Earthquake Game

The Earthquake Game is the name given to a famous college football game played in front of a crowd of 79,431 at Louisiana State University's Tiger Stadium on October 8, 1988.

The game pitted Southeastern Conference rival Auburn Tigers against LSU and was one of the more notable games in the Auburn–LSU football rivalry. Along with national rankings, at stake was the eventual SEC title. The stadium was filled to capacity and the game was being broadcast on ESPN.

Auburn led the game 6-0 with less than two minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. LSU's quarterback Tommy Hodson drove the team down the field before finally throwing a last chance 4th down touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller.

The game's name resulted from the reaction of the crowd after the final pass. According to legend, it registered as an earthquake by a seismograph located in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex around 1000 ft from the stadium. The seismograph reading was discovered the morning after the game by LSU seismologist, Don Stevenson. Stevenson submitted the reading to the Louisiana Geological Survey 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 who were on campus doing a story in 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.

While the authenticity of this earthquake has been widely accepted, officials from LSU and the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex have never provided evidence it actually occurred. The United States Geological Survey has no record of an earthquake in Louisiana on October 8, 1988.