Auburn doesn’t know Auburn. It’s fine. It’s something I’ve come to mostly accept. Because, sure—does it matter that Camp War Eagle tour guides tell folks that Toomer’s rollings began as some 19th century hey-we-won smoke signal rather than just organic, victory-inspired vandalism in the late 1960s? Probably not. Does it matter that people think the original oaks were a thousand years old? Probably not.
But sometimes it’s like it does kind of matter, like all the times we sell ourselves short. And that’s a lot of times, actually.
Uncounted wins. Uncounted seats. Uncounted homecomings. Uncounted undefeatedness. Unclaimed fame. I could go on forever, baby.
And hey, let’s focus on that last one—unclaimed fame… only this time not for us as a people, but for Bo Nix as a person.
That whole stat about young Bo being Auburn’s first true freshman to start a season opener under center in 73 years? The first since Travis Tidwell? Awesome stat. It’s just kinda wrong.
He’s most likely the first ever.
Tidwell started his freshman season at tailback. Everyone remembers him for his quarterbacking, and for good reason. But in the 1946 season opener against Southern Miss in Cramton Bowl, Tidwell was the tailback. He stayed a tailback the whole season. He led the nation in offense as a true freshman… tailback. Left halfback, to be exact. He lined up at quarterback plenty, yes, definitely. But Babe Gendusa was the starting quarterback.
More details in the latest episode of It’s Pronounced Jordan, including confirmation straight from the horse’s mouth (via my mouth).
(Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Apple Podcasts or whatever. Spotify. Stitcher. Even that iHeartRadio thing. And it’s indexed in tons of other apps and services… Overcast, Podchaser, Castro, Pocketcast, Castbox. Or, you know, straight from BuzzSprout. Or just subscribe to TWER YouTube channel. Or, you know, on www.itspronouncedjordan.com.)
…..Very good find! I’ve long wanted the official Auburn website to further update it’s historical section. Still can’t look up stats for anything before the internet era.
Thanks!
It’s actually Cramton Bowl …
I was there. That’s Teedie Faulk, Sam Mcclurken, Bill Wilson and Travis Tidwell. Remember Pharr, Cornelius, Rose, Gendusa, Fuller, Cochran and lammom, but not first names. Played at night in Crampton Bowl and API won with an extra point. Just glad for a win. Wofford beat API in Montgomery that year or the next. We were not very good and it got Voyles fired. Earl Brown was from Notre Dame and was supposed to be our savior but he lost 10 games and was fired. Tidwell was a great athlete and my hero. I was 10 years old. I had pictures of Travis all over my room. Could have been really good but broke his leg sliding into second on the baseball team. Seems like yesterday. War Eagle!
Thanks for sharing, Bill — that’s great. Tidwell was amazing, definitely. Doesn’t get enough attention just because of the teams he was on.
First, love you work on these and not being argumentative, but looking for clarification with possibly more information.
Couldn’t follow all that you read about the back and forth between single wing and T formations. Wondered how much you know about the single wing. My father was a single wing center and as he put it he normally “passed” the ball to the “tailback” who was the deepest man in the formation. “Fullback” would be slightly closer to the line and to one side – think modern day “pistol” formation. The “quarterback” called the signals, but was lined up very near the OL much like our H-Backs do sometimes in our formations. “Wingback” would generally be behind the line and slightly off set outside the last O lineman as our H-Backs are on occasion.
Bottom line … with this in mind about the “tailbacks” would it change your position about Bo being the “first”?
Thanks, Mickey! — no, I know very little about x’s and o’s, and yeah, in terms of what you were probably seeing on the field in ’46, Tidwell was obviously touching the ball first (post-snap) plenty, and throwing it plenty. (I thought I expressed enough caveats along those lines, at least in the actual episode, maybe not.) I mean, it’s almost a distinction without a difference. But Gendusa was definitely, explicitly the quarterback in name, and frequently in deed. For me, that was enough to blow the whistle on that stat.