G&G BRACKET
Auburn’s Kick Six Is Voted the South’s Most Unforgettable College Sports Moment
Photo: Dave Martin/Associated Press
In G&G’s 2023 March Madness–style bracket, we asked readers to choose the most unforgettable moment of the past fifty years of college basketball and football in the South. We thought it a challenging task. After all, that’s a half century of hair-raisers and jaw-droppers from the sacred soil of our beloved sports, including Michael Jordan’s clutch jumper in the 1992 NCAA championship and Appalachian State beating mighty Michigan in 2007.
After three weeks of voting, it came down to a basketball-football finale: Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater that lifted Duke over Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Tournament versus the hair-raising final play of the 2013 Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl. The Shot vs. Kick Six. Alas, we can’t say the bracket’s nail-biting theme carried into the championship round. Kick Six won in a rout, garnering 90 percent of the votes.
But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, given that the Kick Six ranks among the most stunning plays in American sports, period.
The Alabama-Auburn football rivalry, also known as the Iron Bowl, is serious business in any year. But in 2013 the stakes were exceptionally high: No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Auburn, both harboring national title hopes, appear to be headed to overtime after officials rule that time has run out in a 28-28 game. But wait! What’s this? Bama coach Nick Saban, bitterly complaining that his team was cheated out of a second on the last play, gets vindicated after a lengthy review, and one second is put back on the clock. As the Tide prepares for a long field-goal attempt, Auburn stations Chris Davis, who normally returns punts, in the end zone in case the kick falls short. It does, and Davis returns it 109 yards for a shocking 34-28 victory.
Euphoria reigns on The Plains, and Saban sheds tears in the locker room. The legendary coach had won his argument, but in turn, it cost him the game. Call it the Irony Bowl.
Bracket illustrations by Marco Goran Romano
Game descriptions by Scott Peacocke
See all the moments in the bracket
Walk-Off Win for the Dawgs
So much to unpack from the highest-scoring Rose Bowl ever. Baker Mayfield lighting up UGA’s defense, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel running hither and yon, a defensive scoop-and-score, a blocked field goal, overtime…on it went for four hours.
The Dream Game
It took an NCAA bracket draw for rivals Kentucky and Louisville to play for the first time in twenty-four years. Kentucky’s Jim Master hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime, but the Cards dominated thereafter to reach the Final Four.
MJ Comes Up Clutch
Michael Jordan hit the winning shot—something he often did—with fifteen seconds left in a seesaw game. But it was only after Georgetown’s Fred Brown passed the ball to the wrong team that Dean Smith finally claimed his first NCAA title.
Run, Lindsay!
Buck Belue found Lindsay Scott, who then won a sprint against Gator defenders. Dawg fans know Larry Munson’s radio call by heart, and though the score saved UGA’s run to a national title, it had the opposite effect on Munson’s press-box chair.
Smith’s Buzzer-Beater
UNC won its first national women’s title in the most dramatic way: Down two with 0.7 seconds left, Charlotte Smith took the inbounds pass and nailed a three-pointer. She also grabbed a staggering twenty-three rebounds.
Bluegrass Bloodletting
The Cardinals’ hiring of ex-UK coach Rick Pitino in 2001 took the intensity of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry to new heights. But eleven years later when the teams met in a Final Four for the first time? The whole state called in sick that week.
Herschel Comin’
Bill Bates played fifteen NFL seasons and has three Super Bowl rings, but he’s still mainly known as the dude who got trucked by Herschel Walker. UGA’s freshman running back introduced himself to the Vols’ safety on his first career touchdown.
Coach K’s Farewell
Mike Krzyzewski’s career closed with a dramatic loss to UNC in the NCAA semifinals, the first-ever Final Four game between the two archrivals. A month earlier, the Tar Heels had ruined his farewell game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Laettner’s Shot
Christian Laettner drained the most dramatic shot in March Madness history, but the unsung hero was Grant Hill, whose seventy-nine-foot inbound pass was also perfect. Big Blue fans still rue the decision to not put a defender in front of Hill.
The Earthquake Game
Only at a place like Tiger Stadium could there be a deafening crowd for a game with only one touchdown. When LSU scored on a fourth-down pass to upset Auburn, the resulting roar registered on the seismograph at LSU’s geology building.
Wide Right I
No. 2 Miami beat No. 1 FSU when the Seminoles’ thirty-four-yard field goal sailed wide right with under a minute to go. This was the first of five missed FSU kicks that would have tied or won the rivalry game over a twelve-year span.
The Jump Pass
Tim Tebow wasn’t even the starting quarterback yet when he produced his first “Oh wow!” moment for the Gators. His body’s hang time was nearly Jordanesque. A year later, he’d become the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.
