Car tag celebrates BCS championship victories

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A mini-poster of a car tag celebrating the state’s four straight national collegiate football championships will be available Thursday at tourism offices and welcome centers, Alabama tourism director Lee Sentell said.

The 17- by 8-inch enlargement of the Sweet Home Alabama license plate bears the personalization “4NAROW” with decals in the four corners indicating by color which years the Crimson Tide won titles and the year that the Auburn Tigers won. Three red squares have the dates 2012, 2011 and 2009 reversed in white to represent the years the Tide won. The fourth square that is orange and blue for Auburn has the date 2010 in white. The design is similar to expiration decals on plates issued by the Alabama Department of Revenue.

“The four championships are a great source of pride for our entire state. Like Gov. Robert Bentley says, the victories have united us all,” Sentell said.

WSFA 12 News graphics designer John Shryock created the poster last week while watching Alabama’s blowout victory over Notre Dame. Tourism department art director Tommy Cauthen got permission to adapt it and fashioned the date decals.

Cauthen said several fans on Facebook and Twitter correctly pointed out that the original line of “4INAROW” could be misread as “41 in a row” so the text was shortened by dropping the capital Ietter I.

The poster contains elements of the state’s official car tag that has been in use for five years. The tourism department originally created the Gulf Coast beach design for the 2009 tag with the phrase Sweet Home Alabama.

On the back side of the poster, a 1,000-word description of a Bowl Championship Series “road trip” directs fans to the Paul Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa and the Auburn University Arena, where the trophies are displayed, and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham which honors many of the state’s outstanding athletes.

The American Football Coaches Association gave permission through their licensing agent, John Lisk of Championship Licensing, to use images of the eight-pound Waterford crystal footballs which sit atop the Coaches’ Trophy, that symbolizes the national collegiate football championship, said Sentell. “The Waterford crystal Coaches’ Trophy is so conic. The ones on display in Tuscaloosa and Auburn are probably the most photographed images in each museum.”

Posters are free at local tourism offices that are members of the Alabama Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus. Posters can be picked up in Anniston, Athens, Auburn, Bessemer, Birmingham, Daphne, Decatur, Dothan, Eufaula, Florence, Foley, Fort Payne, Gadsden, Guntersville, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Orange Beach, Scottsboro, Selma, Tuscaloosa, Tuscumbia, and Wetumpka.