Auburn University's Championship Legacy: A Tradition of Excellence

Auburn University, nestled in Auburn, Alabama, boasts a rich athletic history marked by numerous achievements across various sports. From national championships to individual accolades, the Auburn Tigers have consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence. This article delves into the history of Auburn's NCAA championships, highlighting key moments, outstanding athletes, and the traditions that define the Auburn spirit. The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University.

Football: A Storied Past

The Auburn Tigers football program represents Auburn University in the sport of American college football. Auburn officially began competing in intercollegiate football in 1892. The Tigers joined the SEC in 1932 as one of the inaugural members of the conference. They began competing in the West Division when the conference divided in 1992, doing so until the SEC eliminated divisions in 2024. Auburn plays archrival Alabama each year in a game known as the Iron Bowl. In the overall series with Alabama, Auburn trails Alabama 42-35-1, despite holding an 18-14 advantage in games played since 1982.

National Championship Claims

Auburn claims nine national championships: 1910, 1913, 1914, 1957, 1958, 1983, 1993, 2004 and 2010. Auburn currently is 7th all time in total national championships tied with Ohio State and Pitt. It's important to note that the NCAA has never officially endorsed a championship team but has documented the choices of recognized "major selectors." Some of whom named Auburn as national champions for 1910 (retroactive), 1913 (retroactive co-champion), 1957 (AP), 1983, 1993 (four NCF co-champions), and 2010 (AP, Coaches). While no major selectors chose Auburn for the 1914, 1958, and 2004 undefeated seasons, others did: James Howell chose Auburn for 1914, Montgomery Full Season Championship chose Auburn for 1958, and Darryl W.

1910, 1913, and 1914: These early championships, though recognized retroactively, laid the foundation for Auburn's football legacy. The 1913 team was coached by Mike Donahue and was undefeated at 8-0, outscoring opponents 224-13. Auburn, led by senior captain Kirk Newell, finished as SIAA champions for the first time in school history.
1957: In 1957, Auburn went 10-0 and was clearly the consensus #1 at the end of the season as reported by the Associated Press (AP). The 1957 Auburn Tigers, led by coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan, finished with a perfect 10-0 record, marking the school's first ever SEC championship. Auburn was recognized as national champions by the AP Poll even though they were on probation and did not participate in a bowl game. This was the school's first recognized national championship. The 1957 title is shared with Ohio State, who was named the national champion by the Coaches' Poll.

Read also: The History of Auburn Basketball
1983: The 1983 Auburn Tigers, led by head coach Pat Dye and running back Bo Jackson, finished 11-1 after playing the nation's toughest schedule. Their only loss came against No. 3 Texas, who defeated the Tigers, 20-7. Auburn went on to defeat No. 8 Michigan, 9-7, in the Sugar Bowl. Despite entering the bowl games ranked third in both major polls, and with both teams ranked higher losing their bowl games, the Tigers ended ranked third in the final AP poll. The New York Times ranked Auburn number one at the conclusion of the season, as did several other math system selectors. Later, the Billingsley Report math system retroactively listed Auburn at number one.
1993: Head coach Terry Bowden led the 1993 team to a perfect season in his first year on the Plains. The Tigers were the only undefeated team in major college football; however, they were banned from playing on television or post-season games due to NCAA violations. Rival Alabama was sent to the SEC Championship Game as the substitute representative of the Western Division. Auburn finished ranked fourth in the nation by the Associated Press.
2010: The Tigers, led by head coach Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn, completed a 12-0 regular season record and defeated South Carolina in the 2010 SEC Championship Game. On October 24, 2010, Auburn was ranked first in the BCS polls for the first time in school history. On January 10, 2011, Auburn defeated Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona, 22-19. It was the school's second claimed national title, but their first undisputed title. Their quarterback, Cam Newton, became the Tigers' third Heisman Trophy winner. He had a total of 2,854 yards passing and 30 passing touchdowns. He also rushed for 1,473 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Conference and Divisional Championships

Auburn has achieved 12 undefeated seasons and won 16 conference championships, along with 10 divisional championships. AU Football has won 12 conference championships (8 SEC), has had seven perfect seasons, and during the division of the conference, six outright Western Division championships (1997, 2000, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2017) along with three additional co-championships. Since divisional play began in 1992, Auburn has won the SEC Western Division championship and gone on to the conference title game on six occasions and is 3-3 in the SEC Championship Game. The most recent appearance came in 2017 as Auburn completed the regular season 10-2, losing a rematch to Georgia in the 2017 SEC Championship Game. Auburn has also shared the division title but did not play in the championship game due to tiebreakers on three occasions.

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.

Auburn completed the 2010 football season with a perfect record of 13-0 winning the SEC championship when they defeated the University of South Carolina 56-17, which set an SEC Championship Game record for most points scored and largest margin of victory.

