And many mooooooore: William H. Holley, Auburn's oldest living alumnus, celebrated his 105th birthday yesterday. Here he is as an Auburn freshman in the 1927 Glomerata. Carpe Diem.

When he walked at graduation William H. Holley, like many before and since, shook the hand of the university’s president, Dr. Bradford Knapp. At that time the president lived in Cater Hall. The governor was Bibb Graves. Know those names?

The oaks at Toomer’s hadn’t been planted yet. Toomer’s Drugs was still competing with Homer Wright as the local top druggist. (Wright’s phone number was: Nine.) S.L. Toomer simply referred to his place as The Store On The Corner.

Screen cap from a WDHN story on Holley's birthday party.

Obligatory sports references: George Bohler was coaching both the football and basketball teams that year. The football team was 1-8, beating only Howard College. Snitz Snider — Olympic track star and future high school football coach — was hurt much of the season. Another key player, Babe Taylor, who dressed at 6-feet-2 and “around two hundred pounds” as a tackle (Auburn’s current punter is bigger) also had nagging injuries during the down year. Bohler’s basketball team went 3-13. At least the baseball team was posting winning records! Cliff Hare Stadium? Hardly.

The Bank of Auburn, in the back of Holley’s senior Glomerata, offered four percent on savings. Burton’s Book Store was the place to get your dusty tomes. J&M was decades away. Samford Hall, Comer, Mary Martin, Smith and Langdon Halls were all a part of campus. Ramsay Hall was brand new. Perhaps you’ll have heard of Holley’s dean: Bennett Battle Ross of Ross Hall fame. That building was still being erected when Holley graduated.

Holley's Auburn offspring: Elizabeth ('59) and Bill Jr ('71).

If those things don’t sound familiar don’t worry. Auburn’s oldest living alum has a few years on you. Holley celebrated his 105th birthday Wednesday at the Henry County Nursing Home in Dothan (Auburn stuff was everywhere). His walk into the real world coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression. The 1929 graduate would work as a pharmacist in Abbeville and soon after helped soldiers get their prescriptions in France during World War II. When the Army let him go he settled with his wife and family in Headland, Ala. He became a pillar of that community where he handed out medication until he retired in 1973. His son Bill, a 1971 Auburn graduate, took over the druggist desk. His son has since retired.

But the elder Holley refused to slow down long after retirement. He has maintained two farms, one in his hometown of Samson, Ala. and another in Headland. He was famously building fence lines by hand well into his 90s. At his 105th birthday party on Wednesday he was able to count four adoring grandchildren and six great-grandchildren in his life. He maintained his driver’s license well beyond his centennial, “just in case.”

His API diploma, which is made of sheepskin, still adorns a wall in his bedroom, and, as he told Auburn Magazine, learning about Newton’s first law in a physics class has played a big role in his long life. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Living Right, he said simply, is the key. He’d know.

For video from Holley’s party, visit DothanFirst.com; h/t @migueltrivino.

Kenny graduated from Auburn at the turn of the century. He worked in newsrooms across the region and then earned a master’s degree at UAB. He met and married a Yankee, who declared her Auburn allegiance at her first home game. She’s now on the faculty at Auburn. He’s finishing his PhD at Alabama and teaches at Samford University. And he’s an assistant editor at The War Eagle Reader. See him online at www.kennysmith.org and @kennysmith.

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The pride of Sandy Creek High becometh the pride of Auburn.

Dear New Auburn Men,

War Eagle and congratulations on your decision to enroll at Auburn University.

Football is an important reason why you’re coming to Auburn. Football will occupy a lot of your time. It isn’t the most important reason you’re coming here.

As Gene Chizik says, this place was great long before any of us got here. Auburn is great because of the history and tradition within her buildings. For more than 150 years students have carried books over these grounds. This place is great because of the generations of Auburn men and women who have become overwhelmingly important to this region and the world.

You, too, can do great things. Your talents are giving you that opportunity. You must only work for it. Auburn men and women believe in work, hard work.

Think about these things, work and opportunity. We know those ideas become clearer with time and experience. We hope that you’ll honor those concepts because we know what they can do for you and our larger community.

