Classic SEC Football: LSU Tops Auburn in the Earthquake Game

Every Friday, The SEC Blog will feature one classic game from the storied history of SEC football.

LSU and Auburn always seem to provide classic games that live up to—and often exceed—monumental pre-game hype.  Their matchup in Baton Rouge on Oct. 8, 1988 was one of those games.

Auburn entered the matchup 4-0 and ranked No. 4, while a desperate LSU team sputtered out of the gate with a 2-2 record, and was coming off of back-to-back losses to Ohio State and Florida.

Auburn kicked a fourth quarter field goal to hold a precarious 6-0 lead, but on fourth-and-10 with 1:47 left to play, LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson hit tight end Eddie Fuller over the middle for the touchdown, which capped off LSU's dramatic 7-6 win.  

The roar of the crowd at Tigers stadium was so loud that it registered as an earthquake on a seismograph at the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex on LSU's campus. 

Earthquake or coincidence?

The veracity of those claims are still up for debate.  Could a football stadium full of people really make the Earth move?  Tiger Stadium only held 79,431 fans at the time, so you'd think that if it were possible for fans to make the Earth move it would have happened again.

Science aside, the on-the-field ramifications of the game were huge.  LSU and Auburn finished the season tied for the SEC title, so without the win, it would have been Auburn's outright. 

Whether it's a matter of science or just urban legend, the 1988 battle between Auburn and LSU will go down as one of the top games in SEC history.  It will forever be known as "The Earthquake Game."

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