thesportsfag | my gay sport's blog

20 years ago The University of Alabama was undefeated, ranked #2 in the country and seemingly on their way to another national championship heading into it’s annual showdown with Auburn known as the Iron Bowl.

In 1989 the Tigers walked away with a 10-point victory on what all Auburn fans agree was the most important game in Auburn football history. The 1989 Iron Bowl was the first ever played at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare stadium.

Prior to ‘89 the bitter rivals played in Birmingham’s aging Legion Field in one of those 50-50 split games like Texas and Oklahoma or Florida and Georgia, only in Birmingham there was always an advantage to the Crimson Tide because 5,000 or so Legion Field personnel received tickets and Birmingham is decidely an Alabama town.

There are many parallels between the 1989 game and the one that will be played on Friday however, no single game will ever impact both Alabama and Auburn as the one in 1989 did.

The national media is assuming Alabama and Florida, who takes on Florida State Saturday, are gonna roll into the SEC Championship game as #1 and #2 but I say they both have a lot of work to do this weekend.