Evan Woodbery - 100 Things Auburn Fans Should Know and Do -Notes

 This book was published in 2012 so it doesn't include the Malzahn era.  The only weakness with this book is that it is all football----no basketball, baseball, or other sports.  Surely Auburn people want to know about Charles Barkley and Tim Hudson.

#1  The 2010 season, a magical football season with a once in a lifetime Heisman QB.

#2  The 1957 National Championship team.  Incredible run: a perfect season.  A halfback named Lloyd Nix was the QB.  Nix threw the ball all of 60 times during the season completing 33.  Halfbacks were Tommy Lorino and Bobby Hope with fullback Billy Atkins.  First undefeated season since 1932 and first unbeaten season since 1913.  What a defense!  The Tigers gave up an astounding 2.8 points a game and pitched 6 shoutouts.  Of the 28 points scored against them all year one touchdown was from an interception return.  This team beat Alabama 40 to 0.  Administrator Bill Beckwith masterfully  campaigned for Auburn to win the AP title.

#3  The first Auburn-Alabama game at Jordan-Hare. I have never liked The Iron Bowl even though I think Coach Jordan came up with that term. You cannot emphasize enough how big this game was. Alabama people said they would never play Auburn in Auburn.  They were wrong.  Playing that game in Birmingham giving Alabama a home field advantage becaume an anachronism.  This was a game Auburn HAD to win and win it they did 30-20.  Eventually Alabama moved their game from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa.  The Tigers won 9 to 0 the first time in Tuscaloosa in 2000.

#4  Coach Jordan grew up in Selma, born on September 10, 1910, nicknamed "Shug" because of his fondness for sugar cane.  He enrolled at Auburn in 1928 and became a 3-sport letterman including baseball as a left-handed pitcher.  He was an assistant coach at Auburn for Chet Wynne.  During World War II he was part of the Normandy invasion and received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.  After one season with the Miami Seahawks he joined Wally Butt's staff at Georgia.  Auburn picked Earl Brown over Shug in 1947 but after a winless '47 season he was named Auburn's head football coach in 1951.  In 25 years he won 175 games.  He served five years on the Auburn Board of Trustees after his retirement after the 1975 season and died at 69 in 1980.

#5  The undefeated 2004 team should have been named National Champions at least after USC was stripped of the title.  After the disappointing 2003 season I remember seeing watching the opening game against Louisiana-Monroe.  Though Auburn won handily, I didn't see anything to make me think this team would go unbeaten.  Number 2 is all this team got though it should have been #1.  

#6  The glory of "Punt, Bama, Punt!"  will always live in the annals of Auburn lore.  Blocking two punts back-to-back both returned for touchdowns by the same two Auburn players is hard to top.  The bumper stickers "Punt, Bama, Punt" were everywhere.  The most stunning Auburn win over Alabama.

#7  The history of Jordan-Hare first named Auburn Stadium started on November, 1939 when Dick McGowan threw to Babe McGeHee for a touchdown the game ending in a 7-7 tie with a stadium capacity of 7,500 all on the west side of the field.  The name was changed to Cliff Hare in 1949 and capacity was raised to 21,500.  Jordan's tenure saw an additional 40,000 seats added.  Upper decks were added in 1980 and 1987.  In 2005 the name became "Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium."  Other amenities have been added over the years including the 3 million dollar high definition scoreboard.  As of the writing of this book Auburn's winning percentage at home is 80%.  

#8  Bo knows.  I saw recently where Bo said Deon Sanders would make a great Auburn football coach.  We may get to find out if this is true.  Bo was truly the best athlete to eve suit up at Auburn.  Watching him run with football is still a treat.  Watching his athleticism on the baseball field is a treat.  We will never see his likes again.

#9  When Pat Dye became the Auburn football coach in 1981 you knew from the start that he was a winner.  He instilled confidence and pride in the Auburn people.  Bo knows, but Auburn people knew from the beginning that Coach Dye was going to lead Auburn to great things, and he did..  He started like all good coaches start by recruiting impact players like Bo Jackson.

