SEC football: 15 instances where it just meant more

1. Harvey Updyke called into The Paul Finebaum Show after poisoning the oak trees on Toomer’s Corner

This will never be topped. It is as ridiculous as it is unsettling. When Harvey Updyke called into The Paul Finebaum Show as Al from Dadeville, how could we have possibly known what was coming next? Finebaum was already disgusted by hearing “Al” say Auburn fans rolled the Toomer’s Corner trees the day Paul “Bear” Bryant died. Updyke then finished his story with something so horrible…

He told Finebaum over the air that after he saw a “Scam Newton” jersey being worn overtop Bryant’s statue in Tuscaloosa, he went over to Toomer’s Corner and poisoned the oak trees…

I don’t particularly care for Auburn, but that was so unbelievably disgusting. It changed everything.

This would be the phone call that took Finebaum from a sports talk radio legend in Birmingham and turned him into a national phenomenon. When the SEC Network launched in 2014, Finebaum was the first person ESPN hired, so that his one-of-a-kind radio show would grow from just a Alabama/Auburn-centric program in Birmingham, into a nationally-centric one based in Charlotte.

Updyke would pass away a little more than a decade after this infamous phone call. While he was taken into custody, and didn’t do a stellar job of holding up his end of the bargain when it came to making legal payments, I remember him calling into the show another time shortly before he died. I heard the unforgettable tone of his voice and my skin started to crawl off my body.

It is not the most wholesome tale of why SEC football just means more, but it is a defining one…