Cramton bowl is on Madison Avenue, and long past its glory, but it did have its era. It was built in 1922, and officially seats 25,000 or so. Both API (Auburn) and Alabama played here up until the late 1930s, and API continued to schedule non-conference games here until the late 1940s. The stadium has been the site of many glorious high school football games as Lanier, Lee and J.D. each in turn went through powerhouse decades.  However, it is most noteworthy as the site of Montgomery’s renowned Blue & Gray Football Classic. That all-star game was played every December from 1938 until 2001, and Montgomery’s shabby face was displayed on TV for the world to see during the last part of that era. During the early years a big dance was held for the players at the City Auditorium, and local Southern Belles would attend as dance partners.  . . And in those early years no one could tell how shabby the stadium looked from the radio broadcast.

Today Cramton Bowl is the home site of the Alabama State Hornets and the Faulkner Eagles, but Alabama State now has its on-campus stadium. Meanwhile, City Fathers are rushing plans to upgrade and maybe save the venerable old facility. The top picture shows the Bowl’s quaint main gate, and below that  is a view of the West stands and its tiny, walk-up, press box.

The printed program is from a game Auburn played there in 1947 . . . only a week after I had enrolled at Auburn.

-Charles Humphries