This^^^ The vast majority of their fan base is comprised of dumbass bandwagoneers who rolled with the Tahd back when they were dominating the State. They wuz winners so every Bubba and Bobbie Jean got crimpsum t-shirts for their birthday and authentic Tahd jerseys on Christmas and other really special occasions.
If you really want to get to the bottom of it you have to look even deeper. Their "power" is rooted in redneck racism. I've had this particular rant before but it needs to be reinforced.
At the time the "Alabama mystique" was created, this state was at the epicenter of a racial revolution. GCW standing in the door to prevent a race riot, the march on Selma, fire hoses, lunch counters, attack dogs.
Every red blooded, redneck, colored-fearing, whitebread racist looked around and saw their entire world shifting dramatically. It was a sea change, the likes of which the world has never really known.
And there was granite-faced, gravelly voiced, Moses of the Masses Barh By God Bryant and his horde of white boys. He won. Nothin' but a winner. And he did it without all them colored on the field, too. He took his white boys and defied the nation by winning. And they flocked to him like the mind-numb sheep they are.
Don't let the revisionist history fool you. Bryant was no "racial innovator" as I've heard in the last few years. He absolutely didn't want them on his team and fought to keep it from happening until he simply couldn't avoid it. Bu the time Bryant first grudgingly accepted Wilbur Jackson, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt already had integrated their teams. ** Ole Miss and LSU were the last, a year after UAT.
The pervasive Alabama allegiance is the lasting remnant of the old KKK society that existed in the shadows among the less educated.
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