Auburn completed the 2013 regular season with an 11-1 record by knocking off then-#1 Alabama. Auburn went on to defeat #5 Missouri 59-42 in the 2013 SEC Championship Game to claim its eighth SEC championship. Auburn faced #1 Florida State in the 2014 BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl, falling to the Seminoles in the final seconds, 31-34. In 2013, Auburn's "from the outhouse to the penthouse," as many AU players defined it, might be the greatest season of all time. Coming off a 3-9 season in 2012, first year coach Gus Malzahn led Auburn to a 12-2 season and a national spotlight as they took on Florida State in the final BCS national championship game.

Individual Accolades

Three Auburn players, Pat Sullivan in 1971, Bo Jackson in 1985, and Cam Newton in 2010 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 has also produced 31[6] consensus All-American players. The College Football Hall of Fame has inducted a total of 12 individuals from Auburn, including eight student-athletes and four head coaches: John Heisman, Mike Donahue, Ralph Jordan, and Pat Dye.

Coaches and Leaders

Auburn has had 29 head coaches, and three interim head coaches, since it began play during the 1892 season. On November 29, 2022, Hugh Freeze was named the 31st head coach of the Tigers. The team has played more than 1,200 games over 120 seasons. In that time, eight coaches have led the Tigers in postseason bowl games: Jack Meagher, Ralph Jordan, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik, Gus Malzahn, and Bryan Harsin.

Other Sports: A Broad Spectrum of Success

While football often takes center stage, Auburn's athletic prowess extends far beyond the gridiron.

Read also: Auburn Student Statistics

Swimming and Diving

In the last decade under former head coach David Marsh, Auburn's swimming and diving program became a virtual dynasty in the SEC and the NCAA winning five consecutive NCAA men's championships from 2003 through 2007 and women's championships in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Auburn men have won the SEC Championship 14 out of the last 15 years and also won national championships in 1997, 1999, and 2009. The Auburn men won their 13th consecutive SEC Title in 2008, while the Auburn women took home their fifth SEC Championship in the last six years. 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.

Men's Golf

The men's golf team has won five SEC Championships: 1976, 1981, 2002, 2018, and 2024. Chip Spratlin claimed the 1995 NCAA Championship and the men's golf team won the 2024 NCAA Championship.

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 an 854-167-13 (.826 win percentage) record. The team has been in five NCAA finals and finished second in 2002 and then third in 2005. The program has a total of nine SEC Championships (1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2020). The nine titles is third all-time for women's golf.[5] In October 2005, Auburn was named the #3 team nationally out of 229 total teams since 1999 by GolfWeek magazine. Since 1996, the team has been headed by Coach Kim Evans, a 1981 alumna, who has turned the program into one of the most competitive in the nation. Coach Evans has helped develop All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year as well as three SEC Freshman of the Year. She has led the Tigers to eight-straight NCAA appearances. She is by far the winningest Coach in Auburn Golf History, having over 1,100 wins and winning six of Auburn's seven total SEC Titles.

Women's Soccer

Auburn Soccer has been one of 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. 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.

Women's Equestrian

Women's equestrian debuted in 1996 and became the school's 21st varsity sport five years later. The team has been led by Greg Williams since its debut. In 2004, the team won its first championship at the Southern Equestrian Championships, which started in 2003. In 2006, the team won its first Varsity Equestrian National Championship, capturing Auburn's first national title outside of football and swimming and diving. Although equestrian is not yet sanctioned by the NCAA, Auburn competes with 19 other Division I schools, including SEC foes Georgia and South Carolina. The NCAA classified equestrian as an emerging sport in 1998. Forty Division I and Division II schools are required for the sport to be recognized by the NCAA.

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 was 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. The Auburn men have finished second in the NCAA Outdoor championships twice in 2003 and 2008. The men have earned two third-place finishes in 2000 and 2007.

Wrestling

At the conclusion of the 1980-1981 NCAA Wrestling season, Auburn University became the first SEC team to place Top 10 in the country. Coached by Ohio wrestling legend Tom Milkovich, Auburn claimed the SEC title en route to a historic season boasting 3 All-Americans and 6 NCAA qualifiers. However, with the emergence of Title IX and the decline of wrestling in the SEC, Auburn found itself without a varsity program after the historic 1980-81 season. Since 1997 Auburn has competed in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) as the Auburn University Wrestling Club and boasts 24 All-Americans and a National Champion, with six Top-10 finishes at the Division 1 National Championships.

Other Club Sports

The Auburn Flyers are the premier cycling club in the Auburn / Opelika area for college students. With frequent rides and races, the team caters to all levels of riders, entry to advanced. The team fields both road and mountain bike teams in the Southeastern Collegiate Cycling Conference within USAC Collegiate Cycling. The Auburn University Rugby Football Club was founded in 1973. Auburn plays Division 1 college rugby in the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference against traditional SEC rivals such as Alabama and Georgia.

Traditions and Spirit

Auburn's athletic success is intertwined with its vibrant traditions and unwavering spirit.

The Auburn Creed

The Auburn Creed, penned by George Petrie in 1943, encapsulates the values and principles that guide the university and its athletic programs. It emphasizes hard work, honesty, and a commitment to excellence.

Tiger Walk

Before each Auburn home football game, thousands of Auburn fans line Donahue Avenue to cheer on the team as they walk from the Auburn Athletic Complex 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. Auburn is the first known school to conduct an organized procession of players into the stadium. 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." As it grew in popularity, the Tiger Walk has become a fixture for road games.