Your athletic talents are impressive, but you’re also coming here because the coaches believe you have equal promise as an individual. We hope that you’ll honor the faith they are putting in you by choosing wisely in all things.

We want to celebrate the wise decisions you make with the opportunities before you. We cheer you on Saturdays because you represent a part of Auburn. We have the greatest hopes and expectations for you every day of the week because you ARE Auburn.

Auburn is about realizing potential. That is what we cheer for the most.

War Eagle and welcome home. Welcome to Auburn. Love it, and it will always love you.

Signed,

The Auburn Family

Photo via.

Related: The sights and sounds of Auburn’s signing day.

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Kenny graduated from Auburn at the turn of the century. He worked in newsrooms across the region and then earned a master’s degree at UAB. He met and married a Yankee, who declared her Auburn allegiance at her first home game. She’s now on the faculty at Auburn. He’s finishing his PhD at Alabama and teaches at Samford University. And he’s an assistant editor at The War Eagle Reader. See him online at www.kennysmith.org and @kennysmith.

…

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What we know for sure is that it brought out the cameras. And, hallelujah, the one belonging to Cecil Bridges (’74) had some Kodachrome in it. And if there’s anything that can give you a feel of what rolling wires and lines and anything but trees come 2013 or whenever it is might be like, it’s these never before seen COLOR photos—the first we’ve ever seen, the only we know of—of real people* living just like we live: blue blue jeans, green green lights, blonde blondes, brunette brunettes, orange spray paint, taste the rainbow, kiss the dragon.

* And—sixth photo down—hipsters! Who knew the Quadrajets / Immortal Lee County Killers’ Chet Weise was a time traveler!

It takes more than 200 hours each month to produce, edit, and maintain The War Eagle Reader. If you like what we do, and you’d like to help us keep doing it, please consider making a small donation, or advertising with us. Thanks!

BUCK FAMA: Black and white photos of Toomer’s being rolled after Punt, Bama, Punt.

More on the the Toomer’s oaks: Here’s what the type of tree that might replace Toomer’s Corner looks like / Wire system being considered as temporary solution for rolling Toomer’s / On the feasibility of a Toomer’s Corner transplant / Toomer’s Corner rollings didn’t start with Punt, Bama, Punt, says History / Did Auburn students celebrate Bear Bryant’s death by rolling Toomer’s Corner?

Limber Lauren Lane's lumbar limbo.

An Auburn gymnastics meet is something different from most things you’ve seen in sports. There isn’t a ball, a bat, a club, or a racquet. There are hand grips and chalk powder. Stripe-suited referees are replaced by judges seated at a scoring table. Gone is the green of a playing field or the reflective shine of a smooth hardcourt… because its covered by massive, unfurled mats and chalky balance beams.

But the passion’s the same.

The pride is there, the heart is there, and the sights, and the sounds, and the colors. The crowd is just as lively, the cheers are just as bold, the orange just as orange, the navy just as blue.

It’s that spirit — the spirit of Auburn, the spirit of competition. The drive, the fight, the struggles, the successes, and the failures that bring people together the way only sports can. It’s all still there when the Auburn gymnasts take the floor.

And it will be there even more tonight in Auburn Arena the 16th-ranked Tigers try to snap a 103-meet losing streak to 6th-ranked, defending national champions: Alabama.

Auburn is hot off of posting its highest scoring total of the season in last Friday’s meet against No. 7 Georgia. Despite dropping that meet to the “Gym Dogs,” the Tigers still come into tonight’s meet with the momentum that comes from having on one of your best performances of the year go down in front of 4,508 fans, a record-setting crowd for gymnastics in the new arena. The record should probably stand for a few more hours before the house is packed for tonight’s throwdown with the Tide.

It’s not going to be easy for the Tigers to snap the losing streak tonight, because after, oh, 100 or so consecutive losses, it’s not much of a streak. It’s a marathon. Auburn is going to have to pretty much be perfect and, realistically, they’re going to have to hope for a couple of slips from the Tide. But if Auburn can run mistake-free, and if the Tigers can get another beast-mode performance from their senior leader and best all-arounder Kylie Shields, they could very well bring the meet down to the beam and the floor, the final two events.

