Eat your heart out, America. On Friday, November 26th, when toe meets leather in Bryant-Denny stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide will strap it on in college football's most intense sixty minutes.

In truth, the intensity hardly subsides for 365 days in the Yellowhammer State. The combatants are no ordinary Boys of Fall, for they lay their guts on the line in a no-holds-barred test of pride, manhood, and glory. Their preparation to grace this gridiron stage begins as mere boys, and simply playing in this game of games is an instant gold star on the resume.

Friday's Iron Bowl will not feature Kirk Herbstreit's latest teenage crush, a cute, well-coached high-octane team who plays on blue plastic against their homecoming foe of the week. And instead of high-schoolish crowds of 30,000, the Iron Bowl will test the visiting team's mettle in the bourbon marinated madness of 101,000.

The 2010 Iron Bowl features the best of yesterday against the best of today, the 2009 Heisman winner Ingram against his more explosive successor, Cam Newton, and the defending national champion head coach the most deserving national coach of the year, Gene Chizik.

If you're still craving drama, add this subplot - a chess match featuring defensive mind Nick Saban against offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who is very possibly shifting the entire paradigm of SEC football recruiting and offensive strategy.

As southerners, we know that you just wouldn't understand the Iron Bowl cultural reality, and frankly my dear, we don't give a damn. Our job is to hate each other, as befitting the bad blood of this uncivil war. You wince at the use of the "H" word over a sporting event, and mock us as rubes, even as we chuckle at your caricature of the word "rivalry".

On one thing we can agree, Bama and Auburn folk - there is simply no other rivalry in the nation which comes remotely close to the ferocity of the Iron Bowl for the rival fans who live and work in inescapable proximity, year round.

In case you are a generation X or Y reader, the Iron Bowl was so dubbed in honor of the city where steel was forged by hard working men just a short drive west of the game's historic "neutral" site, Legion Field. But the nickname describes the game itself - a white hot furnace which melts the weaker contestant in a physical and mental test of wills akin to the process of turning iron ore into steel.

"They call it the Iron Bowl," legendary ABC play-by-play man Keith Jackson would put it before the 1982 "Bo Over the Top" matchup, "and if it is in fact the Iron Bowl, you can expect a whole lot of scrap iron to be left when the scufflin' is done today, because they really get after it in this long running series."

Nestled as it is amid the Thanksgiving holiday, rival Iron Bowl fans will offer thanks for the abundant blessings of life in the south, devour turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, and pecan pie which amounts to a "pre-tailgate" meal. In mixed family gatherings, we try, and fail at feeble attempts to avoid contentious talk of the imminent pigskin war.

Enjoy here as a tailgating sampler of Iron Bowl heroics, a few legends of late November, and a tailgating appetizer for Auburn Tiger faithful who like an expectant mother await a championship game berth, just two victories within our grasp. These stomachs growl the pangs of Iron Bowl hunger which now spans 729 days of suffering. But who's counting?

There are hundreds of Auburn Tigers who roared when Iron Bowl bragging rights were on the line, so consider these but proxies for a litany of orange and blue warriors.

In 1970, Amen Corner took a physical toll on the Auburn Tigers as there were several key injuries in the Georgia game. As a result, Coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan had to move Tommy Yearout from offensive guard to linebacker, and shuffle other personnel for the Iron Bowl. On the heels of the 1969 blowout victory by the Tigers, 49-26, Bama entered as the underdog. The Sullivan to Beasley passing duo had reached legendary status, and was challenging the wishbone and defensive thinking of the day.

The 1970 Tigers would roar indeed in this Iron Bowl in Birmingham's Legion Field, but not before some nervous first half moments and a wild cardiac test which saw the lead switch four times: 20-17 Bama, 20-20, 27-20 Auburn, and 28-27 Bama before the Tigers landed the knockout punch for a 33-28 win. The Tide's Johnny Musso, a friend of Sullivan's, toted the ball a record 42 carries for 221 yards in the game and the total yardage was a mind bending 513 for Bama to Auburn's 457.

Alabama took an early 17-0 lead in the game, which would normally be cause for panic for teams accustomed in the day to final scores in the teens. Adding to the tension on the Tiger sideline was a first half injury to Terry Beasley which resulted from one of the few passes that eventual Heisman winner Pat Sullivan wished he could have back. From his office as Samford head football coach in Birmingham, Alabama this week, Sullivan recalled the critical game situation.

"On a pass play early in the game, I had hung Terry Beasley out to dry on the throw," recalls Sullivan, "as Alabama defensive back Tommy Wade made a vicious hit on Terry." Beasley would lie unconscious and bleeding from a deep laceration on the hit. After the requisite smelling salts and stitches to the chin, Beasley would reenter the game with two minutes to go until the half - this was, after all, not just a game.

The brilliant junior quarterback from Birmingham would settle the offense down, and despite being without Beasley for a long stretch, close the gap to 17-10 at the half.

