In 1983, an Auburn University graduate did the impossible. He knocked Bing Crosby--that Bing Crobsy--off the top of the Billboard Christmas music chart.

His name? Elmo Shropshire. His song? "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."



Yes, believe it or not, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Christmas novelty songs edged out "White Christmas"--that "White Christmas"--in terms of radio rotation not just once, but twice in the 1980s, in back-to-back years. In December 1984, it supposedly even outsold "Thriller" for a few weeks. It was just that popular...



... thanks to the Gray Panthers.

Not long after Shropshire, who graduated from Auburn University's School of Veterinary Medicine in 1964, and his then wife Patsy Trigg recorded "Grandma" on a lark in 1979, the pioneering anti-ageism advocacy group targeted the tune as menacing to maw-maws.

The couple received hostile phone calls from Gray Panther members, and were even picketed (with signs asking "what's so funny about a dead grandma?") during a December 1980 concert in San Francisco.

Coupled with heavy MTV exposure, the outrageous outrage over what was obviously, in Shropshire's words, "a good-time fantasy" song, quickly converted "Grandma" into a Christmas classic--and changed Shropshire's life,



Despite its waning radio airplay--it's currently nowhere to be found in Billboard's Holiday 100--the former veterinarian told Auburn Magazine in 2010 that he still earns thousands in annual royalties from the bough-bedecked ballad.

"If it weren't for that song I'd still be worming cats for a living."