I started digging because I don’t like thinking that’s what it is, and I don’t like thinking that’s what it is because I don’t like potty humor. That’s just me.
Of course, dating it to the celebration of arguably the most godliest God Thing ever would be kind of awesome, as far as football tradition creation myths go. But not if it’s all simultaneously scatological and stuff. That’s not what people think about before it happens, or when it’s happening, or after it happens… which is why the cover of the Summer 2011 / Toomer’s Oaks issue of Auburn Magazine—a roll of toilet paper underneath the word “Wipeout?”—was so (unintentionally, I’m sure) dare I say tacky. There’s nothing funnily fecal about rolling Toomer’s Corner—not now, and not then.
Yet suddenly, now that all the people that write the stories are meeting Harvey Updyke at Louisiana catfish joints and asking about the history of the thing, that’s the story—that the tradition began (at least in earnest) after Auburn won the 1972 Iron Bowl as some sort of hyuck-hyuck toilet paper tie-in to Terry Henley’s “We’re going to beat the No. 2 out of [then No. 2 ranked] Bama” comment.
I first heard about that particular theory in a quick ESPN piece right after the poisoning. I’ve heard it a few times since. I’ve rolled my eyes every time. Then came Sports Illustrated’s story on Updyke. And then a month or so ago the theory was endorsed by no less an authority on Auburn history than David Housel in Wright Thompson’s second ESPN piece on Toomer’s (which also quotes our own Dr. Jolley, I might add):
… as I sat in the Auburn library, retired athletic director David Housel came in to speak to students about the Civil War. “When are you going to say rolling Toomer’s Corner began?” he asked me.
When tour guides and fans speak of Toomer’s Corner, it seems as if the rolling has always been done. The ticker tape, then the TP, a chain leading back to something elemental. Right?
“Nobody knows,” Housel told ESPN. “There are all kinds of different stories. This I know for a fact. It wasn’t anything like what it was today until Dec. 2, 1972. Prior to that, you’d have some strands of toilet paper thrown over the power wires. But in 1972, Auburn played undefeated, untied Alabama, ranked No. 2 in the nation. We had a mouth of the South who played running back for us, a guy named Terry Henley. He went around all week telling people we were going to beat the No. 2 out of Alabama. He wasn’t just talking about ranking.”
When the team returned to Auburn after the win, the intersection was covered in toilet paper. That’s where it began.
This I know for a fact: That is not where it began.
Housel’s right, though—no one one knows exactly when it did start… probably because it’s hard to define “it” and hard to define “start.”
Toomer’s Corner is Toomer’s Corner because it’s Toomer’s Corner. The heart of the town is where people go when there’s a reason to go somewhere, to celebrate something, to party. It’s just gravitational. Toomer’s Corner has been the setting for Auburn pep rallies since there were pep rallies in Auburn to be set. Speaking of, what we now only call “celebrations” were called “pep rallies” for a long time. Pep rallies before the game. Pep rallies after the game. Planned pep rallies. Spontaneous pep rallies. And some folks get a little bit rowdy at pep rallies. Some folks do crazy things at pep rallies, the spontaneous response-to-victory ones especially. Some folks, you know, might even bring toilet paper to throw at pep rallies.
But we do know that rolling things at Toomer’s Corner—power lines, light poles, trees—with toilet paper didn’t just occasionally occur in patches after Auburn away game wins, but was actually associated with the celebration of Auburn victories for at least a year before we beat the No. 2 out of Bama.
There’s plenty of circumstantial evidence to support that statement: By 1977, rolling Toomer’s was a big enough deal for the Plainsman to rub how awesome and unique a tradition it was in the faces of student newspaper staffers at other SEC schools, including some dude named Paul Finebaum at the University of Tennessee; there are photos of (significant) rollings taken during the 1972 season and almost certainly before the Iron Bowl; a feature in the 1979 Glomerata claims rolling the corner had been a tradition “for the last decade” (which if we want to get all technical would date it to 1969); tell-tale strands of toilet paper can be spotted in Glom photos taken in 1971.
But indisputable proof can be found in the Nov. 1971 Plainsman, in a story on the celebration after Auburn’s victory over in Georgia in Athens, which all God’s children pretty much agree is the game that won Pat Sullivan his Heisman Trophy:
“I wonder if they had a good pep rally at Toomer’s Corner?”
They had a good pep rally at Toomer’s Corner—and all up and down Magnolia Avenue and all over Auburn. Toilet paper, the long, fragile banners of victory, were wrapped around telephone poles, stoplights, and overhanging trees. Every car that came near Toomer’s Corner left with pertinent information painted in orange and blue on the fenders, decks, and windshield. “35-20” was common, as was “Bear Beware” and “Auburn #1.” Some cars were even seen sporting slogans that were less than complimentary toward the University of Alabama.
