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by Tim Gayle (Author)
When Cramton Bowl was completed in 1922, no one had any idea of the unique place it would occupy in sports history. It was originally conceived as a multi-purpose facility that would focus on baseball and served as the spring training home for the Philadelphia A's for two seasons, with many professional teams stopping in for exhibition games, including a rematch of the 1926 World Series between the Yankees and the Cardinals in 1927. As the largest established stadium in the state during those early years, Alabama and Auburn played more than 70 football games in the facility, treating fans to the likes of Paul "Bear" Bryant and Don Hudson. It was home to the first HBCU Classic, the Turkey Day Classic between Alabama State and Tuskegee, and the site of the first night football game in the South (as well as the first night college football game and the second pro baseball game under the lights in the South). For more than 60 years it was home to the Blue-Gray All Star Football Classic where stars such as Y.A. Tittle, Len Dawson, Fran Tarkenton, Howie Long and Jerry Rice roamed the sidelines of Cramton Bowl, but there were plenty of other activities in the stadium during that time, including 'Lucky' Teter's traveling daredevil show in 1934, the Negro League World Series, games involving the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and Billy Graham's Greater Montgomery Crusade in 1965.
