Alabama’s latest championship trophy shattered into pieces Saturday following a major fumble.
After the Crimson Tide’s annual A-Day scrimmage, a player’s father stumbled on a rug beneath the trophy, knocking the $30,000 crystal award off its display in the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, ESPN reported.
“In 2009 and again this season, Alabama did a great job showing the trophy off to fans,” Charley Green, manager of the coaches’ trophy, told the Associated Press. “Unfortunately it is fragile.”
Mel Pulliam, the spokesman of the American Football Coaches Association, told Bloomberg News that they would work with University of Alabama to put a new one in place as soon as possible.
Alabama won the handmade Waterford Crystal trophy for its 21-0 victory over LSU in the Bowl Championship Series title game this January. Since 1986, AFCA awards a new trophy each year to the winning school.
It’s not the first trophy mishap in history: The former Georgia tight end Orson Charles accidentally shattered Florida’s 2008 trophy during a recruiting visit. In 2004, Florida State had two trophies stolen, according to CBS News.
Al.com reports that the trophy had been displayed across the state throughout the off-season. On Saturday, hundreds of Alabama fans posed next to it it broke into thousands of pieces.
But the accident could have been prevented. “We use a temporary adhesive called museum gel to keep the crystal from falling off its pegs, Green said. “But we have no way of knowing whether schools use the gel.”
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