s football program has come a long way since its humble beginnings under Jones in 1892. It would be interesting to know what Jones would think about the football team today and the big games that Alabama plays before thousands of fans under the bright lights of huge stadiums in major cities like Atlanta. With that said, there is no doubt that the game of football will continue to change in the years ahead, and modern football fans are left to wonder what the game will look like years and years from now.