On this day in 1996 my lovely wife of 3 years I were getting ready to celebrate her 30th birthday. I had reserved an event facility in Powder Springs for the event, invited about 40 people, and had her convinced that it was only going to be me and her for dinner. One of her friends picked her up just before the Auburn game started to spend the afternoon at a spa and she thought she would be dropped off at the restaurant where I would meet her after the game.
As is my wont on football Saturday's I tuned in the game and settled in. About halfway through the second quarter Auburn was on its way to a route and I decided to do some last second prep for the evenings soiree, keeping an ear out for the game with my good friend Larry Munson.
UGA scored just before the half and I thought that's nice, at least it wont be as bad a route as it looked,,,,and continued prepping for the party.
The third quarter came and went and was mostly uneventful. I was sitting at our 2 ton desk top computer (486 DX II....nothing but the best for us.....that thing cost about $3000K LOL) writing a toast I planned to make at the party when Mike Bobo hit Hines Ward on a 60+ yard TD pass cutting Auburns lead to 7. I was, to say the least, torn between finishing my speech and returning to the game, but like the trooper I am I continued on the speech all the while listening keenly to Munson.
When Auburn failed to make a first down with about a minute left in the game and decided to punt I finished that speech in a hurry and returned to the TV with Munson in the background....back in the day there wasn't a time delay so you could do that.
Auburn sacked Bobo and it looked time would expire...but for some fool reason, and Auburn being Auburn, an Auburn player snatched the ball up and ran toward the Auburn sideline.....as the clock expired....but wait....the officials gather in a huddle....what are they talking about????
They retrieve the ball, place it on the Auburn 30 and ask that one second be put back on the clock!!! UGA lines up, Munson is doing what Munson did and bemoaning the fact that there was no way to score a TD with one second on the clock....but Mike Bobo didn't know any better and danged if he didn't hit Corey Allen for a TD at the goal line setting up the PAT and tying the game...sending it into the first OT game in the SEC.
Most of us didn't even know how OT worked....but we found out it was an excruciating experience. By the time UGA and Auburn had both scored in OT I forgot about my wife, her birthday, the speech.....nothing else mattered. This was before cell phones, at least for people like us, and when the land line started ringing I ignored it....anyone who knew me knew where I was at the moment and not even several deaths in the family would take precedent over what was transpiring on the plains of Auburn.
Auburn and UGA swapped TDs 3 times.....49 -49, all tied up, going into what was at the time the longest OT game in CFB history. UGA scores first in the 4th OT and Auburn gets the ball....I am worn slap out, like I had played 6 quarters of the game myself....Auburn throws 2 incompletions and then picks up 7 running the ball setting up 4th and three....
both teams call a TO...
Munson bemoans the fact that it has to be Sunday morning at that point making me think "I was supposed to be somewhere this evening".....
and then UGA stops Auburn just short of the line to make!!!
For a split second I don't think anyone knew what this meant...then it dawns on me and Munson at about the same time with Munson screaming “We have stopped them. We have won this thing in overtime. I can’t believe we’ve won it, and that we’ve won it in this fashion.”
I was in complete agreement with Munson. I was beside myself...then I noticed a piece of paper lying under the printer. Uhoh....my speech! I suddenly remembered....I am an hour and a half late to the love of my life's 30th birthday and 40 friends and family members are about a 45 minute drive away celebrating, and no doubt cussing me soundly, at that very moment!
I jump in a suit, grab the speech, and tear off toward Powder Springs making a 45 minute drive in 30 if it was a second.
My second best friend is standing outside the restaurant when I pull up....I just know I am about to get a serious whupping from him and then three or four family members and finally my wife...he asks "where the heck (of course much stronger language) have you been....we've been waiting 2 hours" to which I reply "Georgia just beat Auburn in 4 OTs" to which he replied "I know, we watched it on the TV IN THE EVENT ROOM AT THE RESTAURANT". It never dawned on me that there would be such a thing.
I walk in the room and the first thing my lovely wife and best friend in the world says is "HOW BOUT THEM DAWGS!!!!". Not once nor any time since has she ever said anything other than she knew good and well where I was and that I'd be there as soon as the game was over. 25 years and not one word about me missing half of her 30th birthday celebration over a football game. Everyone there told me she had said, as they watched the game, "he won't be here until this is over" and they all agreed that she simply accepted that fact as an undeniable truth and would have been disappointed in me had I shown up before the game was completely over. I knew then and there that 2 things were true in this world....there wasn't a better person in the world for me to share life with and I married way better than she did. GO DAWGS!!!!
