Auburn Tigers
The Auburn Tigers is the name given to several sports teams of Auburn University. The university is a member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 18 varsity teams in 13 sports:
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Athletics
Football
Auburn's football team, currently coached by Tommy Tuberville, was voted NCAA Division I-A national champions by the Associated Press in 1957. Two Auburn players, Bo Jackson in 1985 and Pat Sullivan in 1971, have won the Heisman Trophy. The Trophy's namesake, John Heisman, coached at Auburn from 1895 until 1899. Auburn is the only school that Heisman coached at (among others, Georgia Tech and Clemson) that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner. Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium has a capacity of 87,451 ranking as the eighth-largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA as of August 2004. Auburn played the first football game in the Deep South in 1892 against the University of Georgia at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The Tigers' first bowl appearance was in 1937 in the sixth Bacardi Bowl played in Havana, Cuba. As of 2005, AU Football has won six SEC Conference Championships, has had eleven total undefeated seasons, and since the division of the conference in 1992, six western division championships (1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005) and three trips to the SEC Championship game (1997, 2000, and 2004). Auburn plays archrival Alabama each year in a game known as the Iron Bowl. Although Auburn has won the last five meetings, Alabama leads the series over Auburn 38-32-1.
Auburn completed the 2004 football season with an unblemished 13–0 record winning the SEC championship, their first conference title since 1989 and their first outright title since 1987. However, this achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the Tigers being left out of the BCS championship game in deference to two other undefeated, higher ranked teams, USC and Oklahoma. The 2004 team was led by quarterback Jason Campbell (Washington Redskins), running backs Carnell Williams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Ronnie Brown (Miami Dolphins), and cornerback Carlos Rogers (Washington Redskins), all subsequently drafted in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Auburn is the only school to have two running backs drafted in the first five picks of the NFL Draft in the same year. The team hired a new offensive coordinator, Al Borges, who led the team to use the West Coast style offense, maximizing the use of both star running backs. Due to their lackluster out of conference schedule, they were not able to compete in the BCS title game as there were 2 other undefeated teams that registered better both with the voters and the BCS computer rankings.
Swimming and diving
In the last decade under head coach David Marsh, Auburn's swimming and diving program has become a virtual dynasty in the SEC and threatens to do the same nationally, with consecutive NCAA championships for both the men and women in 2003 and 2004. The men won their fourth consecutive title in 2006, and the women were national runner-up to Southeastern Conference rival University of Georgia. The 2004 championship was the third in a row for the women. The Auburn women reclaimed the National Championship from Georgia in 2006, winning by only three points, which is the second smallest margin in NCAA Swimming history. The Auburn men have won the SEC Championship 13 out of the last 14 years and also won national championships in 1997 and 1999. The Auburn men won their 11th consecutive SEC Title in 2007, while the Auburn women took home their fourth SEC Championship in the last five years. The Auburn men's 44 consecutive, five year dual meet win record came to an end on January 11th 2007 when they lost to Texas 130-113 exactly five years to the date of their last loss in 2001 which was also to Texas. Coach Marsh has been an US Olympic coach and AU swimmers have represented the US and several other countries in recent Olympics. Auburn's most famous swimmer is Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, winner of three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Auburn's most successful female Olympic swimmer is Kirsty Coventry (swimming for her home country of Zimbabwe) who won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
The 2006 Men's Swimming and Diving Senior Class, consisting of Kurt Cady, George Bovell, Eric Shanteau, and Doug Van Wie finished as the only senior class in AU History for any sport to go undefeated their entire college career. They never lost a Dual, SEC, or NCAA Meet.
The 2007 Women and Men's SEC Championship teams dominated the conference competion, winning by 228 points and 114.5 points over the second place teams respectfully. The men's team won 11 individual conference titles, including sweeping all diving and relay events. The women posted a school record for individual conference titles won at 12.
Men's basketball
The Auburn men's basketball team has enjoyed off-and-on success over the years. Its best known player is Charles Barkley.
Other NBA players from Auburn are Chuck Person, Wesley Person, Chris Porter, Marquis Daniels, Moochie Norris, and Pat Burke.
Women's basketball
The Auburn women's basketball team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse University of Tennessee and other competitive programs such as LSU, Georgia, and Vanderbilt, Auburn has won four regular season SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. AU has made sixteen appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament and only once, in the Tigers first appearance in 1982, have the Tigers lost in the first round. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games from 1988–1990 and won the Women's NIT in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after twenty-five years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly experienced, former Purdue University and US National and Olympic team head coach, Nell Fortner. Standout former Auburn players include: Ruthie Bolton, Vickie Orr, Carolyn Jones, Chantel Tremitiere and Monique Morehouse.
Baseball
Auburn Baseball has won six SEC championships, three SEC Tournament championships, appeared in sixteen NCAA Regionals and reached the College World Series (CWS) four times. After a disappointing 2003–2004 season, former Auburn assistant-coach Tom Slater was named head coach. Samford Stadium-Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park is considered one of the finest facilities in college baseball and has a seating capacity of 4,096 not including lawn areas. In addition to Bo Jackson, Auburn has supplied several other stand-out players to Major League Baseball, including Frank Thomas, Gregg Olson, Tim Hudson, Mark Bellhorn and Gabe Gross.
Women's Golf
Auburn's Women's Golf team has risen to be extremely competitive in the NCAA in recent years. Since 1999, they hold a 854-167-13 (.826 win percentage) record. The team have been in five NCAA finals and finished second in 2002 and then third in 2005. The program has a total of six SEC Championships (1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2006). In October of 2005, Auburn was named the #3 team nationally out of 229 total teams since 1999 by GolfWeek magazine.