If you go to the meet tonight you’ll see two bitter rivals competing. But it’s different: There’s an overtly positive vibe—and it isn’t forced or insincere, either. When an opponent slips there is no celebration or cheer as for a penalty flag. When an Bama girl doesn’t stick her landing, there won’t be a “Push’em Back” chant (though when an Auburn girl sticks her Heisman pose, you’ll definitely hear boos). And you’re not going to see a gym coach argue the judges’ tallies like they would argue balls and strikes.

There’s also a certain level of chaos on the floor that makes it that much more approachable. The invisible wall that seemingly makes the football field at Jordan-Hare Stadium sacred and unreachable, and the Auburn Arena court during basketball games untouchable, are all barriers that are pulled down for a gymnastics meet, traded for just the right amount of disorganization, a din to where you feel you could almost overhear coaches on the floor, and kids running notes over between the two judges’ tables.

The focus of attention is all on the action — the motions, the movements, the girls. There is no constant emphasis on the score, or the stats, or how many events are left, like the Fox Box and computer graphic scoreboards have trained us to look for. Instead, the crowd can just focus on the sights and sounds, the competitors and the routines, and the cheers and their neighbors. It’s the traits that you would usually consider as what would make it less of a spectator sport that makes gymnastics an even better one.

But while an Auburn gymnastics meet does appear to be different from beginning to end than nearly all other athletic events at the school, what it has in common with the others — the passion, the spirit, and the competition — it has in spades. They may call it a “meet” as opposed to a “game,” but all the while it’s hard to believe that neither team is actually ever doing the same event at the same time. And with competition so involved and with momentum so evident, sometimes it gets easy to forget that nobody is playing defense.

And at the end of the meet, both squads huddle up and stand on the mat in the center of the floor, like boxers in the middle of the ring after a heavyweight fight, awaiting the PA announcer to call out the judges’ final tallies.

The field is replaced by a mat, the uniforms are exchanged for one-piece tights, and the helmets are swapped for colorful hair bows. And instead of a thick line of eye black there’s thick, black eye liner—but it’s all the same. It’s war paint.

And tonight, it’s all the same. It’s Alabama.

Photo via Van Emst.

Justin Lee is a third generation Auburn man. In his spare time, he is junior-ish at Auburn, majoring in journalism. Curse him at auborangej@gmail.com.

Related: Auburn gymnasts strikes Heisman pose against Bama.

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Happy Belated The Burger That Made Auburn Famous Day!

1991 wasn’t the best of years for a young Auburn fan in the midst of a full-blown middle school husky phase. Our first losing season in a decade was in the works; a traitorous, sanction-loving moon was in the 7th field house. But while the quality of football Auburn had cultivated in the late 80s was waning, by God, the low-fat, low-calorie ground beef its meat scientists had developed during that same time had arrived, and what it may have lacked in taste it made up for in pride.

On Jan. 22, 1991, the McDonald’s McLean Deluxe was unveiled at the McDonald’s across from campus on Magnolia. The place was packed with VIPs, chief among them Auburn president Dr. James Martin, who along with Miss Auburn Debbie Hunter and SGA president Terry McCarthy and every one else on the “taste panel” gave the latest and greatest promise of healthy fast food a perfect “10.”

Guilt-free hamburgers—this, said Martin, was Auburn answering its highest calling.

“This is a perfect example of a land-grand university working hand-in-hand with industry to solve some of the problems we face as a society,” Martin said. “We have become quite health conscious as individuals and this is a way in which individuals can watch their diet, watch the amount of fat consumed and the number of calories and still enjoy one of the great traditions of the American delicacy [sic?] which are hamburgers.”

The Plainsman called the McLean “… the burger that has made Auburn famous.” It featured an “AU Lean” patty, which contained only 9 percent of fat by weight. Regular burgers? About 20 percent.

But fat equals flavor. To trick your tongue, Auburn professor Dale Huffman pumped the meat with some seaweed and soybean derivatives (and some extra salt). And at first, folks seemed to dig it—at least the folks in Toledo, Portland (Ore.), Harrisburg (Pa.), and Knoxville… and of course Auburn. Auburn mayor Jan Dempsey even went so far as to proclaim Jan. 22, 1991 as “AU Lean Day.”

