When he meets Diana, Ben Blaine is introduced to her as "Ben Blaine of Birmingham. The finest halfback the University of Alabama ever had." In fact, actor Johnny Mack Brown had previously been a halfback for the University of Alabama's 1926 national championship football team. At the 1926 Rose Bowl, Brown had earned the Most Valuable Player award by scoring 2 of Alabama's 3 touchdowns in an upset win over the University of Washington. (When the movie was released in 1928, Brown's status as a college football star would have been familiar to movie audiences.)
A huge hit for MGM. The film cost only $178,000 and took in $1.1M at the box office, over six times its production costs, not including publicity and distribution. When these are taken into account, MGM made a profit of $304,000 ($5.28M in 2019) according to studio records.