Tiger Walk
Before each Auburn home football game, thousands of Auburn fans line Donahue Avenue to cheer on the team as they walk from
Sewell Hall (the athlete dormatory) to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The tradition began in the 1960s when groups of kids would walk up the street to greet the team and get autographs. During the
tenure of coach Doug Barfield, the coach urged fans to come out and support the team, and thousands did. Today the team, lead by
the coaches, walks down the hill and into the stadium surrounded by fans who pat them on the back and shake their hands as they
walk. The largest Tiger Walk occurred on December 2, 1989, before the first ever home football game against rival Alabama - the Iron Bowl. On that day, an estimated
20,000 fans packed the one block section of road leading to the stadium — Tiger Walk had become "the most copied tradition
in all of college football."
[1] Toomer's Corner
The intersection of Magnolia and College streets in Auburn, which marks the transition from downtown Auburn to the university
campus, is known as Toomer's Corner. It is named after Toomer's Drugs, a small store on the corner that has been an Auburn
landmark for over 150 years. Hanging over the corner are two massive old-growth oak trees, and anytime anything good happens
concerning Auburn, toilet paper can usually be found hanging from the
trees. Also known as "rolling the corner," This tradition is thought to have originated in the 1950s and until the mid 1990s was
relegated to only to celebrating athletic wins. However, in recent years it has become a way to celebrate anything good that
happens concerning Auburn. In 2002, students even rolled the corner to celebrate NCAA probations against arch-rival Alabama.
"
There are many stories surrounding the origins of Auburn's battle cry, "War Eagle." The most popular account involves the
first Auburn football game in 1892 between Auburn and the University of Georgia. According to the story, in the stands that day was a old Civil War soldier
with an eagle that he had found injured on a battlefield and kept as a pet. The eagle broke free and began to soar over the
field, and Auburn began to march toward the Georgia end-zone. The crowd began to chant, "War Eagle" as the eagle soared. After
Auburn won the game, the eagle crashed to the field and died but, according to the legend, his spirit lives on ever time an
Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry of "War Eagle" also functions as a greeting for those associated with the
University. For many years, a live golden eagle has embodied the spirit of
this tradition.
Wreck Tech Pajama Parade
The Wreck Tech Pajama Parade originated in 1896, when a group of mischievous Auburn
ROTC cadets, determined to show up the more well-known engineers from Georgia Tech, sneaked out of their dorms the night before the football game between
Auburn and Tech and greased the railroad tracks. According to the story, the train carrying the Georgia Tech team slid through
town and didn't stop until it was halfway to the neighboring town of Loachapoka, Alabama, The Georgia Tech team was forced to walk the five miles back to Auburn and, not
surprisingly, were rather weary at the end of their journey. This likely contributed to their 45-0 loss. While the railroad long
ago ceased to be the way teams traveled to Auburn and students never greased the tracks again, the tradition continues in the
form of a parade through downtown Auburn. Students parade through the streets in their pajamas and organizations build floats.
This tradition has recently been renewed with Georgia Tech again being on Auburn's schedule after over a decade of absence.