“I won’t be able to be there. My family and I are going to the festival back home,” he said plainly.

She paused then began, “I thought you said that you grew up in a town with one red light and less than 1,000 people.”

“I did. But this festival is a tradition for us. We make a plan to go each year,” he looked at her with a mild sense of confusion.

“I’ve probably heard of it. Which festival is it again?” she came back, confident that she would recognize the name.

“UFO Days.”

She paused with the instant understanding that she had never heard of the festival. She held back a slight giggle at the absurdity of the name. Little did she know the story behind the annual celebration was even more bizarre.

The small town of Fyffe sits atop Sand Mountain at the start of the Appalachian Mountains in North Alabama near Fort Payne. While the town itself may be unassuming, it holds a history that is far from it. While many in the state are familiar with the town’s relatively recent history, others are completely unaware that the small town of Fyffe once garnered global attention. Luckily, Landmarks of DeKalb County has compiled information about the unbelievable event.

It was the early afternoon of February 11th, 1989 when the first call came in to the Fyffe Police Department. Reports of a mysterious object started flooding the phone lines.

When asked to give specifics as to what they were seeing, one eyewitness gave the following information, “bright lights at the top and bottom and a real bright light at the center. The curvature was outlined in green.”

Over the course of the afternoon and well into the next day, the Fyffe Police Department fielded calls from concerned locals. After compiling nearly 50 reports, the department was able to determine that the object seen by eyewitnesses was hovering at an angle in the sky from 1 o’clock in the afternoon to 7 o’clock in the evening.

One of the first of these calls prompted Fyffe Police Chief Junior Garmany and Assistant Police Chief Fred Works to check on the matter. They quickly discovered that something was in the sky overhead and they set out to chase the object. “At that time me and Fred were on County Road 43,” shared Chief Garmany. The pair parked and left their vehicle and suddenly noticed the object heading toward them.

“The object came on over and got straight overhead. It was big, wide, and appeared to be a wide triangular shape. We kept waiting to hear the sound. We kept looking at each other and saying ‘Where’s the sound?’ We never heard anything,” shared Assistant Chief Works. “What I saw the first time was like nothing I ever saw before. It was not a helicopter, it was not a plane. Not a sound,” recounted Garmany.

The history-making Fyffe incident was covered by more than 100 news organizations around the world with many coming to town to find out more about the mysterious phenomenon that had occurred. It is this event that the city commemorates each year at the Fyffe UFO Days Festival which brings the community together through food, games, live entertainment, and hot air balloon rides.

Courtesy of SoulGrown Alabama. 

No. 14 seed Alabama softball will face No. 6 UCLA in the first game of the Women’s College World Series on Thursday at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.

The Crimson Tide (38-18) is coming off of an NCAA super regional win over No. 3 Tennessee, where it lost Game 1, 3-2, but took Game 2 in 14 innings behind a Kristen White RBI then won Game 3 behind a Riley Valentine grand slam.

It marks Alabama’s second straight trip to the Women’s College World Series and 15th in program history. It comes after the Crimson Tide finished under .500 in conference play for the first time in program history and lost six of its last eight games before the NCAA Tournament, including a first-round SEC Tournament exit.

UCLA (42-10) is coming off of a Los Angeles Super Regional sweep over No. 11 seed Georgia (8-0, 6-1). The Bruins are the reigning Pac-12 champions.

Kenleigh Cahalan leads the Alabama offense, batting .317 with 57 hits 29 RBIs. Across the Tennessee series, Cahalan went 5-for-13, including going a perfect 3-for-3 in Sunday’s win. Kristen White has been explosive in the leadoff spot for Alabama, with three-straight multi-hit games between the regional and super regional rounds.

From the circle, Jocelyn Briski and Kayla Beaver have a combined 1.77 ERA. Beaver started in Game 1 of the Knoxville Super Regional before coming in for relief in the final two games and getting the saves. Briski started in the circle in Games 2 and 3, giving up three earned runs across the two starts.

ALABAMA SOFTBALL: Grand slam propels Alabama softball past Tennessee to Women’s College World Series

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