(06-13-2013 10:24 AM)Smaug Wrote: (06-13-2013 10:18 AM)Matrix Wrote: (06-13-2013 07:30 AM)WinOrLoseEAGLE Wrote: (06-11-2013 09:03 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote: (06-11-2013 08:35 AM)Smaug Wrote: UAB will have an on-campus stadium. A few high profile funerals will have to take place first, though.
How old are those that are preventing this from happening? How long realistically will they remain in a position to stop it?
Bear died about 30 years ago and he's still got control of the State of Alabama. His son, Jr., is the current medium for this control. I don't know if Jr. begat a III, but if so the Bear will control Alabama for at least another 30 years into the future.
Very strong likelihood there. They'll put Harvey Updyke on the board if it will serve to keep UAB at bay and "in its' place."
You give them too much credit. They'd put Updyke on the board if it guaranteed them championships in addition to the 6,493 that they already claim.
Who cares that he couldn't spell UAB? He'd never have to.
No. I make it a point to call all of them "bammers," because I know it deeply galls a segment of their base. Harvey Updyke is a bammer: ill-educated, ignorant, often literally unwashed with a fondness for cheap alcohol and crystal meth. Often lives in a trailer, or perhaps aspires to do so.
The other, numerically smaller segment are the Bourbons: descendants, literally or more often culturally, of Alabama's 19th-Century slave-holding power class. Trustee Finis St. John IV, scion of a family of Cullman lawyers, is a prime example. They send their children to UAT not so much for the education, such as it is, but for the real education: membership in The Machine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine
Apprenticeship in The Machine leads to seats in the state legislature, corporate boards and, ultimately, the UA System Board of Trustees. Bourbons often practice law, but usually only as a stepping stone to "public service" or the judiciary.
Bourbons scorn bammers in private; bammers are to be ruled, not joined. To be ******, not married. Bammers are a lower form of primate in the eyes of the Bourbons, to be exploited and occasionally stirred to action when it suits their purposes.
The exercise of power is the enjoyment, and it extends to many areas beyond college sports.
Bryant Junior, said to be the son of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, is not a Bourbon - his father came from a family of Arkansas dirt farmers. He is tolerated by the Bourbon Trustees but he is most definitely not of them. His cash (accumulated initially by leveraging his father's name to open Alabama to dog-track gambling) is welcome, his presence is not. He is the nouveau barbarian trying desperately to buy his way into the club. He has not and will never succeed.