#10  Until Cam Newton came along Pat Sullivan was the exemplar of Auburn's greatest quarterback.  I was there for his first varsity game in September of 1969.  I never will forget his first pass, a long pass down the field, incomplete.  Everybody cheered that incomplete pass amazingly because we saw that he was an athletic QB like we had never seen before.  

#11  I have never and will never like the moniker "The Iron Bowl."  It's the Auburn-Alabama game period.  The first game was played in Birmingham in 1893 at Lakeview Park where about 500 fans watched Auburn win 32 to 22 on a converted baseball field.   In 1907 the game ended in 6-6 tie.  Forty-one years the game resumed in 1948.  A disagreement, not a fight, ended the competition for forty-one years.  Birmingham was chosen as the site with Legion Field seating 44,000 at the time.  Alabama won the first game in 1948 but Auburn won a stunning upset 14-13 in 1949.  This game is different and always will be.

#12  Jimmy Hitchcock was Auburn's first All-American football player in 1932.

#13  Mike Donahue is one of the most fascinating figures in Auburn sports history.  In the 1910's it was common for colleges to use irregulars, players who were not even students at the institution, on their football teams.  Coach Donaa never did this.  He coached honestly.  He used regular students and coached them up his way.  A Yale grad only 5' 4" tall, he stepped off the train in Auburn in 1904.  Unlike Pat Dye, Mike Donahue did not look like a football coach and probably did not talk like one either.  I suspect he was the only Yale grad to grace the Auburn football sidelines.

Donahue learned football under Walter Camp at Yale.  He came to Auburn after John Heisman.  He led Auburn (called API then) to four one-loss seasons and three undefeated seasons with an overall record of 99-35 and 5.

He was also Auburn's first basketball coach and had other supervisory duties.  In his spare time he taught English, math, history, and Latin.  A real Renaissance man if ever there was one.

For Coach Donahue basketball was a contact sport.  No fouls were called for they only slowed up the game.

You'll never read about another football coach like Coach Donahue.  He tried to develop well-rounded young men as well as developing good football players.

Donahue was lured away from Auburn after the 1922 season by LSU, but he did not have the same success at LSU as he did at AUBURN.

He later coached at Springhill College in Mobile.

#14  I fondly remember Auburn-UGA in 1971 when Pat Sullivan put on a show and performance which clinched his Heisman Trophy.  Auburn rolled 35 to 20 in Athens,

#15  Written by George Petrie, the Auburn Creed is Auburn's enduring philosophy.

I believe that this is a practical world and I can count only on what I earn.  Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.

I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my hands and my mind to work skillfully.

I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.

I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.

I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.

I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness to all.

I believe in my country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my home, and I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God."

And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.

#16  The 2010 comeback in Tuscaloosa was certainly one of the most satisfying wins in Auburn history.  Trailing 24 o 0 the Tigers come back to win 28 to 27. on their way to the undisputed National Championship.   Improvable, but it happened made all the more pleasurable by beating that insufferable egotist Greg McElroy.

#17  George Petrie---Auburn's First Football Coach---A Great University Leader.  David Housel talks about the "Auburn Man."  Some people have suggested that Housel is the prototypical Auburn Man.  I say no.  The prototypical Auburn Man is George Petrie.  He not only started football at Auburn; he was a distinguished academic, at one time head of the Graduate School.

#18  Auburn really was the best college football team in 1983, but ESPN championed Miami after they Hurricanes beat Nebrasks on their home field in the Orange Bowl which I advocate won the recognition.  Auburn played an incredible schedule in '83 losing only to Texas.  Miami lost to Florida.  The Canes jumped from #5 to #1 after the home field victory.  Auburn was relegated to #2.  I call this Auburn's deserved but unrecognized  national championship.  

#19 Cam Newton was a once in a lifetime quserterback. The controversy over his recruitment is long past.

#20  The first Auburn-Alabama was on February 22, 1893 at Birmingham's Lakeview Park.  The game was no without controversy.  Football was considered a brutal and unsafe game.  Many faculty members opposed this barbaric sport.  But the game was a hot ticket.  Auburn brought 226 fans.  Auburn's headquarters was the Florence hotel, adorned in orange and blue.  The Tigers prevailed 32 to 22.

