Best of Times, Worst of Times

Charles Dickens wrote a book entitled "A Tale of Two Cities". He opens the book with what has become a classic quote: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”

History calls it “Black Monday”, and these past two weeks we have been reminded of it. You might remember, and maybe were affected, by Monday, October 19, 1987. Black Monday. 21 years ago this week.

It all began in Hong Kong, where the market crashed and sent a Market Tsunami west through the international time zone, through all of Europe, and finally hitting the shores of Manhattan’s Wall Street so that no continent was left untouched. It was the largest one day stock market decline in history.

What you may not remember about Black Monday are these events taking place the weekend before.

On the evening of October 18, two United States warships shelled an Iranian oil platform in the Persian Gulf in response to Iran’s Silkworm missile attack on the U.S. flagged ship MV Sea Isle City, an oil tanker leaving Kuwait. Interesting how oil seemed to be at the center of the issue 21 years ago.

Two days before Black Monday, Jim Fyffe, who was the sportscaster and radio talk-show host for the Auburn Tigers, had perhaps his most famous on-air call. In fact, he wrote in his autobiography that it was the call he was most known for. This call is on every collection of memorable radio calls released by the Auburn Network.

On the day of Jim Fyffe’s death, it is the call that Paul Finebaum played to open his show. It was his memorial to Jim Fyffe.

Auburn was a heavy favorite that day. It was to be the last yearly meeting between two very old rivals. But with 4:01 left in the game, Auburn trailed Georgia Tech at legendary Grant Field by a score of 10-7. Auburn needed to move the ball 91 yards to score. Behind the passing of quarterback Jeff Burger, and 16 plays later, Auburn was at the Yellow Jackets’ 4 yard line. Only 29 seconds were left on the game clock. Here is a quote of the call:

“...they have two tight ends in the game, one setback is Harris, here is motion by Donaldson back to the near side and now reverses his field, goes to the wide side of the field. Burger sets up to throw...OH MY! TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! TILLMAN, TILLMAN, TILLMAN...TILLMAN...AT THE BASELINE OF THE END ZONE! A BULLET BY BURGER! AUBURN GOES AHEAD! UNBELIEVABLE! UNBELIEVABLE! TILLMAN FROM BURGER! TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! 13-10 TIGERS LEAD!”

Of the call, Fyffe said, "Frankly, in listening to the replay of the call through the years, I've never thought it was my best. I probably did go too crazy, but I think the listener could tell what was going on without any problem. No matter what I think about it, Auburn fans still come up to me and tell me it was the best call they've ever heard. And that's what matters." A call he made 21 years ago this week.

Isn’t it strange to remember that this famous call by Jim Fyffe was two days before Black Monday in October 1987? It was indeed the best of times, and it was the worst of times.

War Eagle!

WJLaneSR