At the height of the celebration a Greyhound bus passing through Auburn was attacked by brush-wielding enthusiasts. It left with orange and blue highlights on its drab gray sides.
By the time the band and the football team got back to Auburn, the celebration had made its way to Sewell Hall where banners and throngs of hysterical Auburn fans awaited the arrival of the victorious Tigers.
After the excitement had subsided, and the enthusiasts had gone home to dream about the Alabama game and Sugar Bowl bids, the streets were deserted. But the toilet paper thrown in the trees bore witness to the pep rally earlier and the painted windows of the stores proudly displayed the Auburn spirit. It had been a memorable day.
Toilet paper, the long, fragile banners of victory… not “like long, fragile banners of victory”—”the,” as in something understood, as in something already established… established since the 1960s according to a story in the Nov. 14, 1985 edition of The Plainsman that tried tracing the tradition’s roots:
Celebrations at the Corner have been going on for as long as there was a football team, but no one knows the exact date of the first rolling of the intersection.
Dr. Alley W. Jones, head archivist for Auburn University, remembered one particular celebration as a student when Auburn upset Alabama 14-13 in 1949, but couldn’t remember the year rolling was first established.
“I remember everybody that was here in town went up to Toomer’s Corner,” said Jones. “They hooped and hollered and carried on, but I don’t remember any toilet paper. The rolling of it came alter, but I can’t tell you when.”
Neil O. Davis, former owner, editor and publisher of The Auburn Bulletin and former journalism professor at the University, is slightly more specific in a date for the beginning of the rolling tradition.
“That was not until the 1960s. There were always pep rallies and celebrations there, but the throwing of the toilet paper came later.”
To what extent? Sure, OK, that’s a question. There were undoubtedly more “long fragile banners of victory” hung at Toomer’s during the celebration of 17-16 than any previous celebration; there were undoubtedly more people there with undoubtedly more to celebrate. So it’s certainly possible, and certainly reasonable to think that the sheer volume of the toilet paper and the sheer size of the crowd that day might’ve played some sort of special role in establishing the spectacle not just as a tradition, but as a gameday must.
But I’ve yet to find anyone who was there who remembers it as some sort of organic response to Henley’s poop joke, nor any evidence to suggest his quote sparked some BYOR to Toomer’s After The Game campaign.
There was, however, an SGA push to provide kazoos for all Auburn students to toot at the game.
…butt I digest.
UPDATE: Here are some more photos of Toomer’s Corner being rolled before the Punt, Bama, Punt.
Related: Rolling Toomer’s BEFORE the game–a lost Auburn tradition.
…
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I am a student recruiter and the story that I have always heard and I now tell to prospective students is about Langdon Hall and a telegraph machine.
The story goes…..
Years ago before there were radios, televisions or ways for the Auburn family to travel to see games there would be someone who sat in Langdon Hall every time the Tigers played with a telegraph machine. He would receive messages from someone at the game about how things were going and he would take those messages out to the Toomers Trees and hang them there. The Auburn Family would go to the tree and read how the team was doing. Then if Auburn won everyone would come to the street corner to celebrate and there would be these pieces of paper all over the tree. We decided to leave the paper there and people who came through town started to realize that if there was paper in the tree then Auburn won their game. When we no longer needed telegraph messages to know how the team was doing they say that the Auburn Family still liked the idea of having paper in our trees to show everyone that we won so we replaced the telegraph paper with toilet paper and a tradition was born.
Thanks Katherine — yes, I’ve heard that. It’s definitely a cool story and something along those lines may, in deed, have happened. But I’m fairly certain that at least in regards to explaining the current practice of rolling the corner with toilet paper, it’s by and large apocryphal, especially given the toilet paper-less accounts of students like Allen Jones and townsfolk like Mr. Davis. But you never know…
The football preview issue of Sports Illustrated (with Jimmy Sidle on the cover) 9/21/64 wrote a detailed report about victory celebrations at Toomer’s corner with no mention of toilet paper.
The ’71 photo, based on dress, is from the Georgia game in November. There was a celebration with toilet paper, as I recall, after the 10-9Tennessee game (The Drive) in September.
The weird thing about that picture is that my college roommate is driving the car in the background. His face is too blurred to make out, but his rusted-out ’66 Mustang is unmistakable.
As a freshman in 1968, I recall toomer’s corner celebrations when AU won any away game. the tradition is older than 1968. (BTW hard to believe a 66 mustang would have been rusted out by 1971).
I grew up in Auburn, and the first Toomer’s rolling I remember participating in was the 17-16 game. I was 10 years old, and my neighborhood buddies and I were playing football in the front yard, having given up on the game a while back, with no TV to hold our interest. Suddenly, Mama came hurtling out the front door announcing the first blocked punt, and we ran back inside and listened in wonder to the final minutes. My best friend’s dad drove us in the back of his pickup to within walking range of Toomer’s, and we made our way to the back counter at J&M, where they were handing out orange and blue tempera paint and brushes to anyone who asked. Then we went wild painting the town orange and blue, went back to J&M repeatedly, watched the students go crazy and generally had a as big a time as a bunch of 10- and 11-year-olds could ever have.
