Dixieland Delight: When did hit song debut at an Alabama football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium?

The most significant moment in the history of “Dixieland Delight” at Bryant-Denny Stadium didn’t happen in 2018.

Sure, that might have been the most enthused and memorable singing of the Alabama football staple. A release of pent-up Tide fandom, if you will. The song had been banned for multiple years because of the explicit add-on lyrics. Then, UA brought it back with a loud “BEAT AUBURN” pumped into the stadium on Oct. 13, 2018, for the homecoming game against Missouri during a fourth quarter timeout. That night shouldn’t go down as the most historic, though.

A different day, years prior, deserves that title — the day “Dixieland Delight” was first played at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The problem is, there’s no official record of it.

There’s no “this date in history” tied to when a song was first played at an Alabama football game. That’s the case with many traditions in college football. Traditions usually start organically.

As a result, figuring out when Bryant-Denny Stadium first encountered “Dixieland Delight” proves difficult.

After phone calls, texts and emails with about a dozen people involved in the music selection, research into newspaper archives and old game footage, here are the findings of our investigation.

‘A sweet, soft, southern thrill’

Let’s start with the cold hard facts and work our way backward.

By 2015, “Dixieland Delight” became such a constant at Bryant-Denny Stadium that most in the stadium knew the add-on lyrics, such as “munch, munch, munch,” “against the wall,” and “F— Auburn, and LSU and Tennessee too.” The cursing became so loud by the 2014 Iron Bowl that Bill Battle, the athletic director at the time, issued a statement saying that the usage of it would be reviewed.

The “and LSU and Tennessee too,” wasn’t noted on video until 2013. Videos from 2012 included fans yelling “F—Auburn” but no other schools.

Video can be easily found on YouTube as far back as Sept. 24, 2011, of “Dixieland Delight” being played at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

That was about a month after Jennifer Martin left UA.

You need to know Martin because from 2005 to 2011 she oversaw plenty of gameday elements, including in-stadium music. Her job, she explained, was not only to get fans to games but also make sure they had a good time.

Music played a role in that. Specifically, the 1983 hit song from the band Alabama.

“Whenever it happened, it wasn’t one of those moments in life where you’re like, ‘this is the moment that I’m making a mark’ or ‘this is it,’” said Martin, who now works in health care in New York. “You have those moments in life but this wasn’t one.”

Martin, upon receiving AL.com’s inquiry, checked in with one of her former student assistants, Justin Slaton. He’s now the director of development for the Culverhouse College of Business. If his memory serves correctly, UA was looking for a song to play in second halves that had some elements of tradition and one the fans could get into. The group wanted to supplement the gameday atmosphere. That would have been about 2007, the year Nick Saban arrived. A few songs came up, including “Dixieland Delight.”

OK, we’ll try it.

“And we did,” said Martin, an LSU graduate. “And people liked it. I think that that was the first time that we played it in the stadium, but I’m going to be honest. I don’t remember doing it … If someone said they did it before me, I would be like, ‘OK. Maybe it was.’”

Alabama football fans cheer from the Bryant-Denny Stadium stands and other sights from the Crimson Tide’s 56-7 win over Middle Tennessee State in Tuscaloosa Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.  Ben Flanagan / AL.com

Martin and her team’s decision to highlight “Dixieland Delight” during games might have fueled it and turned it into the tradition it became today. David Crane, a 1994 UA grad who went on to spend 11 years with Crimson Tide Sports Network before leaving in 2007 to become the voice of UAB, would “almost swear” the song didn’t become a tradition until Saban’s tenure. And maybe so. But all of that information wasn’t enough to close the investigation.

When Martin got the message from AL.com in October, she shared the inquiry with one of her New York coworkers who is an Alabama graduate. He shared what he recalled.

I remember them playing it occasionally before.

He left UA in 2005.

‘Got a little jingle’

Daniel Hopper chuckled sheepishly.

“Yeah that kind of happened during our time,” he said via phone from Rock Hill, South Carolina.

He never heard “and LSU, and Tennessee too” added to “Dixieland Delight,” but the “F— Auburn” part he did.

Hopper worked in marketing at UA until 2007, dating back to 1996, when he was in graduate school. He held Martin’s job as director of marketing and trademark licensing from 1999 until the end of his tenure. Hopper recalled the ad-on lyrics happening more so in the back half of his time at UA. He estimated the new words, profane and otherwise, had evolved by 2004-06.

Bama fans at the 2002 Iron Bowl at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

He didn’t hear those add-on lyrics in the beginning.

“I remember the first time we played it,” Hopper said. “It was kind of the student section. You hear some ‘Roll Tide’ and it’s pretty loud. The next game we play it again and it’s even louder.”

The first couple of times, Hopper recalled they started at the meat of the song, not the beginning.

“That’s when we kind of noticed,” he said, “oh my gosh, this thing might have legs.”

The fans, Hopper said, are the ones who ultimately make the decision for what music works and what doesn’t. And “Dixieland Delight” worked.