#21  Tiger Walk has to be experienced first hand, the only way to understand it.  It was spontaneous but became organized in the late 80's.  The greatest on was in 1989 when Alabama came to Jordan-Hare for the first time.  Now Tiger Walk also goes on the road.

#22  Media Watch.  Nothing to say.

#23  The history of Auburn's football uniforms.  Fortunately our uniforms have been mostly stable over the years, and I like it that way.  Constant uniform changes are not attractive.

#24  Terry Beasley was the best wide receiver in Auburn history.  He had such blazing speed and he seemingly never dropped a pass.  These were the Sullivan to Beasley years 1969 to 1971.  Unfortunately Terry had health issues off the field.  Lots of depression and mental health issues.  He suffered 16 concussions across his Auburn and NFL career.  He cam out of Lee High School in Montgomery.  He admitted that both UA and Auburn offered illegal at the time inducements although Alabama offered more.  He thought Auburn was a more down-to-earth and friendlier campus that UA.    After his football career ended he had various personal problems in addition to health problems.  His business went under, a divorce, and stress.  One reason also to pick Auburn is that he knew Pat Sullivan was also headed to Auburn.  I get the impression that in his heart he always wanted to go to Auburn.

#25  How the SEC came to be, a long and complicated story, and the story continues with Texas and Oklahoma waiting in the wings.

#26  The Wreck Tech tradition was alive and well when I started at Auburn as a freshman in the fall of 1968.  Students were supposed to parade in their pajamas but I did not do so.  Coach Jordan spoke at the Tech pep really.  He would speak at the Tech and Alabama pep rallies.  That's how strong the Georgia Tech rally was.  Tech was once in the SEC, but opted out somewhere in the 60's.  On September 2, 2005, Auburn temporarily reinstitute the pajama paraded before Auburn opened the season against Tech.  Auburn-Georgia was a staple of Southern football from 1906 to 1987.  Tradition is that the pj parade started with Auburn's first home game against Tech in 1896.  The first game was played on a field behind Samford Hall.  Auburn won in a big upset in 1955 at Grant Field in Atlanta.  Tech missed two extra points as Auburn won 14 to 12.

#27  I met David Housel as a freshman in 1968 as Housel was a senior.  He went on to be a journalist, a member of Auburn's journalism faculty, an SID, and AD.  His service to Auburn University is immeasurable.  At the same time, I have never been a big Housel fan though I cannot say why.

#28  Recruiting at Auburn has always been mainly in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida though basketball great John Mengelt came from Indiana and Jason Campbell came from Mississippi.

#29  Auburn has always had a strong strength and conditioning program.

#30  The author lauds Jim Fyffe and rightly so, but I wish he had talked the complete history of Auburn's radio football and basketball announcers.

#31  The Auburn-LSU rivalry is a good one and is mostly recently a modern one.  I remember a time when we did not play LSU every year.  This before 1992 when the schedule started featuring LSU as our big early season conference game.

#32  Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams were our best running back combo, and now Cadillace is our interim coach.

#33  John Heisman coached at Auburn.  Hard to believe, but yes he did.

#34  As Auburn announces a new AD let us not forget  the most important AD in Auburn history: Jeff Beard who was hired in 1951 when Auburn's athletic fortunes were at its lowest ebb.  The athletic department was losing money.  Jeff Beard immediately hired Shug Jordan as head football coach---under Earl Brown the football team was winless in 1950--- and he started putting the athletic department in the black.  Beard-Eaves Coliseum was named after him.  Starting in 1951, Alabama native Jeff Beard put Auburn athletics on the right path forward.

#35  Zeke Smith was a native of Uniontown, a small city in Alabama's Black Belt.  He won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best interior lineman in 1957.  Tracy Rocker would win the Outland in 1988.  I wonder how much Zeke Smith weighed.

#36  Interesting read on Gene Chizik.  The author is writing in 2012 which turns out to be Chizik's last season at Auburn.  The author praises Chizik.  He spoke too soon.

