It’s the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, maybe you’ve heard. Auburn won the first game in 1892. We should have won the game in 1992. We didn’t. Dad and I stood there a long time waiting for the refs to come back out on the field and reimburse us for the miracle they stole, and let us win it. They didn’t. Here’s the video. My feelings are laid bare below. And you can hear how the players felt about it here.
Nineteen seconds. Georgia 14, Auburn 10. Auburn’s about to score the winning touchdown. We’re on their two. There was a fumble, sure, but we recovered. We didn’t have any timeouts. But we did have plenty of time for another play. That is, we would have had time for another play had the damn Georgia players not just sat there, sat there, sat there.
“The clock is running…”
Of course, they were just doing what their coach told them to do. The cameras cut to the Georgia sideline and there’s Ray Goff flapping his arms, signalling the Dawgs to stay down, stay down. But surely you can’t do that. Surely the refs will call an official timeout or stop the clock or do whatever justice dictates so as to unpile everyone and find the ball.
Five seconds. Auburn is lined up. We’re ready. But the Georgia dudes are just kind of hovering over the line of scrimmage like they don’t know what it is or something, and crowding and bumping into the refs, who for some reason can’t seem to bend over and set the ball.
“The clock is running…”
And then the clock stopped running.
Zero seconds.
The announcers were dumbfounded. Stan White went ballistic. My innocence was lost.
The ending to that freaking game so ravaged my 13-year-old sense of fair play that when Dad and I got back to Grandmama’s, I ran into Grandaddy’s study and sat down at his desk and typed out a letter to the NCAA alleging I’d seen money exchanged between Georgia coaches and the refs. Who knows… maybe I did? There’s part of me still out there in those stands, with binoculars, scanning…
I never mailed the letter. But I did put it in an envelope. And I sure did tell people about it.
I told David Housel about it the first time I met him. He laughed. Then he got serious: “Did you really see somebody give somebody money?”
Let’s beat the hell out of Georgia.
Related: Burn The Bulldogs, 1972.
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I’m right there with you Jeremy. I was there, still not over it. I think it was my first UGA game.
I felt EXACTLY the same way at the end of that game! WE WAS ROBBED!!
That was the last home game of my college career. I stood in the student section completely stunned. I will never forget that sick, shredded feeling. I had always enjoyed the Georgia rivalry until that moment when everything changed… I vowed to despise the University of Georgia and everything about it forever. Who knew I’d go on to marry a Dawg and make my home in the very state I would’ve burned to the ground on that night so many years ago. With all of that said…I hope we beat the hell out of Georgia on Saturday until every single fan cries like a baby. No mercy. War Eagle!
I was there, a senior in high school. It was my first in person Auburn-Georgia game and I left Jordan-Hare that afternoon in a fit of heartbroken rage. That the centennial game could end like that!
Outrage!
It wouldn’t get any better as an Auburn student (the streak-ending tie in ’94 and quadruple overtime in ’96). I wouldn’t see Auburn beat the dogs in Jordan-Hare until 2000.
Now I live in Atlanta and hear/see the disrespect for Auburn everyday. I heard the taunts during the 2007 blackout, the butthurt (no other word can more accurately describe it) in 2010 and the dismissal of the rivalry over the last two years.
I am ready for revenge.
Burn, bulldogs! Burn!
I have to say, that was a pretty terrible play call in that situation with no time outs. However, if it was indeed a fumble then the clock should have stopped, and that’s what appears to have happened. Terrible.
I still can’t believe we decided to run a running play with no timeouts….pretty dumb call by our coaches. We must remember that Tuberville did the same thing to thUGA in Athens when they ran a running play (Jasper Sanks maybe?) and failed inside the two yard line.
I was there for that game and was a dumbfounded as everyone that they didn’t call an official timeout to spot the ball.
That day was, without a doubt, one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had after a game. A perfectly nice and innocent Georgia fan asked me for directions back to I-85. I sent him towards Birmingham.
I was there as a UGA sitting with my cousin in the Auburn section. I remember not wanting to give the ball back to Stan White because he had been clutch all year on late drives. The closer Auburn got to the goal line the loader it got. It was incredibly loud on that last play. Then it went deathly quiet and us Dawgs fans started going nuts when the clock had run out. Almost as much fun as the “hoses” game.
I was there! 7 years old.
I feel your pain JD. I can only imagine how bad Stan White wants this victory on Saturday. WDE!!