Thirty years of SEC memories began with dominance of Pat Dye, Johnny Majors

Alabama photo by Kent Gidley / Alabama inside linebacker Michael Rogers (52), defensive end John Copeland (94) and outside linebacker Lemanski Hall (11) converge on Florida running back Errict Rhett during the early stages of the Crimson Tide's 28-21 win over the Gators in the 1992 SEC championship game at Birmingham's Legion Field.

This week opened the floodgates to a multitude of Southeastern Conference football memories.

Auburn's Pat Dye and Tennessee's Johnny Majors were the SEC's two most established coaches when my career at the Chattanooga Times Free Press began, with Dye having guided the Tigers to four league titles in the 1980s and with Majors having steered the Volunteers to a pair of crowns with a third on the way in 1990. Shared SEC titles were common before former league commissioner Roy Kramer added Arkansas and South Carolina to a 10-member collection and created two six-team divisions in 1992 and an unprecedented conference championship game.

In the eight seasons from 1983-90, Dye and Majors combined to win or share seven conference crowns.

Even before their deaths this week, the Times Free Press had planned to help navigate a desolate June on the sports landscape with the 15 most memorable SEC games I've had the privilege of covering the past three decades. These contests will be revealed during the next three weeks in chronological order, with five games from the 1990s, five from the 2000s and five from this past decade.

Some of these games determined champions. Some were symbolic, and some were simply three dazzling hours that will never be forgotten.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.

READ THE COMPLETE SERIES

Florida 48, Auburn 7 (1990): Spurrier's Gators arrived while ushering out Dye's Tigers

Alabama 28, Florida 21 (1992): Steve Spurrier on SEC title game: 'I didn't even know it was legal'

Auburn 38, Florida 35 (1993): The year college football's 'best team on radio' went 11-0

Alabama 29, Georgia 28 (1994): The night Jay Barker had to outlast Eric Zeier

Tennessee 28, Arkansas 24 (1998): Billy Ratliff's play arguably the most memorable in Vols history

Georgia 26, Tennessee 24 (2001): When a 'hobnail boot' described an instant classic

Georgia 24, Auburn 21 (2002): The fourth-and-15 play that turned a Florida-Auburn SEC title matchup into Georgia-Arkansas

LSU 17, Georgia 10 (2003): Nick Saban gets LSU back among the national elite

Florida 31, Alabama 20 (2008): Turning the SEC title game into a national semifinal