UTC and Alabama will face off in football Saturday for only the 11th time in history and the first since 1994.

However, the two schools still have a strong connection, at least regarding their former coaches.

In fact, although longtime Moc coach A.C. “Scrappy” Moore played at Georgia, and Chattanooga and Tennessee used to face off yearly in the middle part of the 20th century, an argument could be made that Alabama is the Southeastern Conference school with which UTC has the strongest historic tie.

This is primarily because Frank Thomas and Red Drew became head coaches at Alabama after serving in the same positions at the then-University of Chattanooga.

Also, Bill “Brother” Oliver was a top assistant at Alabama before and after he served as head coach of the Mocs from 1980-83. And Mike DuBose, the Alabama head coach from 1997-2000, was an assistant at UTC from 1980-81.

The strong Alabama connection started with Coach Thomas. A former player at Notre Dame, he served as head coach of UTC from 1925-28 and led the Mocs to much success.

He left to become an assistant at Georgia before serving as the successful head coach of Alabama from 1931-46. Among his players were a couple of ends named Don Hutson and Paul “Bear” Bryant.

While still at Chattanooga, Coach Thomas had lured Birmingham-Southern head coach Harold “Red” Drew to be his assistant before the 1928 season. Originally from Maine and considered more outgoing than Coach Thomas, Coach Drew became head coach of the Mocs when Coach Thomas left the next year.

He served as head coach of the Mocs only from 1929-30 before joining Coach Thomas’ staff at Alabama as an assistant. He went on to become head coach at Ole Miss in 1946 and was the head coach of Alabama from 1947-54.

Although his teams were competitive, Coach Drew did not enjoy quite the national success that Coach Thomas had.

Coach Drew actually continued as the Alabama track coach until 1965.

Hired to replace Coach Drew at Chattanooga beginning in 1931 was assistant “Scrappy” Moore, who would serve as head coach until 1967.

Coach Moore would also become a good friend of another Alabama coach – “Bear” Bryant.

In the 10 previous times that the Mocs and Alabama have met dating back to 1908, the Mocs have never won. Also, in contrast to some of the games Chattanooga formerly played against Tennessee and Georgia, none of the games against the Crimson Tide has ever been played in Chattanooga.

The Mocs lost the 1908 game, 23-6, in Tuscaloosa, and then lost again, 63-0, in 1914, also in Tuscaloosa, and 46-0 in 1929. The Alabama coach the latter year was Wallace Wade.

Coach Thomas’ Alabama teams faced Chattanooga only once, in 1931, when Alabama won 39-0 in Tuscaloosa.

Coach Drew scheduled games against Coach Moore’s teams three times – in 1950, 1952 and 1953. After a 27-0 loss in Birmingham in 1950 and a 42-28 loss in Tuscaloosa in 1952, the Mocs had their best game of the series in 1953, losing 21-14 in Tuscaloosa.

In the 1952 game, a good Alabama team had gone ahead 42-7, but Chattanooga cut the deficit greatly and was helped by a long touchdown pass from the great Moc quarterback Hal Ledyard to former interim Baylor headmaster Jack Stanford on a tackle eligible play.

In the 1953 game, Alabama had a quarterback by the name of Bart Starr. That game was only one week after the Mocs had played Louisville and another future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback named Johnny Unitas.

The Alabama-Chattanooga connection also impacted Tennessee. Because the Crimson Tide and Chattanooga ran similar Notre Dame-style offenses for a number of years, the Vols would conveniently schedule Chattanooga the week before Alabama every year, legend states.

The 1959 game, a 13-0 Alabama win, was the only time Coaches Moore and Bryant squared off against each other.

The two teams would not play again until 1991 – a 53-7 Alabama win – and 1994, when the Crimson Tide won 42-13.

Both were played at Legion Field in Birmingham while Gene Stallings was the Crimson Tide coach.

The coaches of the Mocs were Buddy Nix in 1991 and Buddy Green in 1994.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net