McDonald’s was so jacked by the results from its four McLean test markets (over 400 stores), they rushed the McLean’s production. According to industry insiders, the company usually spent years developing new products (the McPizza was supposedly at five years and counting at the time). But just four months later, the McLean Deluxe was on the menu of practically every McDonald’s restaurant across the country.

More like HEALTHY cow college...

“It’s been extremely succesful,” Huffman told The Plainsman. “This is the fastest they (McDonald’s) have ever moved a product through testing to full marketing. This is indicative of the level of interest and acceptance.”

And it was a high level. AU Lean was being sold on the retail market in New York. The National School Lunch Program ordered 250,000 pounds of the stuff to test on kids. Health magazines were calling. And Huffman said Wendy’s and Burger King had even gotten in touch.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s was touting the benefits of the miracle meat in full-page magazine and newspaper ads, and in multiple commercial campaigns. The McLean was named the official sandwich of the NBA.

Hell, Michael Jordan wanted TWO.

But that may have been all he wanted.

Maybe it was the absence of the familiar flavor and “mouth feel” (the decreased fat apparently made it dryer than normal burgers), or the price (they were the most expensive item on the menu) or the two-minute wait (for a variety of reasons, they had to be made to order). Whatever the reason, the McLean never McDid it for America. Billions and billions of them were not served. What The New York Times had initially heralded as “a healthy breakthrough for the American public” was soon being called the McFlopper. Johnny Carson made jokes.

On April 21, 1993, just two years into what had been predicted to be a new era in fast-food, the Wall Street Journal wrote what was essentially the McLean’s obituary. Here’s how they ended it:

“At Auburn University these days, the meat researchers who pioneered lean beef are now trying to develop low-fat pork sausage. But don’t expect to see it on the menu at President Clinton’s McDonald’s anytime soon.”

I choose to remember the McLean Deluxe a little more fondly. We’d pull up to the drive-thru. I’d see one of the employees wearing a Bama 1992 national championship lanyard or something. And I’d order my McLean. Sure, we’re probably on the way to probation, I thought to myself. But we just might well cure America’s obesity epidemic before we get there. And hey, I’m losing weight—Leigh will totally start returning my calls, War Eagle.

Top graphic and bottom ad from theApri 12, 1991 issue of The Auburn Plainsman; photos from the 1991 Glomerata.

It takes more than 200 hours per month to produce, edit, and maintain The War Eagle Reader. If you like what we do, and you’d like to help us keep doing it, please consider making a small donation or advertising with us.

…

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Baribeau Knows: 2003 Auburn grad Rachel Baribeau wants to put the sports back into Birmingham sports talk.

Cox Media Group’s 97.3 The Zone might not be able to get Paul Finebaum away from WJOX, but they are trying something different in sports talk radio in Birmingham, with an Auburn alum sharing the helm.

Rachel Baribeau, Class of 2003, joins Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News for four hours of sports talk starting at 2 p.m.  They call themselves “Baribeau & Scarbo.”  (It rhymes.  Some might Southernize the pronunciation of her name to rhyme with “caribou,” but the former is the preferred pronunciation.)

First, a little background. When Cox revamped the station to a sports format last year, company reps made a conditional offer to Finebaum, according to the Birmingham Business Journal.  And Finebaum’s attorneys went to court to try to get him released from his contract with Citadel Broadcasting, which was recently purchased by Cumulus Media.

For the first few months, The Zone ran a rerun of the morning show “Rick & Bubba” in the 2 to 6 p.m. time slot.  It appeared that the station was keeping the slot open for Finebaum, should he be released from his contract with Citadel/Cumulus, which runs until 2013.

But the emergence of Baribeau and Scarbo would indicate that, for at least the short term, The Zone is going in a different direction.

According to Baribeau, the show is also going in a different direction.  “We are more interview-driven,” she said.  “It is a true sports talk program.”  Translation: No trash talk, no cast of characters, and no rumors.  In fact, The Zone, in its promos, proclaims, “Sports radio. Not trash radio.”

“Kevin Scarbinsky has been a journalist for 27 years,” she said.  “We double-check sources, we get statements from them.”