Stellar Staley
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley became the first Black coach, male or female, to win multiple Division I basketball titles. It was only fitting that she did it going against UConn’s legendary coach Geno Auriemma.
The Bluegrass Miracle
Kentucky fans were set to storm the field when LSU’s fling-and-a-prayer was tipped twice before being caught by Devry Henderson. If the NCAA kept records for longest walk-off offensive scores, this seventy-five-yarder might be it.
Birth of a Dynasty
Nebraska was hyped as the Team of the Century. Miami? A fun Cinderella story. At the end, the Huskers opted for a two-point try when a kick would have earned them a tie and the national title. Miami held, altering the program’s trajectory.
Redemption
UNLV entered with a forty-five-game win streak and a roster featuring five future NBA players. The Runnin’ Rebels had also embarrassed Duke by thirty in the previous year’s final, a result that left a mega chip on the Blue Devils’ shoulder.
The Kick Six
The craziest Iron Bowl finish ever, which is saying a lot. In a tied game, Bama attempted to win it on a fifty-seven-yard field-goal try with one second left. When the kick fell just short, Auburn’s Chris Davis returned it 109 yards for a touchdown.
Hail Mary-palooza
Talk about major mood swings. The Dawgs and the Vols traded touchdown bombs from midfield on the final two plays from scrimmage. A special shout-out to CBS cameras for capturing the alternating surrender-cobra poses from each fan base.
Punt, Bama, Punt
Up 16–3 with under six minutes to play, No. 2 Alabama had national title hopes and seemingly not much to fear from Auburn’s anemic offense. But the Tigers blocked two punts, returning both for scores, within a four-minute span to win.
The Summit
Tennessee’s Pat Summitt became the first coach in college basketball to reach 1,000 wins in a rout of Georgia. Summitt coached the Vols to an amazing thirty-one consecutive NCAA tourney appearances and eight national titles.
Manning Leads the Band
Southerners seem to fall into two categories: those who love “Rocky Top” and those who loathe it. But most agree it was pretty cool when Peyton Manning conducted the UT band after he led the Vols over their biggest rival in Birmingham.
The Pick Play
Alabama was a play away from going wire to wire as No. 1. But a DeShaun Watson-to-Hunter Renfrow pass in the season’s final second gave Clemson its first national title since 1981. Some Tide fans think it was an illegal play, but the refs disagreed.
In-Vince-able
Vince Young added to his Longhorn lore by scrambling for an eight-yard touchdown on fourth down with nineteen seconds left to stun USC. Many consider this the greatest college game ever, and sixty-two players from it went on to play in the NFL.
Bo over the Top
Freshman sensation Bo Jackson, a high school state champion in the high jump, went up and over on fourth down to end Auburn’s nine-year losing streak to Alabama in what would be Bear Bryant’s final Iron Bowl.
Charles’s Slam
Houston (a.k.a. Phi Slama Jama) seemed an unstoppable dunking machine. But it was Lorenzo Charles’s improbable final-second dunk that won the game, and launched coach Jim Valvano’s famous and frantic search for someone to hug.
The Choke at Doak
For most of the day at Doak Campbell Stadium, Florida dominated its rival. But the ’Noles, down 31–3 with thirteen minutes left, staged the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in NCAA history, handing the Gators what felt like a bitter loss.
The Puntrooskie
In the first matchup of top ten teams at Death Valley, FSU and Clemson were tied in the final minutes when, on fourth down from their own twenty-one, the Seminoles used some serious sleight of hand. The chicanery led to the winning field goal.
The Stand
No. 1 Penn State vs. No. 2 Alabama in a de facto national title game. Bama made an epic goal-line stand late, capped by a fourth-down collision between Barry Krauss and Mike Guman that left Krauss unconscious and Guman short of the end zone.
Second-and-26
Who pulls a veteran star quarterback for an unproven sub in the title game? Nick Saban, by God! Down 13–0, Saban yanked Jalen Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa. In overtime, the new kid took a sack on first down, then threw the Tide’s most famous pass.
Wolfpack Ruin Bruin Streak
UCLA had won seven straight NCAA titles and, led by Bill Walton, was a heavy favorite to make it eight. But David Thompson and the Pack rallied from an eleven-point deficit to win one of the greatest games in NCAA history.
Mississippi State Shocker
UConn, owner of eleven national titles, entered with a 111-game win streak. Mississippi State was playing in its first Final Four. But MSU’s Morgan William, the smallest player on the floor at five feet five, hit the winning buzzer-beater in overtime.
Big Upset at the Big House
No program from the lower-tier FCS had ever beaten a ranked FBS (highest level) team. No. 5 Michigan was such a favorite that no point spread was issued, but App State took a lead and held on by blocking two field goals in the final minutes.
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