5 things you might not know about Alabama’s Tennessee victory cigar tradition

As soon as the outcome of Saturday’s Alabama-Tennessee game in Knoxville is secured, players and fans from the winning side will begin lighting up their victory cigars.

It’s a tradition that goes back more than 60 years in the “Third Saturday in October” rivalry, first begun by Crimson Tide players and coaches and later adopted by fans. At some point along the line, the Volunteers and their faithful started to break out victory cigars after beating Alabama as well.

As Crimson Tide fans, players and coaches get ready for what might be another chance to “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” on Saturday, here are five things you might not have known about Alabama’s victory cigar tradition against Tennessee:

1. It didn’t start with Tennessee, but vs. another SEC foe

Though it is most closely associated with the “Third Saturday in October” rivalry, the first documented case of victory cigars for Alabama actually took place against Mississippi State in 1958. Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first Crimson Tide team lost to Tennessee on Oct. 18 to fall to 1-2-1, but won the next week at Mississippi State, 9-7. It was Bryant’s first SEC win as Alabama head coach. According to Tom Stoddard’s 1996 book “Turnaround,” in the locker room after the game, Bryant asked manager Bert Jones “where are those boxes?” Jones unpacked the team’s travel trunk to find several boxes loaded with cigars and cigarettes and passed them out to all the Crimson Tide players, even those who didn’t smoke. One player, Walter Sansing, reportedly got “sick as a dog.” The photo above appeared in The Corolla (Alabama’s student-published yearbook) in 1959, with the players apparently hiding their smokes from the cameras. In the early years of Bryant’s tenure, Crimson Tide players would also occasionally smoke victory cigars after other big wins, such as Georgia Tech.

2. A trusted Paul Bryant lieutenant made it an annual ritual

There is no Alabama-Tennessee victory cigar tradition without Jim Goostree, the Crimson Tide’s trainer under Bryant from 1958-82 and later an associate athletics director. Goostree was a Tennessee native and UT graduate, but loved nothing more than beating his alma mater when working for the Crimson Tide. As documented over the years and beautifully retold by Alex Scarborough for ESPN in 2020, Goostree made a bet with Alabama players heading into the 1961 game: Beat Tennessee for the first time since 1954, and he’d dance naked in the locker room. Alabama won 34-3, and Goostree made good on his bet, and did so while smoking a cigar. As Ray Holliman wrote for the Associated Press after the game, “… the Crimson Tiders held a modified victory celebration. Most lit up king-sized cigars, and all whooped, sang and made merry.” A 63-years-and-counting ritual was born. Goostree’s son, Jim Tom, told Scarborough that his father carried several boxes of cigars in his suitcase for every Tennessee game for the remainder of his life.

3. Cigar smoke made Bryant a little queasy

Bryant was well-known as a cigarette smoker, as there are dozens of photos of him over the years — even some on the sideline during games — with a Chesterfield cigarette in his hand or pressed between his lips. It was a habit he’d picked up as a young coach while traveling with older coaches who smoked cigars. As Bryant told The Associated Press’ Herschel Nissenson in 1980, cigar smoke made him feel physically ill. “There was no air conditioning in those days, and with the car windows rolled up those cigars would make me sick,” Bryant said. “I couldn’t smoke them so I started smoking cigarettes to protect myself from the odor of those cigars.” Bryant also said taking up smoking was the “most stupid thing I ever did.” He also mentioned cigar smoke’s effects on him after a 1964 victory over Georgia Tech, when he told reporters (including the Birmingham Post-Herald’s Bill Lumpkin Jr.) “you gentlemen will have to excuse me if I get sick. I’m not used to these.” According to Brad Green of the Paul W. Bryant Museum, photos of Bryant smoking a cigar are so rare, the museum doesn’t have one in its collection. Here’s one published in 2015 by The Crimson White, Alabama’s student newspaper.

4. Distributing victory cigars is technically an NCAA violation

Handing out cigars to student-athletes technically violates NCAA rules against extra benefits, though it’s unclear how hard college sports’ governing body has worked to enforce the rule in years past. And now in the age of NIL, it seems unlikely anyone will go down hard over passing out smokes. According to a report last year by AL.com’s Nick Alvarez, Alabama has not listed Tennessee victory cigars among the NCAA secondary violations it has released publicly in the last five years. But around 25 years ago, there was some consternation the NCAA might start cracking down on the tradition. Then-Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville received an official letter of reprimand from the NCAA after smoking a victory cigar (and passing some out to players) after the Tigers beat LSU in Baton Rouge in 1999. Former Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer apparently got spooked to the point that he put a stop to victory cigars (at least in front of cameras) in the early 2000s, when the Volunteers were on a run of consecutive victories in the series. However, it’s never been entirely clear if it’s an NCAA violation to receive a victory cigar if you don’t light it (or don’t keep it afterward, or if you pay for it). Compounding the issue is that nearly all college campus buildings (including football stadiums) are now smoke-free environments, where it’s illegal to light up. At least as far as the Alabama-Tennessee game goes, however, NCAA, SEC and local authorities seem content to look the other way at victory cigars. Just don’t try to light up in the stands at, say, the Georgia-Kentucky game.

5. Nick Saban claims he never smoked one

Bryant wasn’t the only legendary Alabama coach who didn’t like cigars. Nick Saban — whose team beat Tennessee 16 times in 17 years — revealed publicly last year that while he was often seen with a victory cigar in his hand or mouth after wins over the Volunteers during his Crimson Tide tenure, he never actually lit it. “I guess it’s fun when you get the opportunity to smoke a cigar,” Saban said prior to the 2023 Alabama-Tennessee game. “I don’t smoke, so I just kind of chew on one for a little bit. I think games like this that have sort of special innuendos that go with them, it’s probably good for the players. It’s probably good for the players’ relationships with each other to do things like that. I don’t think there’s anything bad about it.” True to his word, Saban took an unlit cigar from CBS sideline reporter Jenny Dell and put it in his mouth after the Crimson Tide’s 34-20 comeback win over the Volunteers last October. It probably should surprise no one that the notoriously regimented Saban — who famously told GQ magazine in 2013 that he has eaten the same breakfast and lunch every day for decades and said in 2023 he hasn’t had a taste of alcohol in years — would not waver from his no-smoking policy under any circumstances, even after a big win over Tennessee.

Special thanks to Brad Green of the Paul W. Bryant Museum for research and photo assistance.