#37  Henry Harris was Auburn's first black basketball player in 1968.  He was a freshman when I was a freshman.  James Owens in 1970 was our first black football player.  Owens was knows as "The Big O."  Auburn was criticized in some quarters for using mostly as a blocking bank.

#38  Jason Campbell was a highly recruited  QB recruit out of Taylorssville, Mississippi.  Tommy Tuberville was recruiting him at Ole Miss.  Campbell came to Auburn with Tuberville.  Campbell had the misfortune to deal with four OCs in four years.  He received mostly criticism as best I can remember.  That dissipated 2004 with the undefeated season.  I am not sure what Campbell has done after his mediocre NFL career except that he is now a color commentator on the Auburn football radio broadcasts.

#39  Not much is said anymore about Senator Tuberville's Auburn coaching career.  He reached the pinnacle with the undefeated 2004 season and it all went downhill from there including the i'll fated firing of Al Borges and the hiring of Tony Franklin in 2008.  I question Tuberville's intelligence in the hiring of Franklin whose style of spread offense was clearly ill-suited for the SEC.  I question his political intelligence when he does not know the three branches of the Federal Government.  Yes, Tuberville calls a good ole country boy.  I would amend that to say he is a good ole country bumpkin.

#40  Coach Harsin I assume was not a booster club or rubber chicken circuit person.  According this author Tuberville and Chizik loved such meetings.

#41  Most Auburn fans remember Jimmy "Red" Phillips as a receiver, and he was a great receiver, but his greatest contribution to the team in 1957 was on defense.  

#42  Auburn has a memorable and successful bowl record.  I honestly  cannot ddmdm df my vifxxg Auburn  bowl game.  Auburn played two Gator Bowls in 1954, the only SEC team go play in the same bowl twice in a yr.  We all remember the 1982 Alabama game. the blowout in 1969, and the come-from-behind in 1970.  Of course, 2010 is the best of all.

#43  Great student athletes.

#44  The Eric Ramsey mess.

#45 Vince Dooley.  Apropos to switch ahead to Coach Dooley.

Vincent Joseph Dooley was an American college football coach. He was the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, as well as the University of Georgia's athletic director from 1979 to 2004. During his 25-year head coaching career, Dooley compiled a 201–77–10 record. Wikipedia

Born: September 4, 1932, Mobile, AL

Died: October 28, 2022, Athens, GA

Spouse: Barbara Meshad Dooley (m. 1960)

Children: Derek Dooley

Grandchildren: John Taylor, Julianna, Peyton

Parents: William Dooley, Nellie Dooley

Siblings: Bill Dooley

Vince Dooley grew up in Mobile and McGill Catholic High School.  He played QB for Shug Jordan.  When Joel Eaves left as Auburn's basketball coach to become the AD at Georgia, he hired the Auburn freshman football coach Vince Dooley.  The rest is history as they say.  After retiring as the Bulldog's football, Dooley remained as AD for many years.  He coached old-fashioned right wing football.  Known and respected throughout the college football world, Vince was one of th good guys in college athletics.

#46  In the old days fall football practice started with two-a-days.  Now since college football is year around, there are no longer the traditional two-a-days.

#47  Tucker Frederickson may have been Auburn/s best all-around football player.  He played both running back and defensive  back.

#48  On November 21, 1942,  Auburn upset Georgia 27 to 13 for one of Auburn's greatest football victories

#49  It's the Auburn University Marching Band, and I like it that way.  We don't need no silly nicknames for our band.

#50  Auburn played Villanova to a 7-7 tie on January 1, 1937 in Havana, Cuba, in the Bacardi Bowl.  It was a very competitive game played under a hot sun.  Attendance was about 12,000.  Funny seeing the picture of some action in this book with the players not wearing face guards.

#51  The author says that Aubie turned 33 in t912 so I guess that means he is 45 today.  The concept of Aubie began as a cartoon in the Birmingham Post-Herald by artist Phil Neel in 1959.  Aubie made his first appearance in his current form at the 1979 SEC basketball tournament as Auburn upset favored Vanderbilt.   The competition to play Aubie from the Auburn student body is fierce.

