Program Profiles: Auburn

Auburn University (SEC)
since 1891
Mascot: Tigers
Colors: Orange and Navy Blue

Poor Tigers. Not so long ago they were an undefeated team that got left out of the 2004 championship game so USC could slaughter Oklahoma instead of giving the nation a decent game. It’s one of those things that will be whined about for generations, but unlike most of them, deservedly so. They’ve always been pretty decent and it looks like pretty decent, with some standout seasons, is what we can expect from them. Even if they did jump the gun on firing Tommy Tuberville.

We can also expect a whole lot of Alabama hate. The Iron Bowl is often considered one of “the most intense intrastate college rivalries in the country”. I doubt there’s another series which the state House of Representatives had to step in and declare a truce between two schools. Alabama is leading overall, but Auburn has taken the recent advantage. But they also have the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” with Georgia, which has been played practically every year since 1898. It’s currently seventh in most played rivalry series, but perhaps most remarkable is its parity in outcome; Auburn currently has a razor thin lead over Georgia. In the distant past (before the SEC split into divisions) there were annual games with Tennessee and Florida, but these days there are few special feelings about these games.

There are lots of special traits of Auburn though. The most notable is Toomer’s Corner. After home victories, Auburn fans run out to the intersection of campus and downtown and roll the trees. Normally, I consider it the height of ignorance to deface your own property (like tearing down the goal posts), but this is such a simple stupid thing to do, I’ll let the Tigers get away with it. And despite the fact their mascot is a Tiger, they’re fond of running around saying “War Eagle”. It’s one of those fabulous mythic stories from football (see below), but it’s still silly. And they can also be called Plainsmen, from a Robert Goldsmith poem. Lay off the excess nicknames Auburn.

So they’re officially represented by Aubie, a Tiger, but the War Eagle hangs out on the sidelines because a Civil War soldier adopted a baby eagle he found on the field, naming it- with all the creativity of an aggie- War Eagle. Years later when he attended an Auburn game as a faculty member the eagle broke loose after the first TD scored against Georgia prompting the crowd to yell “War Eagle!” It stuck.