On October 8, 1988, undefeated No. 4 Auburn paraded into Baton Rouge to take on LSU. But this wouldn’t just be another Saturday night in Death Valley.
Little did the 79,431 attendees that packed into Tiger Stadium that night know that the game they were about to witness would go down in LSU lore forever: a legendary Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
The Bayou Bengals had climbed to No. 9 in the nation following victories over inter-conference rivals No. 11 Texas and Tennessee to start the 1988 campaign.
In the following two weeks, the script flipped. The Tigers failed two strict road tests to unranked Ohio State and No. 17 Florida, falling entirely out of the AP Top 25 as swiftly as they got there. Following the volatile three-week road trip, LSU returned to Baton Rouge to play Auburn.
Returning to Tiger Stadium following back-to-back road losses to play the No. 4 team in the country was crucial to the purple and gold’s momentum. After all, there’s no place like home.
LSU knew the importance of its matchup with its fellow SEC Tigers.
“You had to be living in a cave to not know the enormity of that game,” former LSU linebacker Eric Hill said.
The team was at a crossroads. A third straight loss could send an already spiraling squad to a point of no return. But with a win, the Bayou Bengals could turn their season around.
Hill recalls the edge in practice the week leading up to Saturday night’s kickoff. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
“It was tense that week,” Hill said. “I just remember [it being] very chippy at practice. Guys were nerved up because we knew there was a big game in our backyard, and we couldn’t allow these guys to come in and take what was ours.”
Every LSU coach and player maintained that mentality throughout the week: defend your backyard. Defense was the name of the game.
Auburn entered the contest with the best defense in the nation, only allowing 44 points through the first month of the season.
The purple and gold’s defense held Auburn’s offense to a measly pair of field goals in a blue-collar contest. Both teams were fighting tooth and nail to compete in a defensive juggernaut.
LSU Tigers quarterback Tommy Hudson and running back Eddie Fuller later said it was the most physical game of their college careers.
“Some body blows were being delivered. You were giving and taking. That game was not for the weak,” Hill said. “The young guys that dream about walking through that tunnel and being in Tiger Stadium — understand that those boys [didn’t] want any of that. They want no part of that.”
The problem wasn’t LSU’s defense but its offense. It took the Bayou Bengals until their final offensive drive of the night to penetrate Auburn’s 40-yard line.
“It was one of those classic Southeastern Conference games: low scoring,” Hudson told PBS Louisiana. “It was 6-0 at the time, and time was running out.”
The Tigers were dying for a score, but even after the offense’s repeated struggles all night, there was a sense of belief on the LSU sideline.
“That whole drive, they moved that ball just systematically down the field,” Hill said. “It just looked different opposed to what it looked like the front end of the game.”
Hudson and LSU gunned for the end zone after getting down to the opposing nine-yard line. Fuller dropped what should’ve been a touchdown, and he followed it up with a failed toe-drag attempt in the back of the end zone.
The purple and gold were on their last gasp of life following three consecutive incompletions. This was the play of the game. One snap: winner takes all.
“There was nobody sitting on the bench,” Hill said. “It was all hands on deck.”
Even after his struggles nearly seconds ago, Hudson trusted his back and again looked for Fuller. The third time was the charm. Hudson hit Fuller in the back of the end zone, this time for a touchdown.
The Bayou Bengals took their first lead of the night with mere seconds left on the clock. Tiger fans erupted in ecstasy.
“For him to come back to me, that was gratitude for me,” Fuller told PBS Louisiana. “I think it was a little bit of redemption.”
LSU held on 7-6 to knock off No. 4 Auburn by a hair. When Fuller scored the eventual game-winning touchdown, the Valley shook. Hill, who was named the defensive player of the game by ESPN, says it’s the loudest building he’s ever been in.
“Everybody’s jumping up and hugging each other. We’re talking, but you can’t hear nothing. You can’t hear anything. It was so damn loud,” Hill said. “That touchdown was almost like an explosion. It was nuts, and in all my years, [I’ve] never seen anything like that. [I’ve] never experienced anything like that.”
Tiger fans were so loud that they showed up on the Richter scale. A seismograph located at the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex registered the crowd’s reaction to Fuller’s game-winning touchdown as an earthquake.
An LSU legend was born; the rest is history.
Hill didn’t immediately realize the legacy that that night would carry. However, over time, it became apparent that October 8, 1988, was no ordinary Saturday night in Death Valley.
“It never really went away. Reporters were still asking you about that game three weeks later,” Hill said. “History has a way of putting puzzle pieces in place. Over time, there have been some great moments in Tiger Stadium, but everybody wants to measure up to that. That’s when you realize how monumental that moment was.”
