Unfortunately, I cannot leave work early on Thursday. Frankly, I fly from New York to Spartanburg and arrive around noon. Then I have to go to my office and fill out some reports and get ready for employee meetings which will begin on Friday. I also have two employees who want to talk with me about their “situations”…. (translated means their recent disciplinary actions taken against them for poor attendance). Such is the life for a Human Resources person. Therefore, I cannot spend the mid-afternoon hours before my television on Thursday.
However, for those of you who can, CSS is replaying the 1990 Peach Bowl. I remember the game well, and I remember how I got tickets for Dad and me. There was a food bank drive being held outside Fulton County Stadium, and if you brought in 10 non-perishable canned goods, you would get two tickets to the Peach Bowl. Such was the demand for Peach Bowl Tickets back in 1990.
Auburn came into the game a respectable 7-3-1, but had lost its last game to arch-rival Alabama. The Tigers limped off Legion Field, having been downed 16-7, and had spent a month licking their wounds. Most prognosticators had predicted that Auburn should win the game big. But most prognosticators hadn’t figured in the weather, mixed with a pretty good Hoosier football team.
Our seats were so low down that we couldn’t see (but what should we have expected…after all, we were in the “green pea donor” section. It was cold and wet, with low hanging clouds and fog hovering all around. I’m not sure anyone on the field ever really saw a kickoff or a punt….it was more like a ball falling from the clouds. Mark Murphy, the editor of “Inside The Auburn Tigers” summed up the day as well as anyone I have ever heard or read: “it was just plain miserable.” We moved and sat in another area of the stadium in hopes of being able to see and stay a little bit dry.
Auburn sloshed around on the infield that day, bogging down much like the dirt bikes and tractor pulls did when they also used old Fulton County Stadium. Running back Alex Smith for Auburn even made the statement that he thought he had found some of the dirt bike ruts when he was trying to cut and run.
Auburn appeared to be in good shape on that day, leading 20-10 with just 11:34 left to play. But Indiana had other thoughts. Coach Bill Mallory’s club wouldn’t give up. With 6:32 left to play, sophomore quarterback Trent Green scored his second touchdown of the day, cutting the Auburn lead to 20-16. The two point conversion failed. And then, with 2:27 left, Green scored again and Indiana led for the first time, 23-20.
Because this was during the days before overtime, if Auburn wanted to win, it would have to score a touchdown. Auburn’s freshman quarterback Stan White did some quick math and came up with the answer. “We had two minutes and three time outs,” White said. “I said in the huddle, ‘Look guys, this is it. This is what it’s all about. We’ve got 80 yards to go and two minutes to do it in.” White ran the Auburn two-minute drill to perfection, scoring on a one-yard bootleg run with 39 seconds to go. Auburn had 440 yards of total offense that day, and Auburn won the Peach Bowl 27-23 over Indiana.
Few of us realized on that day that the next time we would see the Auburn Tigers in a bowl game would be a full 5 years later, when Auburn played Penn State in the Outback Bowl. You can watch the replay of the 1990 Peach Bowl Thursday afternoon, 4:00 p.m., on CSS.
War Eagle!!
WJLaneSR
2 comments:
I was at that game also, it was in fact my very first Auburn game. My aunt and uncle took me, I was 10 yrs old and it was right before we started getting season tickets. Thats where my love affair started and here I am 15 yrs later and still a season tic holder. Although I never attended AU I love it to the depths of my soul. WAR DAMN EAGLE
I don't remember the peach bowl, probably because I was 5; however, I do have not so fun memories of the Outback bowl. I believe it involved tornado warnings and the stomach virus. Not a good combination.
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