Meet the terrible Mr. Wu and Sherlock, Alabama 1926 Rose Bowl starters
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This story is one in a series looking back 100 years at Alabama football’s first national championship, captured with a victory over Washington in the Jan. 1, 1926, Rose Bowl. It marked the beginning of a century of championship success.
Alabama football was not the Rose Bowl committee’s first choice.
No matter that the Crimson Tide had scored 276 points in nine games. Or that the Alabama defense allowed one touchdown. Or that Johnny Mack Brown and Pooley Hubert ignited conversation about a Crimson Tide outside of the South.
The Rose Bowl committee wanted Dartmouth. Or Yale. Or Illinois. Alabama was the “team from Tusca-loser,” as humorist Will Rogers termed it. It was the team Washington would “blow back across the country,” one sports writer wrote, according to the Alabama Public Television documentary “Roses of Crimson.”
But those who faced Alabama during the 1925 season knew what the Huskies were facing.
“Coaches whose teams have met defeat at the hands of Alabama this season are almost unanimous in the opinion that the Crimson will emerge the victor over the Purple and Gold of Washington,” the Rose Bowl program stated.
“Alabama comes to Pasadena today, probably, better prepared than any eastern invader in many years.”
Alabama finished its 1925 campaign with a 20-19 win against the Huskies, one that put the Crimson Tide on the map and has ripple effects 100 years later.
Meet the starters from Alabama’s first national championship-winning team from a time when players played both offense and defense:
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Hoyt Winslett, No. 15
- End
- Dadeville, Alabama
Hoyt Winslett later developed a persona for the Crimson Tide.
In 1925, Winslett was not yet the “terrible ‘Mr. Wu,'” the left end who terrorized opposing halfbacks and was a unanimous selection for the All-Southern mythical eleven. He was not yet “the most valuable player in Dixie,” per the Ogden Standard-Examiner in 1926, while he did make “life miserable” for “speed merchants on tries around end,” per the Birmingham Post-Herald in Alabama’s 1925 win against Sewanee.
In 1925, the converted reserve halfback and Alabama baseball star was described as the “Beau Bummel of the field,” with the school yearbook Corolla incorrectly spelling, yet referencing the English “dandy” who was famous for his friendship with King George IV and became a leader of men’s fashion at the beginning of the 1800s.
Winslett never lost a game at Alabama. He was a part of three Southern Conference championships and two national titles.
Winslett later was named as Alabama’s first and the South’s first Associated Press All-American. He is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Joseph “Pete” Camp, No. 3
- Tackle
- Manchester, Alabama
Throughout 1925, Joseph “Pete” Camp was the “biggest most consistent tackle in Dixie. He was one of the most reliable slices of ‘Wallace Wade’s forward wall,’ while seldom a flashy performer,'” per the Birmingham Post-Herald.
But that consistency, that reliability, very nearly did not show up in the Rose Bowl against Washington.
Camp sprained his knee against Florida, which kept him out of Alabama’s Thanksgiving Day win against Georgia. As the Crimson Tide practiced ahead of its bout with the Huskies, Camp, the “husky tackle” still showed a limp.
The tackle from Walker County did not start the Rose Bowl. But when Wade needed him in the second half, Camp stepped up.
“Western critics gave the Alabama line credit for winning the game,” the Birmingham News wrote. “Pete Camp played one of his best games, going into the game right after Washington’s second touchdown. After Camp’s entry little ground was gained over his side of the line.”
William E. Buckler, No. 9
- Guard, kicker
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
“Minnesota by birth, Alabamian by adoption.”
William “Bill” Buckler quickly became a fan favorite originally from Minneapolis, but who listed his hometown as Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in the Rose Bowl program.
Nicknamed “Buck,” Buckler was an All-Southern guard and second-team All-American, kickoff specialist and kicker who missed two extra points all season as “an accurate footer of field goals,” per the Birmingham News.
“Bill Buckler’s highly trained tie and his ripping, tearing line work mark him as the first choice on All-Southern elevens,” the Nashville Tennessean wrote.
Buckler later played six seasons for the Chicago Bears and was a two-time NFL champion.
Gordon “Sherlock” Holmes, No. 28
- Center
- Springville, Alabama
Going into the Rose Bowl, Gordon “Sherlock” Holmes was limited. He was held off the practice field with a “slightly injured hand,” per the Los Angeles Times. While Bruce Jones snapped, reports were that Holmes would play, which he did.
But that is just one injury Holmes had in 1925.
Holmes, the 19-year-old center who was filling the hole Shorty Probst left, became an Alabama legend against Georgia Tech when he broke his ankle early in the Crimson Tide’s 7-0 win, “kept his injury … secret,” per the Ogden Standard-Examiner, and played the enter game.
Ahead of Alabama’s trip to the 1927 Rose Bowl a year later against Stanford, Holmes was left behind with “chronic appendicitis,” but later traveled separately out to Pasadena.
Holmes finished his career with two national championships and three Southern Conference championships. He was named to the All-Southern team in 1926.
Before the 1926 season, Holmes was listed as the “only married man on the team.”
