It didn’t take long for the administration to put something out—no swimming classes, no softball or tennis practice, definitely no ROTC drills. Strenuous activity was thought to heighten the chance of contracting it.
Dr. Brown, the student medical officer, said it was just a better safe than sorry thing for a couple of weeks. But that didn’t do much to help calm the fears.
It wasn’t that there had been a whole of lot of cases on campus or anything in 1951. Two hundred fifty people had come down with it that year; only two were Auburn students.
It’s just who it was…
The starting quarterback. The Phillips High phenom. The hero whose extra points had upset Bama two years earlier.
It was as if the virus had looked around and asked itself “who would make the most tragic polio victim in Auburn…”
Here’s Kess Fabian remembering his friend Bill Tucker.
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Dwight Hitt and Billy TUCKER were great. They beat Alabama 14-13 the year after they clobbered us. Alan Parks threw a pass to Lee Haley to beat Florida in the final quarter in Auburn. Was a big win for us.
I think the 14-13 win was 1949? Auburn students did a conga line through the movie theater (which of course we called the picture show.).