Hope everyone's having a great Thanksgiving. I wrote a lengthy story for today's newspaper about the 1989 Iron Bowl, when Alabama traveled to Auburn for the first time. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — The car carrying Auburn football coach Pat Dye and sports information director David Housel paused at an intersection in town before Dye went noticeably quiet.

It was 1988, not long after it was announced that Alabama had reluctantly agreed to play a game in Auburn after insisting for years that the Iron Bowl take place in Birmingham, a neutral site in name only. The game was months away, but Dye couldn’t get it out of his mind.

“You know what it’s going to be, don’t you?” Dye asked, finally breaking the silence.

Housel had no idea what he was talking about.

“It’s going to be the most emotional day in Auburn history,” Dye said.

He was right. Dec. 2, 1989 — the day Alabama came to Auburn for the first time — has drawn its share of historical comparisons over the years. Dye likened it to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Housel to the Israelites returning to the Promised Land. Few Auburn fans who attended the game consider that hyperbole.

The result, a 30-20 Auburn victory against the No. 2 Crimson Tide before the largest crowd the state had ever seen, took a backseat to the fact that the game was even played in the first place.

Read the rest of the story here. And follow the blog on Twitter.