Most famous game you attended

Did you really? That's a lot of big games.

 

Fifth Down.

 

On a serious note, not involving fantasy championships ...
1. FSU-Miami Wide Right I.
2. FSU-Miami Wide Right II.
3. FSU-Florida 31-31 tie in 1994.
4. Tiger's first major at the '97 Masters.
5. Florida-Oklahoma 2008 national championship game.

 

1984. Alcorn State vs. Mississippi Valley at Memorial Stadium in Jackson on a Sunday. Both teams were undefeated and the game was moved from Itta Bena at the behest of Rick Cleveland, who was the SE at the Clarion-Ledger at the time, and mountd a campaign to get it to Jackson. Valley had Willie Totten and Jerry Rice and an early version of the spread offense that was putting up ridiculous numbers. Alcorn had a running back named Perry Qualls (who played a year or two with Philly) and Isaac Holt, who covered Rice like a blanket all afternoon. The coaches were the Gunslinger, Archie Cooley for Valley, one of the most quotable coaches who ever lived, and the Godfather, Marino Casem, who was a defensive visionary at Alcorn (and later at Southern) and a character in his own right. It was, as they say, an e-vent. Had to be 70,000 in the stadium that day, although the official attendance was 63,808, a figure that was made up out of thin air because they had no idea how many tickets were sold. Still the most electric atmosphere I've ever seen at a college football game.

 

Oh shit, I forgot racing. I covered the last wide-ass-open race at a NASCAR superspeedway (the 1987 Winston 500 when Bobby Allison's car went way the hell into the catch fence in the tri-oval). It was the first race I'd ever covered, and as I looked down from the press box and saw those first responders going into the stands, I thought, "Oh, fuck, now I'm covering a catastrophe."

 

I also covered the infamous Tie Dye game in the Sugar Bowl, when Pat Dye settled for a FG and a 16-16 tie with Syracuse. I've always said it was the right decision. Jeff Burger wasn't going to complete a Hail Mary from where they were on the field and the kick was no gimme.

I was also at Royals Stadium the night George Brett hit for the cycle against Baltimore.

 

Hey, were you sitting near me?

 

For @doctorquant: I worked Bowden Bowl V, Tommy's first win the series and unranked Clemson's first in the 12 games since No. 3 Florida State joined the ACC. Fans tore down the goalpost near the student stands. I milled about the campus for a while after filing and encountered the sound of a circular saw after midnight. An orange-overalled kid had his saw plugged into an outlet on the exterior of the library and was cutting an upright into small sections and handing them out one-by-one to a line of students.

 

Maybe. I think I was in the back row of the press box.

I remember that was one of those times where a team "won" a tie game. Syracuse was undefeated and the tie cost them a share of the national championship. I remember asking Burger, "they say a tie is like kissing your sister; so how does your sister look?" He gave me an evil grin and replied, "she looks pretty damn good."

 

Covered the 2000 BCS national championship game in New Orleans, which was Florida State vs. Virginia Tech. Peter Warrick was the MVP, but Michael Vick probably should have been.

I still have the program from that game. There were something like 35 or 40 guys between the two teams who played in the NFL.

 

I don't remember all the details, but that was the fall we moved to Texas, and my wife and I, not entertaining even the thought of Clemson winning, went to a movie. All the ones we were interested in were sold out, though, so we decided to go to a sports bar and watch the slaughter. We got there at halftime and settled in for the collapse we were sure was coming.

Texas was beating the living shit out of Oklahoma State, and everyone other than us in the bar was a Longhorns fan. As the Clemson game unfolded, it became obvious that the two of us were waaaay the hell out of sync with the rest of the bar cheering-wise. Curiosity got the better of this one guy and he came over and chatted us up. Later, he came back over and told us he'd decided that henceforth he would also be a Clemson fan. "All right, so GO .... what's y'all's nickname again?"

 

Bet there were more from the title game the year before (22 from the winning side; not sure about the losers, but since it was FSU . . .).