Why I Believe in Auburn and Love It
September 2, 2023
Skye Underwood
“I have descended into college football’s Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have witnessed my first Auburn game in Jordan-Hare Stadium and I’ve been changed forever.” — Bud Poliquin
For she has shown my eyes not only the beauty of a picturesque landscape and majestic architecture, but of the human spirit from those who cherish her, whether in the consoling of defeat or celebration of victory.
While blue paints her sky and orange bricks protect her infrastructure, her true beauty cannot be captured by one’s eyes alone. For you must embrace her, breathe her in and capture the very essence that makes her so beloved by the masses who hold her dear.
While those of fame have graced her presence, she’s always left an everlasting mark upon them. The man who bears college football’s most famous trophy’s name — John Heisman was once her head football coach and upon his farewell to the Plains after five years he penned an intimate, heartfelt letter — “At last we are to part. Is it not hard to believe? There are tears in my eyes, and tears in my voice; tears even in the trembling of my hand as I write you,” Heisman admitted.
“Can a man be associated for five successive seasons with Grand Old Auburn, toiling for her, befriended by her, striving with her, and yet not love her? No.”
As great as John Heisman’s impact was on college football, it was no greater than Auburn’s impact on John Heisman.
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt once proclaimed that Auburn was his mistress, “the other woman,” he explained. After all, Van Pelt is a proud Maryland alum, but even he had to admit the effect Auburn had on him after witnessing his first game in The Loveliest Village on the Plains. The SportsCenter anchor was left in awe when he acknowledged, “it’s the best scene I have ever seen for college football.”
Another prime example of the impact that Auburn Football has on people who experience it for the first time took place over twenty years ago in 2002 when the Syracuse Orangemen traveled down to the Plains from upstate New York for an out-of-conference affair.
The game was spectacular and the equivalent of a grueling 12-round heavyweight boxing match where the competitors trade blow for blow, but only one man, or team in this case is left standing. Auburn legendary running back Carnell ‘Cadillac’ Williams raced around left end to the corner of the endzone for the knockout blow leading the Tigers to a remarkable 37-34 triple-overtime win.
Bud Poliquin was sitting in the press box that night. He is now a retired columnist who covered Syracuse so he was there to do his job, but got caught in the crosshairs of the Auburn experience when the ‘Cuse played in the state of Alabama for the first time in its program’s history.
After the horn sounded in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Poliquin penned a masterpiece of a column titled ‘Go To Auburn, Be Forever Changed’ when he so eloquently described the out of body experience that is Auburn Football when he wrote, “I have descended into college football’s Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have witnessed my first Auburn game in Jordan-Hare Stadium and I’ve been changed forever.”
Poliquin said it was by far the most popular column of his career.
“It was the only column in my career that drew responses from all seven continents … including, yes, Antarctica,” Poliquin said.
From a college football legend who bears the sport’s most famous trophy’s name, to the face of the worldwide leader in sports, to a retired sports columnist in upstate New York, to Apple CEO Tim Cook, or Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee, Auburn impacts the world.
And there’s something inherently special about the Loveliest Village on the Plains that separates her from every other college town. For anyone who truly knows her believes that she is so much more than just her football, or basketball, or any of her athletic programs for that matter.
It was Auburn legend Pat Dye who may have summed it up best when he said, “Alabama fans love Alabama Football. Auburn fans love Auburn.”
Even as her men’s basketball program has found a pearl of a coach whose passion and love for Auburn is as infectious as any die-hard fan, some people get it, and others will simply have to take my word for Auburn’s luster until they have the opportunity to experience it for themselves.
There’s no place quite like Auburn. And new head football coach Hugh Freeze knows that. He’s poured his heart and soul into the program since the day he was hired and the Tigers have had as good of an off-season as any team in college football after an excellent portal class and commitments from two in-state five-stars who were previously committed to Auburn’s top two rivals Georgia and Alabama before Freeze flipped them. Flip the script indeed, and now that the 2023 season has finally arrived, Auburn Football is alive and well.
The Auburn family has never been more excited as indicated by record breaking ticket sales. The Tigers have sold more season tickets than at any other point in program history. In fact, today’s sellout against UMass (2:30 pm c ESPN) will be the most people to ever watch a home opener in Jordan-Hare Stadium history.
After swinging by Toomer’s Drugs for an ice cold lemonade, tens of thousands of fans will gather outside of the stadium to witness the long running pre-game tradition of Tiger Walk, like Moses parting the Red Sea, Auburn players will make their way to the stadium on foot down a thin path engulfed by fans on each side sharing high-fives, back-pats, and of course shouts of “War Damn Eagle!” for the gladiators in orange and blue. But the electricity is just getting started because an eagle flight awaits you!
Auburn’s Tiger Walk is a tradition that goes back many years and was the first of its kind. Often imitated, never duplicated.
The best pre-game tradition in the country, the flight of Auburn’s war eagle, which circles the stadium with its 6.5 foot wingspan flapping in the wind just above the heads of 88,043 fans before swooping down and landing at midfield to the crowd’s cry of “Warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Eagle, Hey!”
Her sporting events are like family reunions giving us reason to reassemble among familiar faces which all share one thing in common — our love of Auburn. It’s especially fun reassembling outside of the stadium after wins to yeet a roll of toilet paper in the Toomer’s oaks.
As a new season is upon us, let us unify like we have never been unified. Let us come together as one Auburn. It’s been a long time since she’s experienced that kind of synergy and that’s when Auburn’s at her best.
Auburn more than anything is her people … from all walks of life and all parts of the planet.
So remember, no matter where this life takes us or the miles that separate us from her, we carry her in our hearts because she’s alive through us and we are alive through “Grand Old Auburn.”
