Mesmerizing Must-See TV Documentary Of SEC Night Football Airing This Weekend

DALLAS - "SEC Storied," the Southeastern Conference's sports documentary that debuted in 2011, may have outdone itself.

"Saturday Night Lights," the history of SEC football at night, premiered Thursday night on the SEC Network, and it is must-see TV. It airs again Friday at 2 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight and throughout the weekend.

The documentary's release coincides with the start of the SEC season under the league's new contract with ESPN/ABC coming soon on Thursday, Aug. 29, with Arkansas-Pine Bluff playing at Arkansas in Little Rock (7:30 p.m., ESPNU) and Clemson vs. Georgia in Atlanta on Saturday Aug. 31 (Noon, ABC).

On Monday night here after the first installment of the SEC Media Days, the SEC provided a sneak peek of the one-hour documentary at the historic Texas Theater, where Lee Harvey Oswald was found hiding by police after assassinating President John F. Kennedy and killing Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.

The theater is a portal into a time capsule itself, and the SEC office could not have selected a better venue for its look at SEC football by night history. And this one may be the best SEC Storied episode out of its more than 40 releases.

"I always think a documentary is a success, in my view, if I see or learn something that I never heard about before," said SEC associate commissioner Herb Vincent, who is one of the film's producers. "I had never heard about the Tennessee-Penn State games and how lights ended up at Neyland Stadium."

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And what a story that is. Then-Tennessee athletic director Bob Woodruff conned Penn State coach Joe Paterno into playing a second straight game in Knoxville in 1972, only if it was at night. They agreed. Only problem was that Neyland didn't have lights, and Woodruff didn't tell Paterno that he didn't have approval from Tennessee to install lights. Woodruff got them installed in time for the first night game at Neyland, and No. 7 Tennessee beat No. 6 Penn State, 28-21 on Sept. 16, 1972, behind the great Condredge Holloway - the first black starting quarterback in SEC history.

Another gem in the documentary is the night that Lawrence Welk bumped Archie Manning and Ole Miss to a later start against Alabama on ABC for the first SEC regular season game televised in prime time on Oct. 4, 1969. New ABC sports president Roone Arledge wanted an 8:30 p.m. eastern start, but Welk had that slot for his weekly one-hour musical extravaganza and said no to any change. So Arledge moved No. 15 Ole Miss vs. No. 20 Alabama in Birmingham to 9:30 p.m. eastern, but the game didn't get started until nearly 10 p.m.

But people stayed up as Manning upstaged Welk, completing 33 of 52 passes for 436 yards and two touchdowns. The junior from Drew, Mississippi, also rushed 15 times for 104 yards and another three touchdowns. No quarterback in major college history had passed and ran for that many yards in history. But Alabama quarterback Scott Hunter completed 22 of 29 passes himself for 300 yards, including a 14-yard TD in the final moments for a 33-32 win. The Manning legend was born, and a marriage between college football and prime-time TV would be on a honeymoon for the next half century and counting.

"It was great to see how Archie played in that game," Vincent said. "Especially at that time, because so many teams only ran the ball most of the time. And to have those kinds of stats was incredible."

The "Earthquake Game" in which unranked LSU upset No. 4 Auburn, 7-6, on the night of Oct. 8, 1988, at Tiger Stadium is excavated. The crowd noise after LSU tailback Eddie Fuller caught the winning TD pass in the final moments registered on a seismograph in the LSU Geology building, and the rest is history. Fuller was at the showing at the Texas Theater.

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"I knew I had dropped a touchdown right before the one I caught," Fuller said. "I forgot I dropped two before that. And the one I finally caught, I just got it. I caught the back of the football. I'll never forget it. I'm glad to be here. And I'm glad I caught the last one." 

Another historical night game between LSU and Auburn on Sept. 21, 1996, is covered. LSU won 19-15 after an old gym near Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium went up in flames. On ESPN, it looked like the stadium was on fire, but it wasn't. Had the wind shifted, it would have been a different story.

James Weiner directed "Saturday Night Lights." Previously, he directed "The Brady 6" about the six players drafted before the legendary, seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady of New England and Tampa.

"Growing up in New York during the 1980s, I was a huge sports fan, but college football was largely non-existent in the area," Weiner told the SEC office. "I remember going to a friend’s house one Saturday night, being introduced to ESPN and watching an LSU night game. I was mesmerized. Tiger Stadium seemed mystical. The energy under the lights jumped off the screen. I’ve been transfixed by SEC football ever since.  And when the game is in prime time, it still heightens my senses."

This documentary will heighten yours.