Sully would go on to roll up 334 yards of passing and rushing in the game, with the game winning drive with 5:18 left featuring clutch throws to Alvin Bresler for 19 and Mickey Zofko for 36 to the Tide six to set up the winning score in a 33-28 Auburn comeback win.

"In that era, there was a mutual respect between Iron Bowl players," observes Sullivan today. "You played each other a lot in high school, and it was like playing your brother in the back yard. You wanted to do everything you could to whip him, but once it was over, win or lose, you loved and respected each other."

Sully's fireworks had treated the Auburn faithful to a second consecutive year of Iron Bowl glory, on the heels of the 1969 49-26 blowout win. Sullivan can smile in the distant memory of those great moments when the CBS cameras zoom on Cameron Newton in one day, a virtual lock to add a third Heisman to the Auburn trophy case.

As the years pass, the casual fan too easily abbreviates the monumental 1982 Auburn victory over their archrival as "Bo Over the Top", which indeed captures the crucial moment in the game. But the moment which vaulted Bo Jackson to instant celebrity in the hearts of Tiger faithful would never take place but for a defense that made clutch plays to keep Auburn in the game deep into the fourth quarter.

This was a defense built for toughness by Coach Dye, and ready to bring an end to the nine-year run of Iron Bowl misery for a long suffering fan base.

In the miserable nine-year run of Tide wins through 1981, the Tiger defeats were often as much a case of doubt, and forgetting how to close the deal in the Iron Bowl as they were a result of talent deficit.

All-American safety Bob Harris, from his home today in Florence, Alabama, recalls the psychology of the Iron Bowl at the time.

"Going against the '80 and '81 Bama teams," said Harris, "there just wasn't a lot of confidence we'd win. But in 1982, after a year of instilling toughness and confidence, Coach Dye told us they were never going to outwork us, and all we had to do was get on that bus and go up there and play hard, and we could beat them."

Doubt and fear would not beat Auburn in the '82 Iron Bowl, and Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was damn well aware of it.

"Going into the '82 Iron Bowl, since we ran the wishbone, we were prepared for Bama defensively," observed Harris. "They were the only wishbone team we faced that year. While it was tough to simulate the speed of the wishbone with any scout team, we saw it every day, and got work trying to stop Bo and Lionel."

Most every Iron Bowl delivers to the combatants a moment of truth - a make or break play that is a crucial turning point. Harris was the hero in two such plays, key interceptions, the first of which gave Auburn a short field for a touchdown drive and Randy Campbell score, and the second which iced the game after Bo's dive which shook the world.

Early in the game, Mark Dorminey delivered a brutal blow to the Tide's Joe Carter as the Tide threatened to go up 14-0. The ball in the air to a waiting Tim Drinkard who rambled 62 yards to the Bama 13 before quarterback Walter Lewis ran him down (a fact which Drinkard still catches hell about from tailgating mate Bob Harris these days). Lionel James would score on 3rd down from the 10 to tie the game in what amount to a probable 14-point swing.

Deep in the second quarter, from its own 23, Gerald Robinson nailed Walter Lewis on a backside blind rush, causing what Keith Jackson would call a "ball that came fluttering out like lame-legged turkey". Bob Harris broke hard on the ball in front of the Tide receiver, giving Auburn a short field at the 25. Campbell would score on 3rd and goal at the two to give Auburn to a 14-13 halftime lead.

Auburn's defense kept them in the game, and despite the Tide rolling up 445 yards of offense to Auburn's 132 through three quarters, the Tigers had shifted the pressure to Bama.

"It is remarkable how you feed off the crowd," says Harris. "In the '82 game it was at a fever pitch - and we drew a huge amount of energy from our fans."

On a drive for the ages with no margin for error, Campbell and the Tigers delivered. After taking the lead 23-22 on Bo's leap, pandemonium ensued with the Tiger faithful, but Harris knew it was too early to celebrate with 2:22 left and Bama having an outstanding kicker in Peter Kim.

With 1:53 left, on 4th and 6, Lewis looped a pass up for grabs and Harris again broke hard for the ball at its highest point and fell to the turf at the Tide 30 to ice the game as Auburn fans far and wide wept tears of pure joy like wanderers led from the wilderness.

"One of the things that was personally very gratifying to me," recalls Harris, "was that Bo Jackson came up to me and hugged me after the game. It meant a lot to me. Mark Dorminey and I were seniors, and we had befriended Bo. He would come down to our dorm room and hang out. We took it upon ourselves to keep Bo humble, and remind him he was a freshman. But Bo appreciated us like big brothers, and knew we respected him as that special difference maker who gave us a chance in every game."

The 1986 Iron Bowl, for me at least, rivals 1982 and even the 1989 game in terms of the sweetness it delivered. After the crushing upset defeats in '84 and '85, AU fans could not have stomached a third straight defeat which would stir the echoes of the 1970's decade misery. The week of the '86 Iron Bowl, Tide coach Ray Perkins made possibly the most moronic, insulting comment since Bear's 1972 "cow college" one liner. "The Iron Bowl can't possibly mean as much to Coach Dye," said Perkins, "because he did not play at Auburn or Alabama."

