OT: Bart Starr Suffered Brutal Hazing at Alabama

I blame Saban

I wonder how many other players at other schools caught similar beatings and took it to their graves because that is what "being a good team mate" meant. There is a fierce sense of loyalty that seems to overcome logic and self-preservation and it’s a fucking shame it was exploited like this.

 

Also bama is still the fucking worst

institutional control??

Seems like the stupidest thing ever to hurt your team like that.

The beating was so bad Bama claimed a National Title for it

The comments... Read them in awe. "This story accomplishes nothing." Wow.

This type of thing was rampant, of course, but I don't think too many other schools' fans would side with fiction vs a great alumnus.

I read that last night and found it to be very disturbing. I've personally never experienced extreme hazing, but I can't imagine anyone subjecting themselves to that. Very bizarre.

While that sounds like pretty bad hazing, I expected something worse. I assumed they had crammed something up his Bart Starrfish at some point...

 

This also brought something else to mind... Maybe they aren't racist in Alabama after all. Maybe they're just assholes?

always with the paddling.

/nttawwt (the gay, not the beating)

Hard to believe. Alabama in the 1950's was a very peaceful and welcoming place.

1950s Alabamians: all around good people. Exemplars of Southern Hospitality and moral righteousness. Good lord I'm glad I was born decades later. And also not in Alabama.

In junior high the 7th graders had white practice jerseys and the 8th graders wore red. If a marshmallow got water before an 8th grader he'd get pulled back because "red before white!"

I've never understood hazing. I've always thought it wasn't just stupid, but inherently wrong, and potentially dangerous. I'd never wish to belong to any group that requires it. For football they said they were gonna hold me down and shave my head, after seeing one player Payton Manning'd a teammate already, I said fuck you I'll blow your knees out if you try.

But I am so glad we've moved past this level of retardation in society.  How the hell this sort of shit was ever accepted is beyond me.  Anybody who thinks this is or ever was OK should really get some counseling.

So by beating one of the best QBs in the country because he, what, married his wife and she wasn't at Alabama, the school lost a bunch of games they probably shouldn't and apparently severely injured a famous alum.  What stupidity.

it's not like it was university-sanctioned and it seems like most people had no idea about it. It's also nothing to do with it being Bama or the South in the 1950s.

Fraternal men's organizations have had initiation rituals since our days as hunter-gatherers. Whether it's the natives of the Amazon wearing arm-length gloves filled with bullet ants, "blood in" beatings in gangs, pube shaving in the NHL, various fraternity rituals, Free Mason initiations, or the Crossing The Line ritual in the Navy..anthropologically it is quite easy to see why it has been done. It's a test of determination (no-one who isn't 100% serious about joining a group would go through such a ritual), toughness and courage. it creates a tight bond between the members as they all went through the same experience unlike outsiders and they can all say they proved their worth by withstanding it.

It wouldn't have been so universally practiced if groups didn't derive some value from it. At the same time I'm glad that I never was hazed myself.

I am sure we would be surprised to know what happens inside every school. I don't think this was endemic to Alabama. I think quite a few fans remember the first season Bear Bryant spent with the Aggies. Some of those activities would be considered cruel in today's standard.