(Disclaimer: My listening experience for The Zone comprises less than an hour online, to get a sense of the content.  Reviews in comments would be appreciated.)

John Olsen, program director for The Zone, noted that the afternoon show, like the morning show with Eli Gold and Stan White (radio game announcers for Alabama and Auburn, respectively), stresses inside information.

“Eli and Stan have Coach Saban’s and Coach Chizik’s numbers on their cell phones,” Olsen said of the morning show.  In the afternoon, “We have the people who write the blogs and the articles.  These aren’t guys who go from home to station and tell you what they read in the paper that day.  They wrote it.”

Baribeau expressed a “large distaste for negative content.”  She pointed proudly to the show’s “Pay It Forward” segment on Fridays at 5 p.m., which presents positive stories such as Eric LeGrand, the paralyzed Rutgers football player; former Alabama football player John Croyle, who runs Big Oak Ranch, a Christian home for children; and former Auburn player Steven Wallace, who runs a foundation that reaches out to underprivileged children.

For Baribeau, the radio show is the latest challenge.  After graduating from Auburn, where the RTVF major worked for Eagle Eye News and the baseball team, she spent her first five years in a variety of media gigs in Columbus, Ga., including sports talk, Friday night sideline reporting and local broadcast freelancing.

In 2008, she went to work for the Tuscaloosa News, as a multimedia producer for the newspaper’s TideSports site.  (Talk about paying your dues.)  In 2011, she joined FoxSports and Scout.com as a field reporter covering the SEC West and recruiting.  The Baribeau and Scarbo opportunity emerged in late November.

She is encouraged by the initial response to the program.  “The feedback has been tremendous,” she said.  “People appreciate a choice, an alternative.”  The program is also broadcast in Montgomery on 107.5 The Ticket.

Olsen added, “They have developed a pretty quick chemistry.  It’s a good alternative for sports fans in the area.”

So what is the long-term prognosis for the program?  A medium like radio can be unforgiving and unstable.  Olsen is pleased with the content and the feedback so far, at the same time admitting that others above him make the decisions for the program’s future.

Baribeau has been in broadcasting long enough to know the same, but she says, “I appreciate the commitment by Cox Media to do this, and we are doing the best we can.”

Still, Cox Media obviously feels that the Birmingham market can serve as the headquarters for two sports talk shows.  Baribeau and Scarbo have tried to set themselves apart with a show that is heavier on the information and lighter on the inter-caller drama.

The brief time that I listened included an MLK Day-based discussion of the “Rooney Rule” (which encourages minority hiring in the NFL), with a sports attorney as the guest.

It’s an extension of Baribeau’s personality.  She is open about her Christian faith, and it’s reflected in her attitude and her approach, though not overtly on the program.

How that plays in the rough and tumble of sports talk radio is yet to be determined, of course.  Here is hoping she doesn’t catch the ill treatment fans wish they could heap on Tim Tebow.

Fans wanting to judge for themselves can check out 97.3 in Birmingham and 107.5 in Montgomery, or can stream theshow at 973thezone.com.  The “Listen” button is at the top.

Photos via.

John Carvalho, associate professor of journalism at Auburn, blogs about the sports media at johncarvalhoau.tumblr.com. (He had nothing to do with this story’s headline.) Find him on Twitter at @johncarvalhoau. Read his previous columns here.

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Auburn University (via its official Toomer’s Oaks update page) recently linked to photos we posted in August of one of the first times the corner was rolled to show that rollings were first confined to the center of College St. and Magnolia Ave. intersection. We were almost positive that they were taken sometime (before Punt, Bama, Punt) in 1972. Now we’re even more almost positive. Because we just found some more, and according to our facial recognition software they’re from the same afternoon… which according to the label on the sleeve the negatives we scanned them from were in I’m now kinda maybe certain was October 21, 1972.

Though pre-80s rollings are said to have been reserved for road victories, these photos—again, going by the label on the sleeve of negatives—were most likely taken after Auburn’s 1972 home game against Georgia Tech. It’s one of the first substantial rollings of Toomer’s on record (though significant TP’ing occurred as much as a year earlier). Perhaps the decisive win after being down 14-0 early in the game or jubilation from bouncing back from a beat down in Baton Rouge the week before, Auburn’s only loss that season, was enough to break with the brand new tradition. Or maybe the away-game only rule wasn’t yet a rule. Or maybe nothing was yet a rule.

