22 unexpected places fans got a ‘Roll Tide’
While “Roll Tide” are two words we hear regularly — maybe even daily — in Alabama, we don’t expect to hear them when we’re elsewhere in the world.
Turns out though, we probably should.
This is Alabama recently asked the followers on it’s Facebook page, “Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever heard Roll Tide?” and the responses were all over the map. From New York City and Montana to as far as China, Scotland and Israel, it seems fans of the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide are everywhere.
You can check out 22 of the replies below, and you can read all of them on the This is Alabama Facebook page.
Where’s the strangest place you’ve heard ‘Roll Tide’?
“When I worked in New York City and would see someone with an Alabama hat or shirt on the street or in the subway, I would wait until they were just past me and then yell, ‘Roll Tide.’ It’s New York City, so I am walking fast, but most of the time I would hear a ‘Roll Tide’ echo back. It was the best and made me remember home!” — Stephanie Berry Sklut
“I said Roll Tide to a Sooner standing in line for the restroom in Cuba, New Mexico. And to a Tennessee fan at the coffee machine in a pecan store in Oklahoma!” — Jo Anne Corbin Martinez
“Isle of Skye, Scotland. I was having breakfast and a lady walked by and said, ‘Roll Tide!’ Also in Scotland, in Edinburgh, I walked in a shop and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was playing.” — Lorri Sandlin McNutt
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Alabama and Michigan football fans enjoy pregame festivities ahead of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben Flanagan
“In Paris at the Olympics! I had a pair of Alabama shorts on!” — Mary Ann Wilson Croom
“In a hospital in Italy. My son broke his leg and had surgery in the ancient papal palace city of Viterbo, an hour north of Rome. The nurses did not speak English, but one male nurse came into the room laughing and playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on his phone and saying ‘Roll Tide’ in the sweetest English I ever heard!” — Beth Cowan Drake
“I was attending my step daughter’s graduation from Auburn University and heard ‘Roll Tide’ as we walked in.” — Mark Lewis
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Bama fans cheered on the Tide in another SEC showdown at home against Mississippi State on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018.
“Heard Roll Tide from a Native American on the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the Western rim of the Grand Canyon. When he found out we were from Alabama, he gave us a big ole’ ‘Roll Tide!’ Made our day!” — Kristy Mitchell
“I stopped at a gas station somewhere in a small Montana town. All I had that indicated Alabama was my car tag. A young boy was walking across the parking lot and shouted, ‘Roll Tide.’” — Neoma Garrison
“I get at least one ‘Roll Tide’ on every Navy carrier I travel to because of my hat.” — Andy Grooms
“I heard, ‘Roll Tide,’ when I went on vacation in London, that was strange. I also heard it several times in Seattle.” — Beth Thomasson

An Alabama shaker does its job as the team arrives home. Alabama fans greet the Crimson Tide men’s basketball team at the Tuscaloosa National Airport after they advanced to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament on Sunday, March 31, 2024. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben Flanagan
“Athens, Greece! I had my Alabama visor on while touring the old city and an American guy across the street shouted ‘Roll Tide’ to me. Of course, I shouted ‘Roll Tide’ back.” — Lorraine Reed
“My husband had a job interview and the guy opened with ‘Roll Tide.’ My husband stood up and said he didn’t need to be around that kind of language. He got the job and eight years later, he’s still there.” — Melody Cavarzan-Searcy
“At the MGM Grand in Las Vegas some twenty years ago, I was wearing a golf shirt with an Alabama logo. When exiting an elevator, I walked into the presence of former Alabama basketball player, Keith Askins and Derrick McKey. Askins, upon noticing my shirt, smiled broadly and then greeted us with a ‘Roll Tide!’” — Paul Conn
“Someone in California (who was from Hawaii) found out I was from Alabama and yelled it across a bar. Roll Tide!” — Shelley Bowles
Bama fans cheered on the Tide in another SEC showdown at home against Mississippi State on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018.
“At my beloved Alabama-loving sister’s graveside service, when everyone thought it was all over, I had to offer her one more. I said, ‘OK everyone — Roll Tide Roll!’ I had to do that for her, and I hope the same is done for me someday.” — Dollie Pruitt Brown
“Heard a ‘Roll Tide’ on a street in Yokosuka, Japan!” — Haley White
“While having a lower back epidural, the surgeon yelled, ‘War Eagle!’ His nurse yelled, ‘Roll Tide!’ I went to sleep.” — Steve Headley
“When we were in Israel a number of years back, there was a shop in the old city of Jerusalem that was nothing but the University of Alabama items.” — Yvonne Kelley Wint

Alabama football fans cheer from the Bryant-Denny Stadium stands in 2023. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)
“I was wearing an Auburn shirt in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. Some guy thought it appropriate to break the silence by yelling ‘Roll Tide!’ at me.” — Michael Kvicala
“We were in Israel and drove through Samaria for lunch one day. We ate a restaurant where the owner had a son attending the University of Alabama. The whole place was decorated with Alabama stuff!” — Amy Lee Tate
“On a river cruise in Budapest, Hungary! We were the only southerners on the ship, and every time I entered a public area, someone would yell, ‘Roll Tide.’ They loved my accent.” — Linda C. Bohannon
“I heard a hearty ‘Roll Tide!’ in Chiang Mai, Thailand.” — Mike Miller