100 YEARS OF CRAMTON: Thursday's Lanier-Stanhope Elmore game commemorates Poets' first game against Marbury

Cramton Bowl first hosted a high school game on Oct. 6, 1922 when Lanier played Marbury. (Contributed)

By TIM GAYLE

Thursday’s football game between Sidney Lanier and Stanhope Elmore will mark the 100th anniversary of the first high school game played at Cramton Bowl.

The Poets opened play in the stadium on Sept. 30, 1922 against the University of Alabama’s freshman football team, but the school’s first high school game -- and the first game in Cramton Bowl involving two high school teams -- happened a week later, on Oct. 6, when Lanier played host to Marbury.

The Bulldogs were the latest in a string of high school football programs that cropped up in the southern half of the state in the 1910s, including several teams that would find their way onto both program’s football schedules in 1922: Andalusia, Dallas County, Montgomery County, Monroe County and Chilton County, just to name a few. Marbury coach J. Cooper Green brought his Bulldogs to Cramton Bowl in early October and they would face one of the best that season in Lanier, coached by R.C. “Red” Brown. Brown’s team had allowed 21 points to the talented Alabama freshmen a week earlier, but would not allow another point the remainder of the season, including a 13-0 win over Marbury that was reported by the Montgomery Advertiser: 

“On a muddy field that seriously handicapped the speed of the players, Sidney Lanier High School’s gridders defeated Coach Green’s Marbury High school team Friday afternoon at Cramton Bowl, 13 to 0. Jimmy Gregg, captain of the Poets, escorted the ball across the line for both Lanier touchdowns. He kicked goal after the first, but his mud-spattered right foot disappointed him on the next attempt.

It was the initial battle of the Poets on their interscholastic schedule. They proved to be a plucky aggregation, in spite of the fact that the game necessarily was slow to some degree on account of the unfavorable weather conditions. Marbury, too, introduced a scrappy eleven that fought with unshrinking spirit.”

The 13 points scored by Gregg represented the most scored against the Bulldogs throughout much of 1922, only surpassed by a 21-0 loss to Simpson in the season finale. The Bulldogs shut out five of the seven opponents during a stretch that included the loss to Lanier and a tie with Montgomery County.

Perhaps more impressively was the Bulldogs’ ability to cross the goal line against the Poets in the third quarter, a play which was negated by penalty. It was the only “points” scored against the Lanier defense in a 10-game span that included powerhouses Bessemer and Walker as well as a game against Troy State.

“Marbury was deprived of a touchdown in the third quarter because of an offside penalty. Bob Lewis, left half, eluded his Lanier opponents and plodded down the field for a distance of sixty five yards to the Poet’s goal line. It seemed once that his capture by Brunson was inevitable. However, when a sudden evasive effort succeeded, he continued on his way unmolested. But it was in vain. The ball was returned to the point where it had been seized by Lewis -- and then five yards farther toward the Marbury line. After that the Marbury boys never threatened to any serious extent, though they battled with all the vim they could muster and withstood the repeated successive attacks of the Poets until the game was history.”

Converting the multi-purpose Cramton Bowl from baseball to football in early September, city leaders had no idea their facility would not only play host to Alabama and Auburn for college football games, but would be the host site for one of the state’s top high schools in its first year.

The Poets would fend off one of their biggest challenges in the first-ever meeting between Lanier and Marbury in Cramton Bowl, scoring twice in the first half to subdue the Bulldogs.  

“Lanier was unable to score after the first half. A touchdown was recorded in the first quarter, when Gregg forced a path through the opposition’s line a few minutes after the locals had seized the ball after a punt by Marbury in an effort to get out of the danger zone. He kicked goal. This ended the point-getting until the next quarter.

“Gains against the Marbury line by Estes, a forward pass from Estes to Brunson for twelve yards and short gains by Jernigan and Sawyer placed the ball in striking distance in the second quarter. Gregg took advantage of the situation and dashed around the right end of the visitors’ wall of defense for the second touchdown. He failed to add the extra point. There was no more scoring during the fray.”

The 1922 season represented one of the best of the decade for Marbury, who wouldn’t field another team of that caliber until 1929. For Lanier, however, the 1920s was a decade of exceptional play. The Poets only allowed three touchdowns in a 10-game span in 1923, including a scoreless tie with Auburn University’s freshman team to open the season. From 1926 through 1929, the Poets only lost two games in a 43-game span.

And while Lanier played all of its home games at Cramton Bowl, other high school teams in the city would later call Cramton Bowl their home stadium. Cloverdale High, initially located outside the city limits, would later call the facility home, playing the first night game in the South in 1927 against Pike Road. Loretto (later Catholic) would play games in the stadium, starting in their inaugural year (1945) and continuing until they built their on-campus facility in the mid-1970s.

Robert E. Lee (1955) and Jefferson Davis (1968) would join the list of schools calling Cramton Bowl home, as did G.W. Carver when schools were integrated in 1970. Park Crossing joined the list in 2014 when the new east Montgomery school opened.