The Earthquake Game is the name given to a famous college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 game played in front of a crowd of 79,431 at Louisiana State University's

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 Tiger Stadium

Tiger Stadium (LSU)

Tiger Stadium is an outdoor stadium located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is best known as the home stadium of the Louisiana State University football team.Tiger Stadium opened with a capacity of 12,000 in 1924...

 on October 8, 1988.

The game pitted Southeastern Conference

Southeastern Conference

The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...

 rival Auburn Tigers

1988 Auburn Tigers football team

The 1988 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. Coached by Pat Dye, the team finished the season with a 10–2 record and won their second of three straight SEC titles, sharing it with LSU. LSU handed Auburn their only conference...

 against LSU

1988 LSU Tigers football team

The 1988 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University during the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. The LSU offense scored 249 points while the defense allowed 204 points.-Season:...

 and was one of the more notable games in the Auburn LSU rivalry. Along with national rankings, at stake was the eventual SEC title. The stadium was filled to capacity and the game was being broadcast on ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

.

Auburn led the game 6-0 with less than two minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. LSU's quarterback Tommy Hodson

Tommy Hodson

Thomas Paul Hodson was an American football quarterback for the LSU Tigers and the National Football League.-Early life:...

 drove the team down the field before finally throwing a last chance 4th down touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller.

The game's name resulted from the reaction of the crowd after the final pass. According to legend, it registered as an earthquake by a seismograph

Seismometer

Seismometers are instruments that measure motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other seismic sources...

 located in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex around 1000 feet (305 m) from the stadium.
While the authenticity of this earthquake has been widely accepted, officials from LSU and the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex have never provided evidence it actually occurred.
The United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

has no record of an earthquake in Louisiana on October 8, 1988.