Back when Troy brought Missouri to the Gallery

A Troy State University trustee had one concern about jumping to Division I-A. He didn't want to lose 70-0. Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News reported that when the idea was first discussed seriously, "it sounded crazy. That was Alabama and Auburn territory."

Johnny Williams, Troy's athletic director, told that trustee story before kickoff on Thursday night, September 9, 2004. He was standing in Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium — the 1950s stadium he had transformed with an $18 million expansion a year earlier, in the conference he helped Troy join, on the ESPN telecast he negotiated — waiting for the first BCS conference team to ever play a game in Troy, Alabama.

Missouri was ranked No. 19. Brad Smith was a Heisman Trophy candidate. Troy had been playing Division I-A football for three years.

Tip Massey played football at Troy in 1951, when the school enrolled 800 students and the stadium held 5,000. That Thursday afternoon, Massey was across the street with friends and a bowl of potato salad, waiting for 26,574 people to pack a venue he would not have recognized.

"No way," Massey said when asked if he ever believed Troy would host teams like this. Then he offered the only philosophy that mattered: "Everything needs to grow. If it sits still, it dies."

Jon Johnson, the Dothan Eagle's sports editor, captured the pre-game temperature: "The pre-game talk of most followers of the program was of respectability. At least play 'em close — don't get blown out on your home turf — and it will be a successful night."

The first quarter looked like even that modest hope was dead.

Smith completed 11 of 12 attempts to open the game. Missouri scored on its first possession — 80 yards in 11 plays, Damien Nash into the end zone from six. On Troy's first offensive snap, Aaron Leak threw a pass that hung in the air long enough for Shirdonya Mitchell to pick it off. Missouri scored again. It was 14-0 with 7:28 still left in the first quarter.

Missouri had 134 yards of total offense. Troy had five. Ten Missouri first downs to zero for Troy.

"I think we were a little bit awed early by Brad Smith and what all they do back there," Larry Blakeney said afterward.

Then three plays changed everything.

Trailing 14-0 in the second quarter, Leak flipped a lateral across the field to Jason Samples. Samples turned and threw deep to Jermaine Richardson, who had slipped behind strong safety Nino Williams. Twenty-seven yards. Touchdown. Three seniors touched the ball on the same play — a double pass Troy had used the year before to beat Marshall. Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News called it "pure genius."

Four minutes later, tailback DeWhitt Betterson gained 10 yards on a run up the gut and had the ball knocked loose. Junior Louissaint, Troy's 276-pound left guard, snatched it out of the air.

"I just looked up and the ball was in my hand," Louissaint said. "I started running and it was like I was in another world."

The man bench-pressed 430 pounds and squatted 520. And on this night, he outran Missouri's free safety Jason Simpson for 63 yards. Simpson jumped on Louissaint's back at the 6-yard line. The guard carried him across the goal line.

"I had it in my left hand and I saw the safety out of the corner of my eye and switched it," Louissaint said. "I'd come too far to let him bring me down."

Tied at 14. Greg Whibbs kicked a 43-yard field goal with 1:01 left in the half. Troy led 17-14.

Scarbinsky identified the reason the 14-0 hole did not become a 40-point burial: "Because the school hired a major college coach in Larry Blakeney long before it became a major college program, a quick and easy 14-0 deficit didn't snowball into a major embarrassment." In the second half, that coaching showed.

The humidity broke Missouri. Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning had watched it happen the week before, too — the opponent's players wilting in south Alabama heat while Troy's kept running.

"That's the second time in two weeks that the other team's players started wilting before ours," Koenning said. "That's a credit to our strength and conditioning program."

Bernard Davis, a Troy linebacker, finished with 11 tackles, a forced fumble, a blocked punt and three pass breakups. His girlfriend, Geveda Lowery, had been in the stadium since 5:15, wearing Davis's No. 27 jersey. She had tried to take a test at 1 p.m. that afternoon and couldn't concentrate.

