College Sports

This morning, I felt the earth move. I was working a crossword puzzle in bed, with my little girl nestled in beside, and my husband was getting ready for work when I heard what I thought was wind against the wall, but then I realized that my bed was shaking like a vibrating bed in a cheap motel.

My first thought was that maybe our house was disappearing into a sinkhole. While that isn’t common in this area, it has happened with roads before. But I quickly realized that we were having an earthquake. It lasted about 30 seconds, and definitely shook me up along with the house. Emi slept through it, and my husband wasn’t phased since he used to live in San Diego. Pretty soon we learned that we had experienced a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered several hundred miles from here.

As you can imagine, in an area that doesn’t usually have quakes, this has been a major topic around town today. It also got me wondering, have any earthquakes ever occurred during a college sporting event?

So I hopped on my trusty Mac and googled away. The first few listings were all related to the famous “Earthquake Game” played between Auburn and host LSU on October 8, 1988. Auburn was leading 6-0 with two minutes to play, when LSU drove down the field and scored on a fourth and 10 pass from Tommy Hodson to Eddie Fuller to tie the game, then take the lead on the PAT. The response of the 79,341 fans in the stadium was pure delirium, and actually registered as an earthquake in the geology department at the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex on the LSU campus. The tremors lasted 15-20 minutes, and experts believe that the ground was shaking due to the fans jumping up and down in Tiger Stadium (LSU won the game, 7-6).

Wow! But that wasn’t a “real” earthquake, so I kept hunting…

The 1979 Malibu earthquake was a 5.2 on the Richter Scale, and is known for its timing… occurring during the Rose Bowl game between Southern Cal and Michigan (USC won 17-10). Fans were able to feel the quake, and some were alarmed… but there was no mass exodus from the stadium. Sports fans have their priorities, after all.

I couldn’t actually find any other games, although I am sure there are more. There were lots of references to games cancelled by hurricane threat, and the SEC Basketball Tournament, which was hit by a tornado at the Georgia Dome while a game was in progress, is fresh in our minds. But there is surprisingly (and thankfully!) not much evidence of earthquakes during collegiate sporting events.

Anyway, if you know of an earthquake that occurred during a college game, let me know. We are all thankful that today’s quake was relatively minor, and hope that those who have damaged homes and businesses can recover and move on soon.

See you at the game!
Linda

Trackback URI | Comments RSS