The exact dates of all that transpiring gets foggy, though. It comes down to human memories of events from almost 30 years ago.

Hopper recalled playing “Dixieland Delight” starting in 1996. That would track with the first year UA deployed Click Effects, a computer system that provided the ability to play all sorts of music and sound effects in stadiums. That’s when Jeremy Lull, then the director of marketing and trademark licensing and Hopper’s boss, estimated the Crimson Tide added the computer program.

Alabama fans cheer on their team against Louisiana Monroe at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Sep. 6, 2025.  Will McLelland | AL.com

This is where our investigation hits a snag; Lull doesn’t remember playing “Dixieland Delight” during his time at UA.

“And I 100% know it didn’t have all the people screaming to it in all their own words,” said Lull, who’s now in Atlanta. “I would have remembered that.”

Why? His reasoning is simple; He would have heard about it from his boss considering he was there when Rammer Jammer was banned because of the inclusion of the word “hell.”

Lull estimated the chances of “Dixieland Delight” playing during his time were “less than 10%.”

“That’s a guess,” said Lull, an Auburn graduate. “If I’m being honest, I would put more value on what Daniel’s saying, just because he’s connected further out to Jennifer (Martin), and that’s a little closer to the timeline it happened.”

Lull’s last season was 1998, and he left right before the 1999 season. Then Hopper took the top job in the department.

“I know we played it in ‘96,” said Hopper, a Kentucky graduate. “I know we did it then. When did it really catch on? I would say ’97 or ’98. There are three games it would have been: Tennessee, Florida or Auburn.”

Hopper called those games the “big matchups at the time.”

How confident is he that “Dixieland Delight” caught on during one of those games?

“I would almost bet my life it was one of those three,” Hopper said.

Hopper was also certain it would have been a game in Tuscaloosa.

“It almost would have had to have been Bryant-Denny when it happened,” Hopper said. “Legion Field games were nice. You still had the home-field advantage, but you didn’t have … we had just got the jumbotron, the video board, everything. I would have to say it would have been at Bryant-Denny Stadium.”

Using Hopper’s criteria (Florida, Auburn or Tennessee at Bryant-Denny Stadium) during the years he listed (1996-98), only one game would fit.

Florida on Oct. 3, 1998, when Jesse Palmer and coach Steve Spurrier beat Shaun Alexander and coach Mike Dubose 16-10.

“It very well could have been that Florida game then,” Hopper said.

Fans pull out their cell phone lights as the stadium goes dark at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Sep. 6, 2025.  Will McLelland | AL.com

But that conflicts with Lull’s memory. That was his final season with UA.

Let’s say for argument’s sake, it could have been 1999 or 2000. Close enough, even if not directly in the years Hopper listed. He later noted it was “entirely possible” the song could have caught on at a game outside of 1996-98.

Tennessee played in Tuscaloosa in 1999. Auburn played in Tuscaloosa in 2000.

“I guarantee you,” Hopper said, “it was one of those three opponents when it really, really took off and became incredible.”

But was that the beginning of “Dixieland Delight” at Bryant-Denny Stadium?

“If it were before my time you would need to reach out to Wade Howell,” Hopper first messaged in response to the inquiry. “I know we began doing it in 1996, but not sure if it was prevalent before then.”

So, we reached out to Howell.

‘Fits my life, oh so right’

Before Lull worked as director of marketing and licensing trademarks, he interned for Howell.

Howell served as promotions director for UA athletics from 1992-95.

“I don’t remember (’Dixieland Delight’) being played at games,” Howell said.

Howell added that during his time the music was “all band” at football games. Others involved in athletics in the 1990s have backed that up. So “Dixieland Delight” couldn’t have been played before 1996.

“I think Lull and Daniel probably cover from 96-06,” Howell said, “so it had to fall within that time.”

Alabama football fans cheer from the Bryant-Denny Stadium stands and other sights from the Crimson Tide’s 56-7 win over Middle Tennessee State in Tuscaloosa Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.  Ben Flanagan / AL.com

‘Free as a feeling in the wind’

The investigation didn’t give us a concrete answer of date and game, but here’s what we know with a fair amount of certainty:

“Dixieland Delight” wasn’t played at Bryant-Denny Stadium before 1996.It’s possible the song wasn’t played until 1999 at the earliest.The song was played at some point between 1996-2006, but it unequivocally became a tradition during Saban’s tenure.By 2011 at the latest, “Dixieland Delight” became an Alabama gameday staple.The complete list of add-on lyrics as fans know them today didn’t start until 2013.

“Dixieland Delight” will once again blast for thousands of fans at some point during the fourth quarter on Saturday, when No. 6 Alabama faces No. 11 Tennessee at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Maybe like it was played during the game against the Vols in 1999.

Or maybe not.

“That’s what adds to it, to the lore,” Hopper said. “You can’t really pinpoint it. Now here we are 30 years later, and it’s like oh my gosh, this is something that has become so relevant.”

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