LIFE LIST UPDATE – No. 935: Watch an Auburn game from the press box at Jordan-Hare Stadium

View from the press box at Jordan-Hare.

Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare Stadium is one of the most historic sporting venues in the entire state of Alabama, and I’ve always wanted to watch a college football game from the press box at this 87,451-seat stadium. I’d been to more than a few games at Jordan-Hare, but I’d always watched from either the stands or from the sidelines. The press box seats are arguably the best seats in the house, which is why I put this item on my “life list” a couple of years ago.

A couple of months ago, the newspaper I work for, The Evergreen Courant in Evergreen, Ala., was notified by the Alabama Press Association that we would receive a press box pass for the Alabama-Auburn game, which was scheduled for Nov. 30 in Auburn. My boss, Courant publisher and editor Robert Bozeman, had first dibs on the pass, but he was kind enough to allow me to use it when he learned that he’d be unable to attend the game. As things turned out, this past Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn game shaped up to be the “Mother of All Iron Bowls,” and it had huge national implications at No. 1-ranked and undefeated Alabama faced No. 4-ranked Auburn.

Getting to see an Iron Bowl from the press box at Jordan-Hare Stadium was sort of a big deal for me because, growing up, I never thought I’d ever see an Iron Bowl in person. As a youngster growing up in rural Southwest Alabama, my perception was that getting to go to the Alabama-Auburn game in person was something that only rich, important people got to do, certainly not someone like me, a nobody from the woods down below Frisco City.

In the interest of full disclosure, Saturday wasn’t the first time I’d ever set foot in the press box at Jordan-Hare. When you get a sideline pass as a photographer, you are allowed to go up to the press box take advantage of the food they have set out in the hospitality area, which is right behind the press box seats. I’d been up there looking around a few times in the past, but had never watched an entire game from up there.

This past Saturday, my assigned seat was on the lowest tier of press box seats, and I found myself seated between Tommy McGraw, the owner and publisher of the Sumter County Record-Journal in Livingston, and Charlie Potter, the assistant sports editor of The Crimson White, the University of Alabama’s student newspaper. Sports radio personality Paul Finebaum was seated about six seats down, and Alabama State Trooper Willie Locke of Evergreen was also on duty in the press box.

As things turned out, Auburn won the Iron Bowl on Saturday, beating archrival Alabama, 34-28, on the final play of the game. Auburn scored its last touchdown by returning a missed field goal 109 yards. The crowd went wild and stormed the field, and the game is already being included in discussions of Auburn’s greatest wins ever. ESPN’s Sports Center also featured the game in a segment Sunday about the greatest game endings of all time. Of course, I was pulling for Alabama, but I had to do so silently, since there’s no cheering in the press box.

In the end, special thanks to the Alabama Press Association, which provided our newspaper with a press box pass to Saturday’s game and to my publisher Robert Bozeman, who allowed me to use the pass. Robert could have used the pass himself, but he let me go instead, which was mighty nice of him.