"I get very nervous," Lowery had said before the game, "because we have such high expectations."

Davis delivered on them. The defense that had looked overwhelmed in the first quarter held Smith to 14-of-34 passing and two interceptions over the final three. Koenning was gracious about Smith afterward.

"He's a tremendous athlete, and it would be a shame if anything that happened tonight harmed his chances of getting post-season awards," Koenning said. "He's the real deal. We had him in some plays that he could not get out of, but he got out of them anyway."

Early in the fourth quarter, Leak rolled left under pressure and found Samples between two Missouri defenders for 33 yards and the final score. Troy 24, Missouri 14.

Gary Pinkel did not want to hear that the game meant more to Troy.

"How can you say that?" the Missouri coach said. "How can you say it was more important to Troy than the University of Missouri when it was on national television and we're nationally ranked? That's an excuse and there is no way that will fly."

It was more important to Troy.

The PA announcer spent the final minute pleading with the crowd to stay off the field. Nobody listened. Students poured over the wall before the clock expired, and fans followed. One goalpost went down in seconds. A group of about 20 people formed a wall around the other to keep it standing.

The handful of Missouri fans who had traveled to south Alabama sat in their seats and watched it happen. Johnson noticed something about the Troy players: "It was easy to get the feel the Troy players weren't among the surprised. You see, while we had doubts, they never did."

Williams walked the hallways of the press box afterward, trying to absorb what his program had just done.

"It's tremendous for our student athletes and anyone who has ever attended Troy," Williams said. "I'm just proud to be part of it. It's just a numbness."

When Blakeney reached the postgame podium, he hollered "woo-hoo" before sitting down. Troy had debuted new school logos earlier that afternoon.

"How was that for dedicating a logo?" he said.

Then he placed the night in the full arc of the program.

"It's the biggest win we've ever had. You know Troy University, Troy State University, whatever we've been in the past, they've won championships at the NAIA level, then won a championship in '84 and '87 in Division II. We've won a bunch of big games on the road, a bunch of big games here, but nobody's beaten us in the Gallery yet."

Troy started the day with a logo unveiling. It ended the night with the biggest victory in program history.

"So that's a little sweet thing that we've got going here," Blakeney said. "At Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium, the Trojans are undefeated. And on this night, on top of the world."

Williams had built this program without a stadium and without a conference, as he liked to say. Now Troy had both. The school had recently dropped "State" from its name, and Scarbinsky saw the symmetry: "As a university, Troy's always been international. As a football program, the Trojans have gone nationwide."

Johnson's verdict landed where it mattered most — not on what happened between the lines, but on what it proved. "Not only did Troy earn respect," he wrote, "it earned a victory."

When it was over — when the parking lots had emptied and the goalposts had been hauled away — the stadium lights were still burning. The scoreboard still glowed. Johnson looked up at it and wrote that they may never turn it off.

Twenty-two years later, Troy is going back to Columbia. The Trojans travel to No. 20 Missouri on Saturday — same series, reversed venue, a different generation of players wearing the same Troy across their chests. Gerad Parker's team is 2-0. He spent his press conference this week calling the Trojans undisciplined, challenging them to find an identity worth watching. He called Missouri an upper-tier SEC team with no holes — defensive ends as long as any Troy has faced, linebackers who play as fast as any on tape, a quarterback as good a passer as his staff has seen.

Larry Blakeney looked at the 2004 version of Missouri and saw the same kind of opponent — a ranked Big 12 team with a Heisman candidate and superior talent at every position. He said what a coach says when he knows his team is outmanned but refuses to concede the outcome.

"But as a man once told me, you don't have to beat them 365 days out of the year," Blakeney said. "We only had to beat them in one 60-minute segment."

The trustee who worried about 70-0 got his answer on that Thursday night in September.

Scarbinsky put a bow on it: "It may have happened in Movie Gallery Stadium, but this was a blockbuster night."