I do remember, though, that Toomer’s celebrations were reserved for away game victories only, and rolling it after every win wasn’t something that began until the late 80s or early 90s.
But nothing, not even the crazy celebration in ’82 after ‘Bo Over the Top,’ can top the first time I went, when students painted ‘Buck Fama’—the outline remained for years—while hanging from the top of the Auburn National Bank building, small cars were turned around in the right of way, and anything that wasn’t moving fast got coated in orange and blue or draped with toilet paper.
That being said, however, the way the tradition has developed is a wonderful part of what makes Auburn football so special. BTW—The palm trees outside our motel room in north Phoenix got a good draping this past January 10. We bought our TP 6-pack beforehand, knowing for sure we would need it. WDE.
My roommate was from Philadelphia. The salt used on the road in the winter caused the rust which can be seen in the photo on the lower door and rear fender.
Dan actually makes an interesting point … that Toomer’s was only rolled after away games. I actually think the distinction was bigger than that.
When I was a little guy, it was told to me that the tradition was that you rolled Toomer’s only after beating Alabama. The first time I know of that Toomer’s was rolled after a home game was December 2, 1989. I don’t remember it being rolled after a non-Alabama home game until some time around 1993-94. It certainly could have happened earlier, but I think it must have either been the ’93 Florida game or the ’94 LSU game. By the time I was a freshman in Camp War Eagle in 2001, the camp counselors were telling Katherine’s story.
One thing I will say is that my brother was born in 1970, and had a children’s book that told about the various traditions of Auburn and Alabama. There was a page on what the fans of both school did to celebrate on campus after a win. If I remember correctly, for Alabama, it claimed they drove down University yelling “Honk if you love Bama!” and honking car horns; for Auburn fans it was rolling Toomer’s corner after a big win. I believe that book pre-dated my brother, so it must have been published some time in the 1960s.
I once mentioned something to my parents about the story with Henley and the tradition starting after the 17-16 game, but they distinctly recalled that while they were of college age (although not at Auburn) from ~1963-1968, folks used go and roll Toomer’s. I definitely think it started earlier.
This is similar to a few other such stories … a lot of folks have come to believe Dec. 2, 1989 was the first Tiger Walk, but the origins were in the 1960s and became officially endorsed when Barfield became head coach.
I grew up in Auburn and I do remember the 17-16 rolling – but since it was a given that we were heading to Toomer’s after the game, I know that it was going on for a while. I remember going to Toomer’s for that game because my father (who was a professor at Auburn at the time) had told his class on Friday that Auburn was going to win the game and that the score would be … 17-16. While we were celebrating at Toomer’s, my mother who was home with my little sister received a call from B’ham from one of dad’s students – who was trying to get in touch with Dad to tell him that he had gotten the score right.
Dumbest tradition in college football.
I was a Freshman in 1964 and saw nor heard of any rolling of Toomer’s corner that year, yet the following year of 1965, I not only heard of it, but witnessed it. Don’t remember the game though. We didn’t have a very good team in the mid-60’s. But to say that it all started in 1972 is blatantly false.
Oh, and by the way, I did not take part in the TP-ing, because I remember thinking that I couldn’t believe college students would do something so reminiscent of my Jr. High days. To this day, it embarrasses me to think that all our students can think of as a celebration is to toss bu– wipe over a tree and light pole. Maybe they should rig a huge guillotine, drag it to the center of Toomer’s corner and have a celebration of beheading a replica of the losing team’s mascot, then hang it on a pole, collecting them as the season goes along…. ?
I started at Auburn in the fall of ’73 and remember distinctly that the trees were rolled after an away-game victory to welcome everybody back.
I am an Auburn Alum with more than just a degree and a good time to show for my time on the plains. My father, Jay Casey, not only played on the 1972 team but was such good friends with Terry Henley that Terry gave the eulogy at my father’s funeral in 2003. I have heard my fair share of stories from my dad as well as Henley throughout the years. I know that Toomer’s was rolled prior to December 2, 1972, but I believe that what was a spirited celebration became a long lived tradition as a result of Terry Henley and his witty remarks to pump his team up and lead them to one of the most storied victories on the plains! War Eagle!
I was at Auburn from ’68 to ’73 (best years of my life). I do remember TP at Toomer’s Corner during my time there. But I also remember an away win (Tennessee in ’71 I think). When the game was over several hundred of us went to Toomer’s Corner and there was TP thrown. But there was also a lot of blue and orange paint. The celebration stopped traffic on College Street and it so happened that a Greyhound bus was stuck in the intersection. When that bus finally pulled away it completely covered in blue and orange.