Whatever the context, whatever the exact date (and sure, whatever, we could be off by centuries*), we at least have six more examples of what the Click-it-Or Ticket-less orgies of toilet paper held in the historic center of Toomer’s Corner intersection looked like. And we have more coming soon—the only known (at least by us) color photographs of Toomer’s being rolled after the 1972 Iron Bowl [you can see black and white photos here].

A recommendation regarding the future of rolling the corner is scheduled to be delivered to Auburn University president Jay Gouge this week.

* Maybe Larry Parker finished waited two weeks to finish off his Georgia Tech roll and these are from Auburn’s win over Florida in Gainesville. Because one thing that possibly suggests it wasn’t a home game is the casual garb. Not everyone was still coat and tie’ing it in ’72, but there was still a button-down formality to game attendance. Maybe these dudes just didn’t go to the game? If you spy any other context clues, let us know.

Photos by Larry Parker.

Related: On the feasibility of a Toomer’s tree transplant.

It takes more than 200 hours per month to produce, edit, and maintain The War Eagle Reader. If you like what we do, and you’d like to help TWER keep the lights on and the obsession with Auburn lore unhealthy through winter, please consider making a small donation or advertisingwith us

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.

Like Netflix for your neck. Your lady will think you look super queue-t.

During the ESPN broadcast of the BCS National Championship Jan. 9, Auburn University football head coach Gene Chizik, a guest commentator, drew heat from Alabama fans nationwide for his choice of a gold tie similar to colors of the Tide’s opponent, LSU.

While Chizik defended the color choice as a “good look,” he could have rubbed it in even more by changing into different colored ties during each commercial break — say a purple, navy or burnt orange tie — had he only been a member of TieTry.com.

TieTry.com, a business built off the Netflix model, is the brainchild of 2003 Auburn graduates Scott Tindle and David Powers. It allows subscribers the opportunity to “borrow” ties just as Netflix allows users to borrow movies.

After watching an episode of ABC’s show “Shark Tank,” in which a panel of wealthy celebrities and entrepreneurs negotiate investment deals with budding entrepreneurs, Tindle and Powers were inspired by one contestant, who applied the Netflix model to children’s toys.

After throwing around several ideas, Tindle and Powers settled on ties. Both are attorneys and each must wear ties at least four days a week.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m tired of wearing the same ties everyday,’” Tindle said. “So, let’s see if we can actually pull this off.”

After a year of planning and working on the business model, Tindle and Powers finally launched TieTry.com last week, and Tindle said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

The response has also been fueled by an ironic twist of fate that occurred at almost the exact same time as the launching of the website.

During a recent episode of FX’s hit show “The League,” character Taco MacArthur, played by Jon Lajoie, jokingly brainstormed the idea of a rental tie business called “Neckflix.”

“(Taco’s) obviously a smart guy,” Tindle said with a laugh. “We wish our site would have gone live right before the show, but we’re happy either way.

“We think it’s a win-win all the way around,” he added.

Prices for TieTry.com range from $11.99 per month for one tie at a time to $29.99 per month for five ties at a time.

“Basically, for 25 bucks a month, you could never wear the same tie again,” Tindle said.

Tindle said the business currently has an inventory of approximately 200 different styles of ties, ranging from traditional neckties to bowties.

The business works just like Netflix in that a customer goes online, selects the plan they would like, chooses the tie(s) they would like and TieTry.com immediately ships the selected tie(s).

Customers are allowed to keep the ties as long as they would like, or they can go online to set a queue of future ties they would like to try.

Once TieTry.com receives the returned ties, the customer’s queued ties are immediately sent out.

All ties are inspected upon return, treated for spots/stains, sanitized and returned to inventory. Any tie that doesn’t meet inspection requirements is thrown out and the customer is charged a replacement fee.

“We’ll never send you a tie that I wouldn’t wear in front of a client,” Tindle said.

