Alabama's $30,000 crystal championship trophy shattered

(CBS/AP) April is a sports fan's dream. A new baseball season... Stanley Cup playoffs... NBA postseason chases... Shattered championship trophies?

That's right. It happened again. The crystal football Alabama won for beating LSU in the BCS championship game in January was shattered on A-Day when it was accidentally knocked off a display by the father of a current player.

Athletic department spokesman Jeff Purinton said the Waterford Crystal trophy, valued at $30,000, was on display in the Mal Moore Athletic Facility as part of the festivities for the Crimson Tide's spring football game Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He says the man stumbled on a rug that was under the trophy display.

Purinton said the school is working with the American Football Coaches Association, which owns the trophy, on getting a replacement.

The mishap comes exactly one year after another trophy shattering nightmare. Last April, during a victory parade, Real Madrid dropped the Copa del Rey trophy, which was then crushed under the wheels of a parade bus.

Amazingly, Alabama's trophy fumble is not the first of its kind in the SEC. Florida's 2006 trophy was destroyed when it was accidentally knocked off a pedestal by a recruit in 2008. In 2004, Florida State had two trophies stolen.

"In 2009 and again this season, Alabama did a great job showing the trophy off to fans even after we turned it over to them," said Charley Green, manager of the coaches' trophy. "Unfortunately it is fragile, and accidents can happen.

Green said the trophy makes appearances for several weeks before it is turned over to the school in mid-January.

"We use a temporary adhesive called museum gel to keep the crystal from falling off its pegs," he said. "We do provide that substance to winning schools, along with a page of assembly instructions. But we have no way of knowing whether the schools use the gel."