Eleven years ago I fell in love with college football. I had lived in Canada my whole life and been to a few CFL games but it was in the U.S. that I learned to love the sport. My saturdays went from a day built around Hockey Night in Canada to a round the clock college football day. My family moved to Lexington, Kentucky when my mom took a job at the University of Kentucky. I was immediately drawn to the college football and basketball obsession in the state. When you read the paper (ok, the just the sports page) or went to school it was all Wildcats all the time. My first fall in Kentucky wasn’t that great, the Cats had an outstanding Freshman quarterback Tim Couch but a complete lack of offense. It would become Coach Bill Curry’s last season with the Cats as they fell to 2-9 on the year. One of their wins being a 3-0 win over Indiana. Talk about excitement. That spring C.M. Newton, the Cats Athletic Director hired Hal Mumme to take over the reigns of the football program, and everything changed.

Mumme brought to Kentucky and up tempo pass happy offense that was perfect for a boy who didn’t quite understand the intricacies of the game. It was fun and exciting. Suddenly Tim Couch was throwing for 300 yards a game and racking up touchdown passes to Craig Yeast. A QB/receiver combo that we all pretended to play out in the school yard. The ‘97 season was going very well for the Cats they opened the season with a 38-24 win over in state rival Louisville, and followed that performance up with a 49-7 shallacking of Indiana. The abptly named “Air Raid” offense was all the rage in Lexington.

The one weekday in early October my Mom came home with some great news she had two tickets for the Cats game that Saturday. The Dean of the department was going to be out of town and gave her his two seats on the 50-yard line. I was euphoric. It was decided that I’d go to the game with my dad and so one late Saturday evening we took a stroll down to Commonwealth Stadium to see the Cats playe the Alabama Crimson Tide. The atmosphere was electric, the bands playing fight songs, and a crowd twice the size of a CFL stadium jacked and ready to go.

As we went to the game I was telling my dad how unlikely it was we would beat Alabama that night. I told him we hadn’t beat them for 75 years. From what I remember of the game it was back and forth contest. The Cats quick strike offense had no problem with the Tide defense but Alabama always seemed to have an answer. With the Cats up 27-17 late in the third quarter, Bama ran to this day the best wide receiver pass I’ve ever seen. Alabama receiver Chad Goss took the pitch for what looked like a reverse, and the Kentucky defense bit hard, Goss proceeded to bomb the ball downfield to a wide-open Quincy Jackson for a 47-yard touchdown pass. It was an incredible play but an awful feeling watching that play develop. A pretty good instinct to develop for watching SEC football.

At some point during the second half my Dad went to get us drinks and he came back with something special for me. Turns out he had run into one of my mom’s grad students in the corridor. The student had in turn just ran into Tubby Smith, the new Kentucky basketball coach, who would lead the Cats to their seventh NCAA title that year. He had got his ticket signed by Smith and gave it to my Dad for me. I can only imagine my eyes were bulging like Tubby when my dad handed me the autographed ticket. What a night.

But the night was far from over, Alabama and Kentucky were all square at 34 after regulation. It was time for overtime. Kentucky won the toss and went on defense first. On the ensuing drive for Bama, which of course started at the 25, Kentucky lineman Anwar Stewart forced a fumble and recovered it. The crowd went nuts. Now all Kentucky had to do was score to win the game. On the Cats fourth play from scrimmage at the 26 after a couple penalties, Couch looked down field for an option and found Craig Yeast open at the 10-yard line, he caught the ball and stolled into the endzone. The Cats won 40-34 in overtime, their first win over Alabama in 75 years. The crowd at Commonwealth mobbed the field and tore the goalposts down as my Dad and I sat there smiling and watching in awe.

A quick look at my autographed ticket from that night and you’ll notice the date was October 4, 1997. Today eleven years after I fell in love my Cats are (4-0) and heading into Tuscaloosa to take on the #2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. The Cats have never beat the Crimson Tide in Alabama but if there ever was a date to do it, it would be October 4th. That hope, pride and optimism I carry as a Wildcats fan all comes from that fateful evening eleven years ago. Now I plan my Saturdays around SEC Football, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Go Cats! Roll the Tide.

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Tags: 1997, Alabama, Craig Yeast, Hal Mumme, Kentucky, Tim Couch