Throwback Thursday: Farewell to the Georgia Dome

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With the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium set to open in the fall of 2016, we will be saying farewell to a venue that has hosted a number of Falcons home games, SEC football championships, SEC basketball championships, 2 Super Bowls, multiple NCAA regionals and 3 Final Fours. The first notable postseason action as far as NCAA Tournament action goes took place in 1996 – the Georgia Dome was the host site for the East regional. The participants were UMass (a spot ultimately vacated), Arkansas, Georgetown and Texas Tech. Both UMass (with John Calipari and Marcus Camby) and Georgetown (with John Thompson Jr. and Allen Iverson) would advance to the Elite 8, and UMass would ultimately beat Georgetown 86-62 to earn their school’s first trip to the Final 4.

The first Final Four to be played in the Georgia Dome took place in 2002. Maryland won the East regional, Kansas won the Midwest Regional, Indiana was the surprise winner in the South Regional (upsetting Duke in Lexington, much to the delight of the locals) and Oklahoma emerged from the West Regional. Indiana would beat Oklahoma in the first semifinal to advance to its first championship appearance since 1987, and Maryland beat Kansas 97-88 to advance to its first championship game. Thanks to a cast of players that included Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, the Terrapins defeated Indiana 64-52 for their first national title in men’s hoops.

The second Final Four would take place in 2007 – this time the 4 teams featured were the defending champions of Florida (Midwest Region), Ohio State (South Region), UCLA (West Region) and Georgetown (East Region). With Ohio State defeating Georgetown and Florida beating UCLA, it set up a championship game between Ohio State and Florida that mirrored the exact same 1-2 matchup in college football’s championship game for the first and only time in NCAA/BCS history. What was a banner year for Gator fans became even better with another win over the Buckeyes – they won both the football and basketball championships that year as well!

Next year, the SEC Tournament was played in the Georgia Dome. What made this tournament very unique was a combination of a Cinderella team in the Georgia Bulldogs and Mother Nature. During the quarterfinal game between Mississippi State and Alabama, Alabama hit a 3-point shot to tie the game and send it to overtime (click here to see it from a fan’s viewpoint). This may have literally saved thousands of fans from filing out of the Georgia Dome before the Georgia-Kentucky quarterfinal. Why? As overtime began, a line of severe thunderstorms moved over downtown Atlanta – a line of storms that included a violent EF2 tornado that damaged many parts of downtown Atlanta (including parts of the Georgia Dome). Click here to see part of the Jefferson-Pilot broadcast with Tim Brando on the call. At about the 35-second mark, there is an audible noise coming from the roof, and at the 45-second mark, fans begin to evacuate after a stoppage in play to take cover. Remarkably, no one inside was killed or injured. After an hour-long delay, the Alabama-Mississippi State game was completed, but the Georgia-Kentucky game was postponed to the following day. Because of structural damage to the Georgia Dome, the remainder of the tournament was played at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Georgia would win twice on Saturday and in the championship on Sunday to win the SEC title and a very unlikely #14 seed.

The third and last Final Four was played in 2013 – the four teams to advance to Atlanta were Michigan (South Region), Wichita State (West Region), Syracuse (East Region) and Louisville (Midwest Region). Louisville was playing the remainder of their tournament in honor of Kevin Ware – he suffered a gruesome leg injury in the regional final against Duke. Michigan quietly advanced to their first national title game since the Fab Five era (1992 and 1993). Louisville would win the national title with an 82-76 victory, and Luke Hancock became the first ever Most Outstanding Player in a Final Four to not have started either of the Final Four games.