SP Road Trip: The Iron Bowl

You’ve all heard SP wax on about tailgating, the smell of good Kentucky Bourbon, and the sis boom bah of a rocking stadium. SP loves a college football game.  And on game day of a huge rivalry, there is nothing that is quite as exciting. The early rise and getting ready for the tailgate, pulling together all the provisions you will need for the day ahead. Not only must one consider the weather, but also the walking, the sitting, the revelry. Between tailgate, game time and (hopefully) post-game celebration, you are on campus for at least 8 hours. And yes, it will be a marathon day of drinking. And not just any drinking, but bourbon. SP’s game day bourbon of choice? Wild Turkey, when times are flush. This year? Evan Williams.

Being reared in the Deep South, SP has had the privilege of attending some of the best college football games and visiting most of the great Southern college football towns. Gainseville, Athens, Baton Rouge, Clemson, Tuscaloosa, Knoxville, Oxford–all put on a hell of a show when the autumnal air turns ripe with the electricity of college game day. If you are a college football virgin, I highly recommend you try it sometime. And if by chance you happen to find yourself in the state of Alabama this Thanksgiving weekend, you should make tracks for a little town on the east side of the state about halfway between Montgomery and Atlanta, because there you will experience one of the truly remarkable atmospheres in all of college football.

This Friday SP will attend the greatest show on earth: the annual showdown between the University of Alabama and Auburn University, also known as the Iron Bowl. This football game is held alternatively in each school’s hometown: one year in Tuscaloosa, the next year in Auburn. This year, the game will be played in Auburn’s Jordan Hare Stadium (pronounced “Jerden Hare”). The undefeated and second-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will take on the Auburn Tigers in one of the most storied rivalries in sports. (A hackneyed cliché if there ever was one, but sometimes you just have to let the Keith Jackson come out of you.) This year Alabama coach Nick Saban brings the highly-ranked Tide to the game after an 11-0 regular season romp. Auburn, under new coach Gene Chizik, is enduring a rebuilding year and would love nothing more to end the Tide’s streak on their home turf.

The history of this intrastate rivalry is famous. Friends have been lost, families have been split, husbands have left wives.  And of course, there are the legions of Dirt Road Alumni. These are fans who’ve never stepped foot on either one of the campuses to matriculate, but will bleed their chosen team’s colors if pricked. To that end, each fandom tries to paint the other’s fans as hicks, which might surprise those from outside the South who think everyone down here eats dirt and marries their sisters. The tribe from Tuscaloosa fancies its self the country club school and derides Auburn as a cow college. Auburn people think Alabama fans are rednecks with a disproportionate share of the Dirt Road Alumni wearing crimson and white all year long. Oh, but we digress.

There are many illustrious names that pass through tales of this legendary rivalry.  John Heisman coached at Auburn from 1895 to 1900.  Joe Namath at Alabama.  Bo Jackson at Auburn.  And of course, legendary coaches like Auburn’s Ralph “Shug” Jordan and Pat Dye–and perhaps  the greatest college football coach of all time, Paul “Bear” Bryant.

The University of Alabama has one of the most perfect fight songs in all of college football. The entire fan section — which can be a chorus upwards of 60,000 people — sings and shouts along with the marching band, “Hey Auburn! We’re gonna beat the hell out of you. Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Give ‘em hell, Alabama!” For its part, Auburn has an eagle mascot who soars over and into the stadium as the fans yell “War Eagle” at the start of every home game.

Speaking of mascots, these schools’ football legacies are too long and too rich to contain one simple mascot and fight song each. They are large! They contain multitudes! Herewith some attempt at explanation on the sometimes confusing elements of this issue.  The University of Alabama’s official mascot is the elephant, but the team is referred to as the Crimson Tide. The battle cry is “Roll Tide.” Auburn is even more confusing. The official mascot of the athletic teams is the tiger and the teams are called The Auburn Tigers. But they are also referred to as Plainsmen. This refers more to the students than to the sport teams. It comes from an Oliver Goldsmith poem describing Auburn as “the Loveliest Village on the Plains.” The battle cry of the team is “War Eagle” (or “War Damn Eagle” if the bourbon is flowing and the team is winning). Some mistakenly call the team the War Eagles, which is completely wrong. However, he official mascot of the Auburn Tigers is a Golden Eagle named Tiger, he of the aforementioned soaring flyover. And there is a costumed mascot named Aubie who stalks the sidelines. Confused? Don’t be. Just accept and enjoy. In fact, fans from both teams greet each other all year long with these phrases. “War Eagle” and “Roll Tide” are used instead of hello and goodbye, much like “aloha.”

So with this small preamble aside, here is your game day plan. Before heading to campus, visit downtown Auburn and be sure to stop by Toomer’s Drugs for their world famous lemonade. The town will be thumping with peopled energy, expectation and a crazy sea of orange and blue (Auburn) mixed with crimson and white (Alabama). You should arrive on campus at least four hours before kick-off so you can make the rounds and visit tailgate parties.  Two hours before kickoff, make your way to Tiger Walk. This is when the home team walks into the stadium snaking through a throng of thousands of fans cheering and wishing the players luck for the battle to be fought. About an hour before kickoff, make your way into the stadium so you can get your drinks and find your seat in time to see the eagle fly from the upper deck. Then the game begins and if you’re lucky, the teams will fight tooth and nail right down to the final second. Nobody likes a rout, even the victors. If Auburn wins, the whole stadium (and town) will flock downtown to Toomer’s Corner and celebrate until the bars close. And if Alabama wins, they go on to the SEC championship against the Florida Gators and probably to the National Championship game.

There is an old joke down here that asks one to name the three deities in the state of Alabama. The answer? God, Bear Bryant, and Shug Jordan. Just as SP does not discuss politics or religion, I would never reveal who I’ll be pulling for in an attempt at neutrality, but if you should see me on campus this Friday, I will be discreetly wearing one school’s color that should let you know whether to offer me a drink at your tailgate or chase me from the grounds. The line on the game is Alabama by 12, but none of that matters when you get inside Jordan Hare on Friday. All records are thrown out the door. The team which handles the atmosphere best–and the fans who want it most–usually prevail.  It should be a helluva game.  Here’s to a good, competitive and healthy game for all and I will see you at the tailgate, in the stands and later at some one’s victory party. SP has never been one to let a loss dampen his good time.

Be sure to check out the links, especially the ones to the coaches and fight song.  (Final Score: UA 26 – AU 21)