MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s 13-3 loss to LSU on Sept. 27, 1958, in Mobile is full of historical markers. It was coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first game in charge of the Crimson Tide, and one that flashed promise for a rebuilding program. For visiting LSU, it was an early step toward an undefeated season and national title.

Yet the most prominent memory of that night, especially for longtime Mobilians, is of the stands collapsing at Ladd Stadium.

A section of wooden bleachers in the north end zone, softened by recent heavy rains, crumpled late in the first quarter under the weight of about 1,500 fans. More than 70 were injured, though miraculously none were in critical condition.

A front-page story in the next day’s Press-Register reported that the stands “collapsed like an accordion.” A “series of popping noises similar to small arms fire” was followed by “a loud hollow sound as the supporting braces completely gave way.”

The fence separating the bleachers from the field was toppled by fans in the front rows rushing from the falling planks.

“You knew what was going to happen,” victim Elizabeth Armand of New Orleans said at the time. “But you didn’t know whether you’d end up under the pile, on top, or where.”

The game was halted for at least five minutes. Players took a knee and watched fans being pulled from the wreckage and carted away in ambulances.

“It scared us all, let me tell you,” said Bobby Jackson, Alabama’s quarterback and former local standout at Murphy High. “Coach Bryant was not very happy, but he didn’t get real mad. He stayed in there with us, and we looked a lot better than we could have looked.”

Once the game resumed, Alabama carried a surprise 3-0 lead into intermission before a deeper, more talented LSU team bowed up with two touchdown drives in the second half. The second score was a 12-yard run by Billy Cannon, who won the Heisman Trophy the following season.

Nevertheless, it was a needed solid effort for a Tide team that would finish 5-4-1 and lay the groundwork for a return to national prominence.

“Here we were leading the eventual national champions 3-0 at the half,” said former Alabama fullback Gary O’Steen of Anniston. “A few things could have gone right and we might have won the ballgame. It was an eye-opener for us.”

Alabama’s five wins were more than the three previous years combined.

Heading into 1958, it was a particularly tough time to be a Tide fan, and perhaps an even tougher time to be a player. Fresh off the three-year failure of J.B. “Ears” Whitworth, Bryant was hired from Texas A&M; as a popular solution.

Players had heard of Junction, Texas. They knew of Bryant’s hard-nosed reputation, and could confirm it during a brutal offseason that chased off many of the team’s veterans and resulted in only 35 remaining on the travel roster.

“A lot of the famous, best-known players quit,” said Tom Stoddard, who wrote the acclaimed book “Turnaround,” which chronicled Bryant’s first year. “The ones who stayed were tough kids.”

O’Steen remembers a two-a-days schedule consisting of three- or four-hour morning sessions and 2 p.m. afternoon workouts that would continue through sundown. He also remembers going to sleep and waking to find roommates not there the next morning.

Bryant told the team he didn’t care if only 11 players stuck around.

“He really didn’t care whether you left or not,” O’Steen said. “I know some of the guys that actually left wished they had stayed now. But at the time, when it’s hard to breathe and you’re so tired you can’t stand up, it’s hard to rationalize whether you want to do it or not.”

After such an offseason, the LSU game was a reward to those who had made it onto Bryant’s first Alabama squad.

The beginning was hardly auspicious. Duff Morrison was to kick off for the Tide but essentially whiffed. The ball trickled to a nearby LSU player.

“It went only about 11 yards,” Stoddard said, “and everybody thought Bear Bryant had tried an onside kick, and how courageous and brilliant that was.”

Alabama’s defense held the mighty Tigers in check for one half, but no more. Of LSU’s 182 rushing yards, 141 came after intermission.

Bryant applauded his team’s effort.

“They were better than we were. They really were,” Jackson said. “They were well-trained, so it wasn’t embarrassing to us to get beat by somebody like that. We tried our best with them.”

Despite the collapse of the bleachers, the Tide played in Mobile eight times in the next 10 years, playing either Tulane or Southern Miss. Alabama has not returned to Ladd Stadium since 1968.