Two legends of the '86 Iron Bowl, quarterback Jeff Burger and running back Brent Fullwood, take delight in returning to the scene of that monumental win, dubbed the "Tillman Reverse" game.

"The game was huge to me," recalls Fullwood, "because I was a senior. But the game began rough for me. On the opening kickoff, I was hit at the sideline and suffered a torn meniscus. I was in serious pain, but Aundray Bruce yelled at me to stay in the game. And we all wanted that bitter taste gone after the way we lost in '85."

Through three quarters the Tide would lead, as the Tiger offense had opportunities squandered due to turnovers, but the fourth quarter would open with a statement Fullwood run. "On the opening play of the fourth quarter," Fullwood remembers, "we called 26 Power, and off tackle play designed to run right at Cornelius Bennett. Walter Reeves kicked him out, and I hit the sideline and burst into the end zone."

The run was vintage Fullwood, displaying a burst of speed despite like his childhood idol, Mercury Morris, despite the torn meniscus. With the gap now closed to 17-14 with a full quarter remaining, the Tigers were positioned to close the deal.

Burger recalls the critical do-or-die drive for Auburn in the game's remaining minutes, the Tigers still down 17-14. "On 4th and 3 near midfield," says Burger, "we called a timeout to get the right play called. When I went to the sideline, Coach Blakeney and Coach Sullivan were deciding what to run. Coach Dye looked at me, and asked, 'What play do you want to run, Jeff?'"

Burger kept a list of plays on his wrist band for two minute offense, and the words "poise and confidence". "I was startled Coach Dye would ask," but the play came to me immediately. "62 Z Mesh is ideal here, Coach," said Burger. "We haven't run it all game, and no matter what blitz they bring, I'll be able to get it off to Trey (Gainous)."

Burger made a perfect throw, and as thousands of Tiger fans' hearts were in their throat, Gainous clutched the reception just inches above the Legion Field turf.

On the ensuing play, it was big moment number two for Fullwood, a display of power and spinning that burst up the middle for 20 yards. "If Fullwood is injured," Keith Jackson commented, "he's got more gizzard than any man I know!"

"We were suddenly on a big roll offensively," said Burger. "It was bam, bam, bam. In a few plays, we were at the Bama 7, but time was running, under a minute."

Fans remember well next the Iron Bowl "near miss", a sudden turn of personnel and play calling disaster that worked fortuitously. "We had always practiced the reverse with Scott Bolton getting the ball, not Lawyer Tillman," recalls Burger. "When the reverse was signaled in, Lawyer was on the field, looking at me confused. I guess instinct took over, and I kept telling Lawyer to get down, get ready. I chopped the Bama noseguard, and Thompson kicked out the Bama defender. Then Lawyer made a great cut and dove in for the score. The funniest thing I remember then was Lawyer shooting the Bama sideline with two handguns as he headed off."

But the '86 Iron Bowl victory dance was not over, not for Coach Pat Dye.

"When the coaches met at midfield," said Burger, "I saw Coach Dye get in Perkins' face. He told Perkins to look up at the scoreboard, and said, 'You wanna know what this game means to me? Look up at that scoreboard, big guy!'

Joy is what we seek, Iron Bowl celebrants - the pure joy that is equal parts epic stress relief in avoiding defeat, and blissful freedom to let the tissue of Toomer's fly high and wide and the bragging rights commence.

The 1989 Iron Bowl, for obvious reasons, requires little or no recap as it is etched brilliantly in the minds of Tiger fans who were either there or have viewed the game from start to finish at least 20 times.

Yet one vivid televised image from the '89 game, a 30-20 Tiger win in the first ever Jordan-Hare Iron Bowl, remains to this day my favorite image of the joy of Iron Bowl victory - courtesy of linebacker Wayne Bylsma.

"Being a part of the 1989 Iron Bowl was one of the highlights of my career at Auburn," says Bylsma, a tailgating friend of this writer during this magical 2010 season. "Our feet never touched the ground that day as we came on the field. Mid way through the third quarter, we had just scored to take the lead, and we could feel the momentum was flowing Orange and Blue."

On the ensuing kickoff, Bylsma took the field on the kickoff team, ready to bust some Crimson heads as he was famous for in his playing days.

"Chris Jones, Dennis Wright, and Chad Mulinburg made a monster hit on the Tide returner, Gene Jelks. As we were coming off the field I shouted, "WE'RE HAVIN' SOME FUN NOW!"

Long before I had the good fortune to add Bylsma to my circle of great Auburn friends, I never forgot the image of # 55 ripping off his helmet, the historic game clearly in hand, Auburn's fourth straight over Bama. Bylsma's shining clean head burned bright into the television camera, and into the long memories of the Auburn Family.

Iron Bowl joy, it's what's for dinner, Auburn Tigers. Serve us a plate full in Jordan-Hare West!

War Damn Eagle!