As significant anniversary numbers go, 18 isn't exactly one of them, but I still found it mind-blowing that 18 years ago to the day on Monday, the Panthers and Jaguars first met in the Hall of Fame Game, the first preseason game for either team.

(Maybe I appreciate the 18 things because I was a teenager when the two teams played? Or maybe it's that the Panthers and Jaguars feel like the teenagers of the NFL?)

Actually it was the first game for either team: kicking off on July 29, 1995 at 2:30 p.m. ET in Canton, Ohio, the Hall of Fame Game saw Carolina topple Jacksonville 20-14.

It was a game that featured one of the all-time legends in Panthers history, late, great linebacker Sam Mills:

Sam Mills played in the 1995 Hall of Fame Game for Carolina. (USATSI)
Sam Mills played in the 1995 Hall of Fame Game for Carolina. (USATSI)

Keep Pounding, y'all.

You know what else is legendary about this game? Mark Brunell vs. Frank Reich. Kerry Collins and Steve Beuerlein also were involved.

BRUNELL. REICH. LOOK OUT AMERICA.
Brunell. Reich. Look out, America. (USATSI)

And then there's some of the bizarre things that remembering this game led me to find. Like this utterly amazing recap of the Panthers 1995 season, when they finished 7-9 ... in the NFC West.

There's also these perfectly 90's trading-card-type things that were apparently created to celebrate the matchup:

And, perhaps my favorite thing out of all this, finding a Pete Prisco article in the Florida Times-Union where Pete writes that, two years after this game, the Jaguars still consider the Panthers their big brother.

Lest we end on a sour note, though, how about a ticket stub?