Today, Dec. 2, 1999, is the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the day that Auburn ended the Legion Field monopoly on the Iron Bowl, brought The Game to Jordan-Hare Stadium, and defeated #2-ranked and undefeated Alabama, 30-20, in front of (what is still) the largest crowd ever to see a football game in the state of Alabama.

The coming of the game to Auburn was compared, at the time, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, which had happened mere weeks earlier. Only Auburn people truly understood how true this comparison was, at least in social/emotional terms, after years of control of the series, both in wins and in location, by Alabama. At the time, someone said it was "like being freed from bondage," and the move showed that both programs finally stood on an equal footing.

There would be no more excuses by Alabama people that Legion Field was a "neutral site" despite its statue of Bear Bryant outside the gates, its serving as home field for numerous other Alabama home games each season, and its artificial turf.

Prior to the move, Alabama coach Ray Perkins said of Auburn playing its home game in Auburn, "It won't happen." Ten years later, Perkins told a reporter that in hindsight, "It was the right thing to do" to move Auburn's home game to Auburn, and the "fair thing," for both programs. Bear Bryant knew he essentially had a home game against Auburn every year at Legion Field, Perkins said, and he was determined to hold on to it as long as he could get away with it.

The architect of both the move and the win, of course, was Pat Dye. For those two accomplishments, if nothing else, I think, he deserves the lasting gratitude of Auburn people everywhere. Dye called this game "the last brick in our house," and he keeps a brick on his desk with the score engraved on it.

The win gave Auburn a share of its third consecutive SEC Championship (1987-88-89) and was the last game Auburn played during the decade of the 1980s, when Auburn was the SEC Team of the Decade and one of the top teams in the country.

Happy Anniversary of one of the greatest moments in all of college football. Playing the game in Auburn was momentous enough-- but somehow, by gosh, we won the thing, too.

This, in my opinion, deserves a huge, rousing, loud,

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR EAGLE!!!!!!!

--Van Plexico

AU '90, '94