Alabama players make history with win over Notre Dame
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 7
When Eddie Lacy executed a double spin move to give Alabama a four-touchdown halftime lead over the staggering and winded Fighting Irish, Crimson Tide players and fans could sense history in the making. A season that started in Arlington, Texas, ended Monday night with a raucous celebration in Miami Gardens, Fla., and completed Alabama’s maturation from defending national champion to modern-day dynasty. The Crimson Tide turned Sun Life Stadium into its personal playground as it became the first team to win consecutive BCS National Championship Games and its third title in four years with a resounding 42-14 beatdown of Notre Dame. Junior right tackle D.J. Fluker was one of the first players to hug Nick Saban following the traditional Gatorade shower and had no problem describing the Crimson Tide’s incredible run the last four years. “Dynasty!” Fluker proclaimed. “National championships! That’s the best feeling in the world. We worked hard for it all year long. We had our ups and downs, but we came through. We had no doubt. We played this game a thousand times inside our minds.”
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UA students give back on gameday
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Jan. 8
A group of Alabama students took on an unusual pregame activity today. University of Alabama students cleaned up tornado debris as a part of a BCS National Championship service project. Notre Dame and Alabama students in Miami also participated in an urban gardening project. UA students traded their Alabama shakers and cocktails for shovels and wheelbarrows…Each volunteer worked with a different motivation, but a common goal Ben Jeffries said, “To show our championship spirit for the University of Alabama.” Dionne Petty a UA senior said, “The feeling that you get when you know you did something productive and you know you got your hands dirty for someone else’s well being.” About 80 students total chipped in. Forty helped on the west side of Tuscaloosa and the other half volunteered at Bowers Park.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 7
UA students watch the BCS National Championship Game at the Ferguson Center
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 7
And if you can’t be in Miami the only other place to be is in T-town. That’s where our very own Tiffany Westry is right now. And Tiffany, the game’s not over, but the Tide is riding high for sure. I’ve spent much of the night at a student watch party here at the Ferguson Center on UA’s campus. The university provided food, students are watching the game on the big screen and they’ve even had a chance to get their hands on some team gear.
How does Nick Saban stack up against Bear Bryant?
USA Today – Jan. 8
Move over, guy in the houndstooth cap. Now, with another January lit up by a national championship, the state of Alabama asks itself a happy and heavy question. Can Nick Saban stand with Bear Bryant? Once, the very idea of anyone doing that would have been unimaginable. But the championships are starting to stack up, and Monday night’s romp over Notre Dame was a remarkable encore. A tour de Saban. And when it was over … the answer. Yes he can. “He’s close,” linebacker Nico Johnson said. “Another championship …” Did you see Monday night coming? Did the most ardent crimson-wearing zealot in Tuscaloosa? But maybe we all should have. Alabama … Nick Saban … national championship. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. College football has turned into the movie Groundhog Day, and the Crimson Tide’s haul only keeps getting more of a load for history to carry. “It’s hard to win the next one,” Saban said, “because there’s always a feeling of entitlement.”
Fans Can’t Wait For BCS Championship Kickoff
CBS 4 (Miami, Fla.) – Jan. 7
South Florida will be the home to the biggest game in America on Monday night drawing football fans in from across the nation to Sun Life Stadium. RV’s pulled in and students began to line up as soon as the sun came up Monday morning; all to get a shot at purchasing last-minute tickets to attend the Discover BCS National Championship Game. While the game is a novelty for Fighting Irish fans, Crimson Tide supporters are ready for another big game. “This is my third National Championship in my student career at Alabama,” said Sara Cox, a senior at the University of Alabama. With just a few hours to go before the showdown between the two football powerhouses; people are still arriving without tickets hoping to hit the jackpot.
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – Jan. 7
Crimson Tide cheerleaders get in Bama Bash, interviews and more on Day 3 in Miami
Al.com – Jan. 7
The Crimson Tide cheerleaders were up bright and early for a nationals practice at a local gym in Boca Raton. After a great practice, we were allowed to eat lunch and hang out at the beach nearby. It was the first chance we had to really experience Miami so we made sure to live it up by swimming in the waves and laying out in the sun. After the beach, we headed to Sun Life Stadium to put shakers in more than 5,000 seats. Alabama fans are now prepared to cheer along with us all night as we cheer on our guys to victory.
Alabama photographer Chip Cooper’s work on display at Hoover Public Library
Al.com – Jan. 8
The work of Alabama photographer and author Chip Cooper is being featured in January and February at the Hoover Public Library. Cooper, the former director of photography for the University of Alabama for 33 years and now an artist-in-residence at the university’s Honors College and faculty member in the College of Arts & Sciences, also is being honored Thursday at a reception at the library. The reception is 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Friends Gallery on the lower level of the library. The photographs on display at the library are from Cooper’s latest book, “Old Havana: Spirit of the Living City,” which was a collaboration with Cuban photographer Nestor Marti.
Atlanta Fed research explores link between housing equity and wages
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – Jan. 7
New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta explores the relationship between housing equity and wage earnings. In “Housing Wealth and Wage Bargaining,” the authors—Atlanta Fed economist Chris Cunningham and University of Alabama professor of economics Robert R. Reed—found that workers with negative equity command lower wages than those with significant housing wealth. Homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the current value of their homes may try to avoid a so-called “strategic default” for several reasons, including economic factors, emotional ties, or even societal pressures. This aversion to default may help explain a remarkable aspect of the recovery—the 2 percent decline in real wages since the recession ended in June 2009, they write. Cunningham and Reed note that households typically try to stay in their homes unless they suffer an employment shock—such as a lost job. To avoid such a shock, workers with negative equity tend to bargain less vigorously over wages. As a result, being underwater is associated with a 5 percent decline in wages, the authors found.
Techniques for teaching about racism
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (New York) – Jan. 7
Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School, edited by Mica Pollock of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a compilation of articles written by more than 60 scholars who study teachers dealing with race in schools…In another article, Heather Pleasants of the University of Alabama, believes that some teachers, particularly white teachers, will need to go outside their comfort zones to figure out how to relate to their students.