Alabama Crimson Tide fans try to win with class, and lose with class. We are not always successful.

Losing with dignity is our aim, but not always our result. The history of losing with something less than grace can be traced to 1954, when Alabama player Tommy Lewis charged from the sidelines to tackle Rice’s Dicky Moegle. His excuse for the outrageously illegal act has become the stuff of Crimson Tide legend: he was “too full of Bama.”

There have been other instances throughout the years of Alabama fans refusing to win – or lose – with class, but a single (alleged) incident has crystallized in the public consciousness and forever cast a pall on Alabama fandom. For better or worse, all that is bad or wrong about Alabama fandom can be summed up with one word:

Updyke.

We’re not going to go over ol’ Harvey’s transgressions yet again. What we are going to do is be honest with you, and with ourselves.

Updyke has entered the lexicon as the distillation of that sports nut who takes fandom to levels far beyond decorum and sportsmanship, and into the realm of hooliganism. There are obnoxious, rude and classless fans in our fanbase, just as with every other fanbase in every other sport. They deserve our scorn, our indignation and our ridicule. They’re gumps. They’re Bammers. They are Updykes.

But damnit, they’re our Updykes.

While we don’t celebrate their actions (at least not publicly), we are sports fans, and sports fans quantify and analyze; it’s how we keep score, after all. So why not quantify the level of Updykishness of those who give the Crimson Tide a bad name?

And so, with equal levels of chastened shame and infantile glee, we hereby institute the Updyke Championship.

This won’t be a final list; in sports, nothing is ever final. As sure as Alabama will take the field each fall, a new champion will emerge every now and again. Don’t think of this as a trophy, with a winner forever immortalized like a national title. Think of it as a lineal title like the heavyweight championship, with standard bearers rising and falling.

We will add new contenders as they make themselves known through the sports pages and police blotters across the sports world. You the Alabama Fan Nation will decide which contender is the most worthy of this title.

We’re sorry, everyone.

Updyke Championship Current Standings The People That Named Their Kid 'Alleigh Bama' (29%, 190 Votes)

Guys Who Yelled 'Roll Tide' And Punched Zach Mettenberger (45%, 295 Votes)

Guy Who Hung Alabama Flag From Kyle Field (25%, 164 Votes) Total Voters: 649