Feature Story

By Trudy Helmsing

Lagniappe staff

The Iron Bowl.

It’s a rivalry that has lasted over a century, one that, from the start, has been marked by disagreements so intense that after a few years it had to be stopped for close to 40 years. It’s a rivalry that breaks up friendships, ruins relationships and takes over lives every fall.

It’s been ranked as the second biggest rivalry in sports by Sports Illustrated, just behind the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry, making it the biggest college football rivalry in the nation.

It’s more than just a game that happens one day out of the year. It’s a lifestyle.

Dr. James Barrett and Dr. Martin Lester have been celebrating that rivalry for close to four decades now.

This year will be the 39th straight Alabama-Auburn game Lester and Barrett have bet on. It started out years ago when Lester first moved to Mobile. The two were constantly arguing with one another over who had the better team. After placing a few bets, they decided to make it into a more formal dinner that would become a yearly tradition.

The week before the game, they go out to dinner to place their bets. The loser pays off by buying dinner the next year at whatever restaurant the winner chooses.

Although a good deal has changed in the 38 years they’ve been doing it, the dinner has kept the same basic format.

“We start out arguing about who’s good and who’s not. Then we compare each, player for player,” Lester explained.

After that, the two will go over the great games of the past. Lester, the Auburn fan of the two, says his favorite is 1972’s famous “Punt, ‘Bama, Punt” game, which Auburn won 17-16. Barrett remembers 1985’s Van Tiffin field goal that won the game for Alabama as the clock expired.

After they reminisce over great wins from their favorite teams, Barrett and Lester try to predict what will happen in this year’s game.

“We do all the what-ifs, what we think’s going to happen,” Lester said. “We just give our unprofessional, completely biased opinion.”

The dinner ends with the two picking the score. However, the only thing they are actually betting on is which team will win the game. In the 38 years they have been doing this, Alabama has won 20 times and Auburn 18.

“I’ll catch him in a year or two,” Lester said. “He doesn’t like to hear that.”

When the two first started getting together to place their bets, the night was considerably rowdier than it is now.

“When we were younger, we would make a big night out of it, going out afterwards to the bars,” Lester said. Now, they have to do it early and at a place where they will be able to hear each other.

Over the years, they have eaten at probably 30 different restaurants, Lester estimated.

“Many of the restaurants that we ate at over the years are closed now,” he said.

Some of their favorite places to go are Ruth’s Chris and Felix’s. Lately, like this year, they have been going to The Captain’s Table because they can sit in the back and it isn’t too loud or crowded to hear.

Although the two meet every year to argue for their teams, they have only actually been to one Alabama-Auburn game together, in 1993, in which Auburn won.

Barrett, who is now retired, goes to every Alabama game, traveling all over the Southeast to see his team play.

“He wears a red hat, red shirt and red tennis shoes to every game,” Lester said, adding, “He’s a supporter of anything Alabama has. He doesn’t care if they’re good, bad or ugly, he’s on their side. His office was surrounded by pictures of Bear Bryant where most people have pictures of professors.”

Lester mentioned that to this day Barrett still knows the names of every player, along with their heights and weights.

Although the two will always disagree over which team plays a better game, this might be one Iron Bowl rivalry that has actually brought a friendship closer together.

“We both look forward to it every year,” Lester said. “We have a good time.”

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