Kim Evans has coached the Auburn Tigers since 1994. She is by far the winningest Coach in Auburn Golf History, having over 1100 wins and winning five of Auburn's six total SEC Titles. Evans was named National Coach of the Year in 2003 and has coached 8 individual All-Americans while at Auburn.
Women's Soccer
Auburn Soccer has been one the top programs of the SEC. The team started in 1993 and after some growing pains is now a constant player in the SEC Conference championship race. Auburn won four straight SEC West division titles between 2001-2004 and a fifth in 2006. They won the Regular Season SEC title in 2002. Despite all the success, Auburn has yet to win an SEC Tournament, though they have finished Runner-Up three times.
The 2006 Auburn soccer season saw the Tigers playing only five seniors and 13 freshmen who saw significant playing time. Despite the youth, Auburn went on to an 11-5-3 including a 5-3-3 mark in the SEC to retake the SEC Western division title. The Season ended on a 3-1 loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to California in Tallahassee, Florida.
Equestrian
Auburn won its first national title outside of Football and Swimming and Diving in 2006 as the Equestrian team captured the National Championship. Equestrian is not yet a full NCAA Sport, so the Auburn Equestrian title is not an official NCAA title, despite familiar foes such as Georgia, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Baylor where competing. Equestrian needs 40 NCAA D1 or D2 schools to offer it in order to be a full NCAA Championship sport. Right now it has 21.
Women's Track and Field
Auburn's Women's Track and Field won the 2006 National NCAA Outdoor title convincingly by outscoring USC 57-38.50. The track title is the 4th National Championship won by Auburn in 2006. In Outdoor Track and Field, the previous highest finish for the Women was 14th in 2002 and 2003.
Traditions
Tiger Walk
Before each Auburn home football game, thousands of Auburn fans line Donahue Avenue to cheer on the team as they walk from Sewell Hall (the athletes' dormitory) to Jordan-Hare Stadium. The tradition began in the 1960s when groups of kids would walk up the street to greet the team and get autographs. During the tenure of coach Doug Barfield, the coach urged fans to come out and support the team, and thousands did. Today the team, led by the coaches, walks down the hill and into the stadium surrounded by fans who pat them on the back and shake their hands as they walk. The largest Tiger Walk occurred on December 2, 1989, before the first ever home football game against rival Alabama—the Iron Bowl. On that day, an estimated 20,000 fans packed the one block section of road leading to the stadium. According to former athletic director David Housel, Tiger Walk has become "the most copied tradition in all of college football."[1]
Toomer's Corner
The intersection of Magnolia and College streets in Auburn, which marks the transition from downtown Auburn to the university campus, is known as Toomer's Corner. It is named after Toomer's Drugs, a small store on the corner that has been an Auburn landmark for over 150 years. Hanging over the corner are two massive old-growth oak trees, and anytime anything good happens concerning Auburn, toilet paper can usually be found hanging from the trees. Also known as "rolling the corner," this tradition is thought to have originated in the 1950s and until the mid 1990s was relegated to only to celebrating athletic wins. However, in recent years it has become a way to celebrate anything good that happens concerning Auburn.
War Eagle
There are many stories surrounding the origins of Auburn's battle cry, "War Eagle." The most popular account involves the first Auburn football game in 1892 between Auburn and the University of Georgia. According to the story, in the stands that day was an old Civil War soldier with an eagle that he had found injured on a battlefield and kept as a pet. The eagle broke free and began to soar over the field, and Auburn began to march toward the Georgia end-zone. The crowd began to chant, "War Eagle" as the eagle soared. After Auburn won the game, the eagle crashed to the field and died but, according to the legend, his spirit lives on every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry of "War Eagle" also functions as a greeting for those associated with the University. For many years, a live golden eagle has embodied the spirit of this tradition. The eagle was once housed on campus in The Eagle's Cage, but the cage was taken down and the eagle moved to a nearby raptor center.
Wreck Tech Pajama Parade
The Wreck Tech Pajama Parade originated in 1896, when a group of mischievous Auburn ROTC cadets, determined to show up the more well-known engineers from Georgia Tech, snuck out of their dorms the night before the football game between Auburn and Tech and greased the railroad tracks. According to the story, the train carrying the Georgia Tech team slid through town and didn't stop until it was halfway to the neighboring town of Loachapoka, The Georgia Tech team was forced to walk the five miles back to Auburn and, not surprisingly, were rather weary at the end of their journey. This likely contributed to their 45–0 loss. While the railroad long ago ceased to be the way teams traveled to Auburn and students never greased the tracks again, the tradition continues in the form of a parade through downtown Auburn. Students parade through the streets in their pajamas and organizations build floats. This tradition has recently been renewed with Georgia Tech returning to Auburn's schedule after nearly two decades of absence.
Rivals
Auburn has two primary rivals, Alabama and Georgia. Alabama is the most heated rival, and considered to be the most intense rivalry in the country. It is known as the Iron Bowl. Alabama holds the all-time edge at 38-32-1.
Georgia and Auburn compete in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry, dating back to 1892. The game was played in Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The series is extremely close, with Auburn holding a 53-48-8 record. Auburn has only outscored Georgia by two points in the 109 game history of the series. It is one of the longest running and most played series in the NCAA.
Auburn also has a very competitive football rivalry with the LSU Tigers. The two share more than just a nickname, as they have both enjoyed success in the SEC's Western Division. Auburn or LSU have won at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship for the last six years. Auburn won it outright in 2000 and 2004, LSU tied Auburn and then went on to the SEC Title Game in 2001 and 2005. LSU also won the tiebreaker over Ole Miss in 2003 to go to the SEC Title game. The only time Auburn or LSU did not go to Atlanta in the last six years was 2002 when Arkansas won the three-way tie breaker with the two Tiger teams.
References
- Auburn Tigers. (2007, February 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:51, February 13, 2007 [2]
External links
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