[/QUOTE] The neat thing here is that LSU happened to be the first to get a seismograph reading. Clemson will probably try to copy that too, sooner or later.[/QUOTE] Man I really hate those guys.
Again I state, I dislike people who can't argue a point, so they nit-pick how others post. Okay... I'll be correct... Sounds that were so strong that they caused a shake in the surface of the ground.... better?
Darn, won't sleep tonight now that someone dislikes me. Why do you say I can't argue a point? For that matter, why do you think I was trying to argue a point? I was simply puzzled by your comment. Sensitive people getting their feelings hurt is what causes problems on this board.
Here's a great article about that game. And yes, it is absolutely true. I remember it being the night I really became an LSU fan. I was a little kid watching it with my family on t.v. I remember the awesome excitement when he came down in the back of the endzone with that ball. I remember seeing the crowd just go nuts. After that, I was hooked. The excitement was awesome. I can still recall my family and I going outside and throwing the football trying to imitate Eddie Fuller and Tommy Hodson right after the game. And all that bull about any and every college game registering significant readings is bull (as you will see in this article). I think it was close to 80,000 people there that night. I think that people thought a TD for LSU was so unlikely with that AU defense that they just went nuts when it happened on 4th and long. I think that's why it registered. Plus, fans were a little hungrier back then in my opinion. Although, I wish those seismographs were there for Skyler Green's TD against Georgia two years ago. That was nuts. Anyway, here's the article (and if you want to see the reading, type LSU earthquake game in google and check out the first result that pops up and scroll to near the bottom): After 15 Years, LSU-Auburn Game Still An Earthshaking Experience It is the stuff of legend. A packed Tiger Stadium. A physical, defensive game between two Southeastern conference powerhouse football teams. A score of Auburn-6, LSU-0, late in the fourth quarter. With national rankings at stake and a national audience watching on ESPN, LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson threw a touchdown pass to tailback Eddie Fuller on fourth down with 1:47 remaining in the game. The eruption of the crowd registered as an earthquake on the seismograph located in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. Today, Hodson and Fuller say that after 15 years, the 1988 LSU-Auburn game is still an earthshaking experience. In fact, both say the famous play is even bigger now than it was then, since it has taken on a life of its own as part of LSU folklore. “Time Stood Still” Every Tiger fan who was at the earthquake game has some memory of that famous touchdown and the ensuing celebration. There are stories of downed light fixtures in the North Stadium dormitory, which was still open to students at the time; strangers hugging each other in the stands after the touchdown; and the incredible noise of the crowd. But Hodson and Fuller have their own memories of the game, and apparently, fans weren’t the only ones holding their breath on that fourth-down play. Eddie Fuller catches Tommy Hodson’s fourth-down pass in the end zone to tie the score 6-6 with Auburn in 1988 with 1:47 remaining in the game. The crowd’s reaction registered on the seismograph in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. “Time stood still,” Fuller said. “I saw Tommy throw the ball and it looked like a defender might have tipped it. It took forever for the ball to get to me, and it seemed like I almost dropped it because I had waited so long.” “The defender didn’t tip it,” Hodson said with a smile. “But his hands were right there.” Fuller said the famous play wasn’t designed for him to get the ball, but he was glad the pass came to him. “It helped me to atone for the two plays that I didn’t make.” Fuller was referring to the first-down play on that series, when he caught the ball just out of bounds at the back of the end zone, and to the catch he dropped in the end zone on the previous series of downs. “He didn’t drop it,” Hodson clarified. “It was just a really tough ball to catch.” Fuller shook his head and laughed. “I really didn’t think I was going to get the ball back.” Their Reactions to the “Quake” “Initially, I didn’t believe it,” Fuller recalled of first hearing that the crowd noise registered on the seismograph. “I think it took a couple of years for it to sink in. It never dawned on me how big that play was here until years later, when I came back to LSU.” Fuller said he first began to realize how amazing the “earthquake” game was when he saw it featured in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in the early 1990s. “I was going through this Ripley’s museum in Niagara Falls, and I looked up and there it was!” he laughed. Hodson said he remembers opening LSU’s student newspaper, The Reveille, and seeing a photo of the seismograph reading, or seismogram. “The story is even bigger now than when it happened,” Hodson said. “To have my name tied in with that play is an honor. It’s great to be a part of LSU history.” Surprised Fans, Stunned Geologists For years after the game, the seismogram hung in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex for all to see. The largest blot is the touchdown. When LSU fans learned that their reaction registered on a seismograph, they were pleasantly surprised. But LSU geologists were downright stunned. Donald Stevenson, who worked for the Louisiana Geological Survey in 1988 and was in charge of LSU's seismic program, was the first to discover the seismograph reading. He went to the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex the day after the game to change the recording charts in the seismic lab, and he noticed the large signal from Saturday night. When he realized the signal coincided with the touchdown, he labeled the seismogram and posted it in the building for all to see. "I knew it would be of interest to LSU fans after the game. What really amazes me is the interest that seismogram continues to generate so many years later." The seismogram also caught the eye of Riley Milner, research associate with the Louisiana Geological Survey, on Monday morning. "It was a total surprise. We never expected the seismograph to pick up the ground shaking from a football game. It was a solid register of jubilation in the stadium." What Made the Earth Move? One question LSU fans have been debating for the past 15 years is whether it was the crowd noise or the simultaneous jumping up and down of more than 80,000 people that registered on the seismograph. According to LSU geology professor Jeffrey Nunn, it was probably the jumping that did it. “A seismograph measures ground motion, so the jumping up and down would be more likely,” Nunn said. “A cheering crowd would cause a sound wave in the air. For a sound wave to register on a seismograph, the air has to actually make the ground move.” He paused. “That does happen with sonic booms, so I guess a crowd could cheer loudly enough ...” Juan Lorenzo, associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, agrees that it was the stomping of the crowd that registered. He said the simultaneous jumping of the crowd probably caused a vibration that produced a low-frequency sound wave that traveled through the upper layers of the Earth. Lorenzo said that although there are seismographs set up all over the country, he has never heard of another football game registering on one. “It’s unusual,” he said. “It was a significant blot on the seismogram.” Lorenzo is so fascinated by the incident that he brought geologic equipment into last season’s LSU-Alabama game to take decibel and vibration readings. He hopes to go back to Tiger Stadium in 2003 and do more recordings. He even has a plan to set up LSU “seismeauxgraphs” at high schools around the state to take measurements for a live Web cast. He hopes the project will get more students interested in geology.
Not to take away from the mystique of that game but one geologist at the time said the seismograph was so sensitive that a car passing would generate a spike...not sure if it would be as large as the one at the moment of the TD but it is possible for it to happen again if there were an instrument to record it. Side note...the 92,400+ fans at the Florida game was the largest in Tiger Stadium history...only to be broken this coming weekend at the Auburn game. :geauxtige
I was a Senior in High School and our school organization had a concession stand in the middle of the top north endzone concourse (concessions are still handled in the same manner). I was standing in the top middle portal of the north endzone when the play went down, awesome.
Specifically, that was the 87 season when they were filming "Everybody's All American". They had "Tigers" in a Broadway font in the endzones and a state outline at midfield so the school could be "Louisiana University" instead of LSU. The LSU was added to the Midfield for some games when they were not filming (specifically the TOSU tie). GEAUX TIGERS