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 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 A. Elwyn Hamer Jr. Aviary (which was the second largest single-bird enclosure in the country), but the aviary was taken down in 2003 and the eagle moved to a nearby raptor center. The eagle, War Eagle VI (nicknamed "Tiger"), was trained in 2000 to fly free around the stadium before every home game to the delight of fans. The present eagle, War Eagle VIII (nicknamed "Aurea"), continues the tradition.

Toomer's Corner

The intersection of Magnolia Avenue and College Street in Auburn, which marks the transition from downtown Auburn to the university campus, is known as Toomer's Corner. It is named for businessman and State Senator Sheldon Toomer who founded the Bank of Auburn on the corner of Magnolia Avenue and College Street in 1907. Hanging over the corner were two massive southern live oak trees, and anytime anything good happened concerning Auburn, toilet paper could usually be found hanging from the trees. Also known as "rolling the corner" or "rolling Toomer's", this tradition is thought to have originated in the 1950s to celebrate away victories; however, in recent years it has become a way to celebrate anything good that happens concerning Auburn. On January 10, 2011, when Auburn football won the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, a celebration was held at the corner which involved the traditional papering. The trees were removed on April 23, 2013, due to poisoning in 2010. On January 27, 2011, a man calling himself "Al" and claiming to be from Dadeville, a town thirty minutes from Auburn, called into Paul Finebaum's sports talk radio show. "Al" claimed to have poisoned the Toomer's trees with an herbicide called Spike 80DF (Tebuthiuron) the weekend following the 2010 Iron Bowl. He said he did this in retaliation for photos that he saw in an article in The Birmingham News that depicted Auburn fans rolling Toomer's Corner after announcement of former University of Alabama head-coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's death in 1983 as well as of an Auburn #2 (number of 2010 Auburn quarterback Cam Newton) Under Armour T-shirt taped to Bryant's statue earlier in the 2010 season. The caller's claims prompted Auburn to take soil samples. On February 16, 2011, Auburn officials announced that the live oak trees at Toomer's Corner had been poisoned with a large quantity of Spike 80DF, a herbicide governed by Alabama state agricultural laws and the Environmental Protection Agency; Spike 80DF was not used by Auburn University. Tests of soil samples showed the lowest levels of Spike 80DF to be 0.78ppm, which experts stated was enough to be a "very lethal dose." The highest levels of concentration were measured to be 51ppm. Auburn University and city police both launched investigations into the matter. Finebaum later reported that Federal authorities were also involved due to concerns of the herbicide having entered the groundwater. Police traced the call to the home of Harvey Updyke Jr. of Dadeville. Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper, was taken into custody at 1:26 am CST on February 17, 2011, and charged with one count of criminal mischief, a class C felony in Alabama. On March 22, 2013, he received a 3-year split sentence, which includes 6 months' incarceration and jail credit for time already served. curfew. He was also prohibited from attending any collegiate sports event and banned from Auburn University property. The efforts made by the university to save the trees proved unsuccessful. "It came to a point where we realized it wasn't going to work, and the amount of poison in the ground was such that the trees were not going to survive," said Mike Clardy, Auburn University's Communications Director. The oak trees at Toomer's Corner were removed on April 23, 2013. On November 8, 2013, Circuit Judge Jacob A. Walker III ruled that Updyke (who had moved to Louisiana) owed Auburn University $796,731.98 in restitution, to be paid in installments of $500 per month. Auburn University sought more than $1 million in damages, the greater part of which was based on a soil-analys…

Aubie

Aubie is an anthropomorphic tiger and the official mascot of Auburn University. Aubie's existence began as a cartoon character that first appeared on the Auburn/Hardin-Simmons football program cover on October 3, 1959. Birmingham Post-Herald artist Phil Neel created the cartoon tiger, who continued to appear on Auburn program covers for 18 years. Aubie's look changed through the years. In 1962, he began to stand upright and in the next year, 1963, wore clothes for the first time-a blue tie, polkadot pants, and straw hat. Aubie's appearances on game programs occurred during a successful period in head football coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan's teams. The Tigers were victorious in the first nine games which had Aubie on the cover and in his first six years, Auburn posted a 23-2-1 home record. Auburn's home record during the eighteen years Aubie served as Cover Tiger was 63-16-2. In 1979, Aubie came to life at the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament. James Lloyd, Auburn spirit director for the Student Government Association, with help from the Auburn Alumni Association, contacted Brooks-Van Horn Costumes in New York, N.Y. The company was provided with copies of the 1961 Auburn-Alabama and 1962 Auburn-Georgia Tech game programs to use for reference in creating a costume of the cartoon character. The firm, which also provided costumes for Walt Disney, designed and produced a Tiger costume for $1,350. Aubie was introduced at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center on February 28, 1979, and helped lead first-year Auburn coach Sonny Smith's team to an upset of Vanderbilt in his first appearance as a live Tiger mascot. The following day, Aubie returned to the arena and the Tigers beat Georgia in the longest game in SEC tournament history, four overtimes.

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