As is my wont on football Saturday's I tuned in the game and settled in. About halfway through the second quarter Auburn was on its way to a route and I decided to do some last second prep for the evenings soiree, keeping an ear out for the game with my good friend Larry Munson.
UGA scored just before the half and I thought that's nice, at least it wont be as bad a route as it looked,,,,and continued prepping for the party.
The third quarter came and went and was mostly uneventful. I was sitting at our 2 ton desk top computer (486 DX II....nothing but the best for us.....that thing cost about $3000K LOL) writing a toast I planned to make at the party when Mike Bobo hit Hines Ward on a 60+ yard TD pass cutting Auburns lead to 7. I was, to say the least, torn between finishing my speech and returning to the game, but like the trooper I am I continued on the speech all the while listening keenly to Munson.
When Auburn failed to make a first down with about a minute left in the game and decided to punt I finished that speech in a hurry and returned to the TV with Munson in the background....back in the day there wasn't a time delay so you could do that.
Auburn sacked Bobo and it looked time would expire...but for some fool reason, and Auburn being Auburn, an Auburn player snatched the ball up and ran toward the Auburn sideline.....as the clock expired....but wait....the officials gather in a huddle....what are they talking about????
They retrieve the ball, place it on the Auburn 30 and ask that one second be put back on the clock!!! UGA lines up, Munson is doing what Munson did and bemoaning the fact that there was no way to score a TD with one second on the clock....but Mike Bobo didn't know any better and danged if he didn't hit Corey Allen for a TD at the goal line setting up the PAT and tying the game...sending it into the first OT game in the SEC.
Most of us didn't even know how OT worked....but we found out it was an excruciating experience. By the time UGA and Auburn had both scored in OT I forgot about my wife, her birthday, the speech.....nothing else mattered. This was before cell phones, at least for people like us, and when the land line started ringing I ignored it....anyone who knew me knew where I was at the moment and not even several deaths in the family would take precedent over what was transpiring on the plains of Auburn.
Auburn and UGA swapped TDs 3 times.....49 -49, all tied up, going into what was at the time the longest OT game in CFB history. UGA scores first in the 4th OT and Auburn gets the ball....I am worn slap out, like I had played 6 quarters of the game myself....Auburn throws 2 incompletions and then picks up 7 running the ball setting up 4th and three....
both teams call a TO...
Munson bemoans the fact that it has to be Sunday morning at that point making me think "I was supposed to be somewhere this evening".....
and then UGA stops Auburn just short of the line to make!!!
For a split second I don't think anyone knew what this meant...then it dawns on me and Munson at about the same time with Munson screaming “We have stopped them. We have won this thing in overtime. I can’t believe we’ve won it, and that we’ve won it in this fashion.”
I was in complete agreement with Munson. I was beside myself...then I noticed a piece of paper lying under the printer. Uhoh....my speech! I suddenly remembered....I am an hour and a half late to the love of my life's 30th birthday and 40 friends and family members are about a 45 minute drive away celebrating, and no doubt cussing me soundly, at that very moment!
I jump in a suit, grab the speech, and tear off toward Powder Springs making a 45 minute drive in 30 if it was a second.
My second best friend is standing outside the restaurant when I pull up....I just know I am about to get a serious whupping from him and then three or four family members and finally my wife...he asks "where the heck (of course much stronger language) have you been....we've been waiting 2 hours" to which I reply "Georgia just beat Auburn in 4 OTs" to which he replied "I know, we watched it on the TV IN THE EVENT ROOM AT THE RESTAURANT". It never dawned on me that there would be such a thing.
I walk in the room and the first thing my lovely wife and best friend in the world says is "HOW BOUT THEM DAWGS!!!!". Not once nor any time since has she ever said anything other than she knew good and well where I was and that I'd be there as soon as the game was over. 25 years and not one word about me missing half of her 30th birthday celebration over a football game. Everyone there told me she had said, as they watched the game, "he won't be here until this is over" and they all agreed that she simply accepted that fact as an undeniable truth and would have been disappointed in me had I shown up before the game was completely over. I knew then and there that 2 things were true in this world....there wasn't a better person in the world for me to share life with and I married way better than she did. GO DAWGS!!!!
