It was a dark and stormy…day?
With apologies to Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton – and not Charles Shultz’s Snoopy character, who made Sir Edward’s line pop-culture legend – it was a “T-Max Day.” To those not familiar with photography Kodak’s 3200 ASA T-Max was a high speed film for low-light situations. And luckily, I had some in the car left over from a previous gig, along with a few other rolls of high speed film.
On this particular day 30 years ago, it was a noon game, in Florida. A place some residents call “The Liquid Sunshine State” due to the volume of precipitation which can fall in a short period of time.
One such monsoon accompanied the epic darkness to the tune of nearly six inches of rain, most of which fell in a short time span, namely, the 1st half of the 1996 Outback Bowl, featuring Auburn and Penn State.
Adding to the madness was the game being played at old Tampa Stadium, which was mostly built in the mid-1960s when field drainage technology was, well, let’s let USA soccer star Alexi Lalas explain:
The steep 18-inch crown was 1960s drainage technology. Those six inches of rain have to go somewhere, and in Tampa Stadium that would be both sidelines. You, know, the space where photographers and other on-field working personnel occupy during games.
The mud was so thick behind the benches it was occasionally claiming the shoes of those working personnel. The playing field wasn’t much better, as you can see in the pictures and video from the game, which Penn State won 43 to 14.
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