The Earthquake Game was a college football game in which the crowd reaction after an important play registered on a

seismograph A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The output ...

. Played in front of a crowd of 79,431 at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

's Tiger Stadium on October 8, 1988, the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

upset No. 4 Auburn 7–6.

Background

The game pitted

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

rivals Auburn and LSU and was one of the more notable games in the Auburn–LSU football rivalry. Along with national rankings, the game also proved to be of great significance to that season's eventual SEC title. The stadium was filled to capacity and the game was being broadcast on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

The game

The game was dominated by defense. LSU managed only one drive of over 10 yards in the first half. The only score of the first half was a

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

by Auburn's Win Lyle with 1:41 to go before halftime. LSU made it to the Auburn 23-yard line midway through the third quarter, but a clipping penalty moved the team out of field goal range. On Auburn's next possession, Lyle kicked another field goal with 10:18 left in the game to make the score 6–0.

The play

Auburn led 6–0 with less than two minutes left in the 4th quarter. LSU's quarterback Tommy Hodson drove the team down the field before throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to

Eddie Fuller Edward Russell Henry Fuller (2 August 1931 – 19 July 2008) was a South African cricketer who played in seven Test matches between 1953 and 1957. He was born in Worcester, Western Cape and died in Milnerton, Cape Town. Fuller was a right-hande ...

on 4th down. The game's name resulted from the reaction of the crowd after the final pass, which registered as an earthquake by a

located in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex around from the stadium. The seismograph reading was discovered the morning after the game by LSU seismologist Don Stevenson and student worker Riley Milner. Word of the seismograph reading reached ''

The Daily Reveille The ''Daily Reveille'' has been since 1887 the student newspaper at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It prints once a week on Wednesdays during the fall, spring and summer semesters. The ''Daily Reveille'' has a weekly circu ...

'' and spread to the local media.There's more to LSU's Earthquake Game than Hodson-to-Fuller
''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

''. Stevenson submitted the reading to the

Louisiana Geological Survey The Louisiana Geological Survey is a state geological survey established by the Louisiana legislature by Act 131 in 1934 to serve the citizens Louisiana by collecting, preserving, and disseminating impartial information on the geomorphology, hydro ...

to have it preserved. Stevenson displayed a copy of the reading on his office window on the LSU campus that was later observed by an ESPN news crew, which was on campus doing a story sometime prior to when Stevenson left LSU in the summer of 1991. The news crew decided to do a piece on what they dubbed "The Earthquake Game." This news story helped to add more attention to the event.

Aftermath and legacy

The win brought LSU's win–loss record to 3–2 on the season and a No. 19 ranking in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broa ...

. The team finished the regular season with an 8–3 record and lost to

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States * Syracuse, New York ** East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

in the

Hall of Fame Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 ...

. Auburn dropped to 4–1 and to No. 12 in the poll. The game was the only one Auburn lost in the regular season. The team was defeated by Florida State in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed on ...

. In games played by LSU at Tiger Stadium, the winning touchdown is included in a montage that is shown at the start of the 4th quarter.

References

{{ESPN College Football 1988 Southeastern Conference football season Auburn Tigers football games LSU Tigers football games American football incidents October 1988 sports events in the United States 1988 in sports in Louisiana Nicknamed sporting events

Background

The game

The play

Aftermath and legacy

See also

References