Bruce Jones, No. 20
- Guard
- Jasper, Alabama
The “best guard in the south.” The captain of the “greatest team in the world.” The 1925 Corolla did not hold back when describing Bruce Jones.
The main “sobriquet” for Jones? “Man-killer”
Jones was “one of the outstanding linesmen in the Southern Conference,” per the Rose Bowl program, one who “is a valuable man at opening holes in opposing lines when on the offensive.”
Jones was not supposed to be captain of the 1925 team, but was elected right before the 1925 season started.
The Walker County native lived up to the billing as “a stone wall on defense” who “helped Pooley (Hubert) wonderfully in breaking up the line smashes coming through the center of the line,” per the Montgomery Advertiser.
Jones played six NFL seasons for the Green Bay Packers, Newark Tornadoes and Brooklyn Dodgers football team.
Claude “Cupe” Perry, No. 27
- Guard
- Goodsprings, Alabama
Ahead of the 1927 Rose Bowl against Stanford, Claude “Cupe” Perry was viewed as a Rose Bowl veteran. He arrived as “one of the fastest men on the team,” “a dealer of misery to opposing backs” and one of the best tackles “in Dixie,” per The Ogden Standard-Examiner.
Ahead of the 1926 Rose Bowl against Washington, Perry was described in the Corolla as “a regular, a mainstay” and “well liked” after opening the season as a reserve looking for a starting spot.
He was later named to the 1926 All-Southern team.
Perry later played nine seasons for the Green Bay Packers along with Alabama teammate “Goofy” Bowdoin.
Tolbert “Red” Brown, No. 31
- End
- Dothan, Alabama
Someone described as “one of the gamiest players the game has ever known,” Tolbert “Red” Brown earned his first letter for Alabama in 1925, playing on the same roster as his brother Johnny Mack Brown.
“Red” Brown and his brother were on full display for Alabama’s 34-0 win against Florida in Montgomery. The closest game to the pair’s hometown of Dothan, fans from the town had “an entire section of seats.”
“They will let the world know that these two football stars are from the Queen and Wiregress and will have huge banners setting forth that fact,” The Dothan Eagle wrote.
In 1926, “Red” Brown moved to halfback and helped the team with punting duties.
Allison T.S. “Pooley” Hubert, No. 10
- Quarterback, defensive back,
- Meridian, Mississippi
Allison T.S. Hubert, better known as “Pooley,” was widely regarded as Alabama’s first football star.
Once a 20-year-old freshman for the Crimson Tide who initially had a football scholarship to Princeton, he was known as “Papa Pooley” in 1924 as Alabama’s senior quarterback described as a “crafty field general (and) veteran leader” by the Corolla.
“The lion at bay would be as nothing compared to ‘Pooley’ turned loose against an opponent,” the Corolla continued.
Hubert’s All-American and All-Southern reputation traveled out West, with numerous outlets calling the Alabama senior “the best in the West,” while the Crimson Tide called the senior its “greatest General in her history.”
“(The) crashing leader for a crashing football team,” the New York Times wrote.
Johnny Mack Brown, No. 17
- Running back
- Dothan, Alabama
No player took advantage of Alabama’s first Rose Bowl than Johnny Mack Brown.
“Tall, good looking and topped with dark, wavy hair, Johnny Mack parlayed two spectacular touchdowns in the Rose Bowl into a Hollywood career,” Allen Barra wrote in “The Last Coach.”
Brown, an All-Southern award winner and “one of the fleetest and quickest backs ever to trod California sod,” per the Los Angeles Times, caught two touchdown passes against Washington in Pasadena, a game where celebrities in attendance “bowled over in their seats” while watching the Alabama back.
“It is futile to attempt to describe the wonderful record of Brown,” the Birmingham News wrote. “He has the reputation of being the flashiest back in the South today. That just about sums up his record.”
After Brown’s Alabama career, he appeared in more than 150 movies, many of which were Westerns.
Grant Gillis, No. 8
- Quarterback, punter, running back
- Grove Hill, Alabama
Grant Gillis did a bit of everything for Alabama football in 1925.
He worked as a punter with a “toe that has helped Alabama in so many tight places,” the Birmingham News wrote. It’s the only position he could play after spending the entirety of 1922 healing a broken leg.
But it was his arm that made him an Alabama legend, finding Johnny Mack Brown on a 59-yard pass to help secure the Crimson Tide’s Rose Bowl win against Washington.
Also lettering in basketball, Gillis’ path was as an All-Southern Award-winning shortstop. He eventually played professional baseball for both the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox.
Emile “Red” Barnes, No. 2
- Halfback
- Grove Hill, Alabama
The “underrated” half back with “an impish grin,” Emile “Red” Barnes was named captain of the 1926 Alabama Crimson Tide, one described as “very fast, very calm and very steady” and “one of the best line smashers in Dixie.”
During the 1925 season, the Crimson White student newspaper gave Barnes the nickname “Lovely,” while applauding him as “a big part of the nucleus around which the 1926 Tide will be built.”
In 1926, Barnes was listed as a quarterback while handling punting duties. He led the Crimson Tide to another Rose Bowl berth despite being “troubled all season by bad legs.”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Meet Alabama football 1926 Rose Bowl starters
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