Memorial Coliseum

October 23, 1976

Formerly known as the Chicago Transit Authority, the popular brass rock band was booked to be the centerpiece of entertainment for the week of Homecoming events at the University of Alabama. With a new album, Chicago X, released about six months before the Tuscaloosa concert, the band was rolling on the charts and on tour to support the fresh music. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Album of the Year (it eventually won a Grammy for Best Album Package), the so-called “chocolate album” featured vocalist Peter Cetera’s hit, “If You Leave Me Now,” the group’s first number one song. Less than two years after the concert in Tuscaloosa, guitarist Terry Kath, an integral member of the band since its early years, was found dead from an unintentional gunshot wound. The band had once considered him its “bandleader,” and best soloist. Wearing his trademark Chicago Blackhawks hockey jersey, Kath was on fire during the show, wailing away on his Fender Telecaster. There was no supporting band for the concert, as the crowd enjoyed the Saturday night show after the Crimson Tide football team’s 24-3 non-conference win over the University of Louisville Cardinals earlier in the day at Bryant-Denny Stadium.