Following the 1988 Sugar Bowl, in which Auburn rallied to tie Syracuse 16-16 on a Win Lyle field goal instead of going for the touchdown and the win, a Syracuse radio host sent Tigers’ head coach Pat Dye thousands of neckties in protest of the coach’s decision to go for the tie.

In response, Dye signed and auctioned off each tie, raising more than $30,000 for Auburn’s general scholarship fund.

Tindle hopes his business will soon have the same success as Dye did with his ties.

“Maybe we can get (Dye) to be our spokesman,” Tindle said with a laugh.

TWER readers who would like to try TieTry.com will receive a 50 percent discount on the first month by entering promo code TWER. 

Austin Phillips is an adjunct journalism instructor in the Auburn University Dept. of Communication and Journalism. He can be reached via email at adp0019@auburn.edu.

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Ah, the ’50s, when if Alabamians wanted to root for a winning team, they had to root for Auburn… when the tiger at the Magic City’s brand new menagerie was named the Auburn Tiger and when the elephant was named “Miss Fancy.”

Speaking of footnotes: I’m kicking off a weekly half hour segment (It’s Pronounced Jordan, brought to you by The War Eagle Reader) tonight on The Drive, which airs from 4-6 p.m. on ESPN 106.5 in Auburn-Opelika. Sexy will be brought back to Auburn history each Thursday at 5 p.m. Tonight’s topic? You guessed it: the history of Auburn’s eclectic, esoteric mascot culture, delivered with wit and wisdom beyond the posts and with a timbre of voice aching to be discovered (and a hints of future investigations). You can listen online [by clicking the "Listen Live" link on the top left of the page] here. Finebaum, set that crown on the ground.

Related: “My wife was the Auburn Tiger.”

…

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* The Bo Jackson of Bo Jackson collections
* Auburn vet saves Lady Hoggers
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A photo of Auburn University's main gate from the 1929 Glomerata. Neither of the two large trees between the gate and the streets is a live oak.

The tree in the center of the 1899 photo of Toomer’s Corner framed and hanging in the offices of Auburn fans across the state is not one of the iconic Toomer’s Oaks, recent research conducted by an independent group of Auburn fans revealed.

That photo, as well a 2007 article published in Auburn Magazine, had been used to date the trees age to be approximately 130 years old.

A recent study of old photos housed in the Auburn University archives suggests that the two cherished live oaks are actually around 75 years old.

This 1937 photo shows that the two large trees found in the 1929 photo had been removed. The Toomer's Oaks had not yet been planted.

Though large trees have lined the College St. and Magnolia Ave. boundaries of Auburn’s campus since the late 1800s, a photo taken by an Auburn freshman in 1937 shows that the Toomer’s Oaks had not yet been planted. A photo in the 1929 Glomerata shows two large trees at the campus’ main entrance, but according to Dr. Gary Keever, an endowed professor in Auburn’s Department of Horticulture and point person for the Toomer’s Task Force, neither tree is a live oak.

The first photo found showing what is believed to be the Toomer’s Oaks is of a January 4, 1938  celebration of Auburn’s 1938 Orange Bowl win over Michigan State on New Year’s Day. (A print of the photo is actually on display in Toomer’s Drugs.) The size of the trees—both are approximately 8 to 12 feet tall—indicate that they would only have been 6 to 10 years old at the time.

That would likely place their planting in 1937.

The orange arrow in this 1938 photo featured in "Auburn: A Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village" points to one of the Toomer's Oaks, which was just 8-12 feet tall at the time.

Though the new estimate slightly dents the historical significance of the oaks (and possibly the likely apocryphal “ticker tape” theory on the origins of the rolling tradition), the emotional impact of the trees’ poisoning could, in a sense, increase as their pre-Spike life expectancy would have been much longer.

A recently released report on the findings shows a chronological progression of the oaks’ growth and can be downloaded from the university’s Toomer’s Oaks update page.

Related: Harvey Updyke’s attorney values Toomer’s Oaks at only $20

More on the the Toomer’s oaks: On the feasibility of a Toomer’s Corner transplant / Toomer’s Corner rollings didn’t start with Punt, Bama, Punt, says History / Did Auburn students celebrate Bear Bryant’s death by rolling Toomer’s Corner?

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