Through the years with Selma's memory..........
1981 - this game was moved up to OPEN the season Labor Day weekend on Saturday night. What a lot of you don't realize is what a big deal this was because back then there was no such thing as Saturday night college football. Coincidentally, because Tide fans were expecting us to be undefeated (yeah, same ole same ole) then LSU would have been the 315 game (Bryant entered 1981 with 306 wins). It was scheduled to be played on November 7, 1981. It turned out to be 307 and then we lost a shocker to Ga Tech the next week. We beat LSU, 24-7. It was actually only my second time seeing Alabama on TV (first was 79 Sugar)
1985 - I was bad luck in the 80s, we were something like 6-27 in games I watched on TV. So I listened on the radio. I was screaming at Perkins when we played for the tie and gave the Vols the first SEC title for Johnny Majors
1986 - I think this one hurts the most of them all
I was a senior in HS. We'd lost to Penn State, but we were looking good. A win clinches the Sugar Bowl against Nebraska. We had not yet won our first post-Bryant SEC title. We had a senior heavy team that had been through the fire in 1984. Mike Shula, Van Tiffin, Cornelius Bennett, Derrick Thomas, Albert Belle, Bobby Humphrey.
We beat them in every single statistical category except two: turnovers (2-0) and penalty yardage (both teams had 8 penalties, but we had 24 more yards. Note: back then the DPI penalty was a spot foul; this changed in 1987). Bobby Humphrey fumbled inside the one and had a TD called back on a penalty, and we threw a pick in the end zone. We lost, 14-10, and when we blew the Iron Bowl, we went from the Sugar Bowl on November 8 to the Sun Bowl in just three weeks. But the worst was yet to come.
Anyone who saw the game - and it's on You Tube - knows we knocked them all over the field and we should have won (similar to 2011 but the teams weren't as good). That was bad enough. But the next morning, I go into Sunday School and this LSU fan is there and when I just release a little bit of pressure, he arrogantly dismisses the whole thing with, "Well, we just got even for when we should have won last year" and reiterated variations of it over and over.
I've never wanted to slug another fan so badly after a loss.
Oh......and Tim Brando did the halftime show for ESPN, and he looked just as shamelessly biased then as he does now. (I'm watching his smirk and can tell he's pulling for LSU - I didn't know at the time he was doing LSU's broadcasts, but it was OBVIOUS who he was for).
1988 - we blew a lead typical of Bill Curry
1995 - most vivid memory is of Yitzhak Rabin getting assassinated and the game covering it.
1996 - Shaun running wild; same night as Tyson-Holyfield I
1998 - what a comeback by Andrew Zow and the Pancake Posse
1999 - we got lucky; let's face it, we should have lost and it was a Dubosian victory where we blew a huge lead but won
2000 - at least the guy who ended the streak later came here
2002 - I'd just moved out to prepare for our move to Florida that never happened. Loved the blowout.
2004 - 14 point flip on the not called pass interference
2005 - had a Greek exam that day; I expected us to lose and given we'd have been hosed by the voters, I was glad we did
2007 - about the time I fantasize about us winning, they score and then Wilson fumbles......and it's over
2008 - my boss, an LSU grad, called me to congratulate me on the win
2009 - JULIO!!!
2010 - worked and half tuned it in
2011 - probably the beginning of the end of my marriage; we were close until right about then
2011 (II) - boring as stuff game, but we won!
2012 - I'd just found out we were going to have to move. But what a play to TJ.
2013 - the fake punt and it's over
2014 - when Yeldon fumbled it was one of those rare times in life I figured the game was over; what a comeback
2015 - attended this one; the highlight was the fans finding out Ole Miss had lost (I'd known for several minutes) and they went into a sustained cheer about the time the UPS guy who brought out the game ball was on the video board. I'm sure he thought, "Man, this is fun!"
2016 - too close for comfort
2017 - again I was there in BDS, and my brother warned, "If we don't fix that O-line problem, we're not going to beat Auburn."