#52  For some reason the pregame eagle flight has never been a big deal to me.

#53  Learn how to tailgate at Auburn.  Always been a huge deal.

#54  When Auburn is on the road.

#55  The Amazins of 72.

#56  Always talk of powerbrokers behind the scenes.

$57  Walter Gilbert was a great Auburn football player.

#58  The Tigers were undefeated in 1913 and should have claimed a national chmpioiship but didn't.

#59  Tracy Rocker was the backbone of the great 1988 defense.

#60  Crowd control is always important.

#61  I remember when Auburn had the 9 picks against Florida in 1969.

#62  I remember when Jimmy Sidle was the last QB to lead the nation in rushing in 1963.  He was our first great dual threat quarterback.

#72  The 1950 Auburn football team might have been the worst Auburn team ever.  Vince Dooley did it was this worst football team he ever saw.  Earl Brown was replace by Shut Jordan the next year.

#74  Kendall Simmons.  Coaching changes at Auburn after Coach Harsin, the OC,and the tight ends coaches were fired October 31.  One result is that with elevation of OL Coach Friend to co-offensive coordinator. Kendall Simmons has moved from an analysis position to offensive line coach.  Simmons had a long and successful NFL career.  I bet he will do a good job.

#75  The Toomer's lemonade thing has never been a big deal to me.

#76  Bring the kids to the game.

#77  Much commentary on Terry Bowden's time at Auburn.  Fantastic start then he flamed out.  Several coaching jobs after Auburn including now at Monroe, but he has never regained the lusteer he started with.

#78  Doug Barfield had a rough five years following Shug Jordan.  Some Auburn fans say he never had a chance.  I say he did have a chance but by 1980 Auburn did not win a single conference game paving the way for Pat Dye.  Barfield made $48,000 his last year.  Hard to believe.

#79  As Carnell Williams makes his debut 11/5/22 as Auburn's interim head football coach, it is good to remember that he initially committed to Tennessee. The Cadillac was the top recruit in Alabama in the winter of 2000 and Tommy Tuberville considered him a once in a lifetime prize.  Tuberville responded by visiting Williams in his home in Atalla with his entire coaching staff.  At first he did not ask Williams to renounce his commitment to Tennessee but merely visit Auburn and give the Tigers a chance.  Cadillac eventually realized he preferred Auburn.  Ronnie Brown also committed to Tennessee but also changed his mind.

#80  The game in Tuscaloosa in 2000 was cold but all I remember iss that we were there and Auburn won 9 to 0.

#81  Fob James is not one of my favorite people.  He was a terrible governor and a complete buffoon even though  he played for Auburn and left Auburn as our all-time leading rusher at that time.

#82  Auburn's nickname, the Loveliest Village, comes from the Oliver Goldsmith poem.

#83 Auburn's athletic facilities have continually improved over the decades.  The new football complex just opened is the latest example.

#84  Dameyune Craig was a great AU QB, but my recollection is that he never quite achieved the greatness we expected for such a gifted dual threat quarterback.

#85  I remember the win over Florida in 2001.  The Gators came in ranked # 1 in the country and Auburn won 23-20 on a clutch Damon Duval 44-yd field goal.

#86  The 1968 Auburn-Alabama freshmen game was an incredible comeback wiin for Auburn a sign of things to come Sullivan and Beasley.  Trailing 27 to 0, the Tigers stormed back with 36 unanswered points to stun the Tide.  What a great win111

#87  Many great Auburn placekickers..  Maybe Al Del Drreco was the best.  In my time as a student I remember Rat Riley.

#88

#89   When Carlos Rogers was playing I did not realize how good he was.  He was the highest AU defensive back ever drafted by the Redskins in 2005.  Our of Augusta, Georgia, Rogers liked Coach Ciizik who was DB coach.

#90  Jay Jaobs was Auburn AD as of the writing of this book.  I am not sure how much he is remembered and respected.  I guess it would depend on how you ask.  My recollection is that after Auburn he took a job in the Univ. of Florida AD department.