Auburn Tigers is the name given to Auburn University athletic teams. The University is a member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 18 varsity teams in 13 sports:

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Athletics

thumb, Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, and Samford Stadium-Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park

Football

Auburn's football team has been named national champions one time by the Associated Press title in 1957. Two Auburn players, Bo Jackson in 1985 and Pat Sullivan in 1971, have won the Heisman Trophy. The Trophy's namesake, John Heisman, coached at Auburn from 1895 until 1899. Auburn is the only school that Heisman coached at (among others, Georgia Tech (Yellow Jackets) and Clemson (Tigers)) that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner. Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium has a capacity of 87,451 ranking as the eighth-largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA as of August 2004. Auburn played the first football game in the Deep South in 1892 against the University of Georgia at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The Tigers' first bowl appearance was in 1937 in the sixth Bacardi Bowl played in Havana, Cuba. As of 2005, AU Football has won six SEC Conference Championships, has had eleven total undefeated seasons, and since the division of the conference in 1992, six western division championships (1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005) ^[1]and three trips to the SEC Championship game (1997, 2000, and 2004). Auburn plays archrival Alabama each year in a game known as the Iron Bowl. Auburn lost the most recent meeting, on November 29, 2008, by a score of 36-0.

Auburn completed the 2004 football season with an unblemished 13–0 record winning the SEC championship, their first conference title since 1989 and their first outright title since 1987. However, this achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the Tigers being left out of the BCS championship game in deference to two other undefeated, higher ranked teams, USC and Oklahoma. The 2004 team was led by quarterback Jason Campbell (Washington Redskins), running backs Carnell Williams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Ronnie Brown (Miami Dolphins), and cornerback Carlos Rogers (Washington Redskins). In 2007, the NFL drafted 5 Auburn players including Anthony Mix (New York Giants) Ben Grubbs (Baltimore Ravens), David Irons (Atlanta Falcons), Kenny Irons (Cincinnati Bengals), Courtney Taylor (Seattle Seahawks) and Will Herring (Seattle Seahawks).

Swimming and diving

In the last decade under former head coach David Marsh, Auburn's swimming and diving program became a virtual dynasty in the SEC and the NCAA winning five consecutive NCAA men's championships from 2003 through 2007 and women's championships in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Auburn men have won the SEC Championship 14 out of the last 15 years and also won national championships in 1997, 1999, and 2009. The Auburn men won their 13th consecutive SEC Title in 2008, while the Auburn women took home their fifth SEC Championship in the last six years. The Auburn men's 44 consecutive, five year dual meet win record came to an end on January 11, 2007 when they lost to Texas 130-113 exactly five years to the date of their last loss in 2001, also to Texas.

Auburn swimmers have represented the U.S. and several other countries in recent Olympics. Auburn's most famous swimmer is Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, winner of three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Auburn's most successful female Olympic swimmer is Kirsty Coventry (swimming for her home country of Zimbabwe) who won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Marsh left Auburn after the 2007 season to become the Head Elite Coach and CEO of the United States Olympic Committee Center of Excellence in Charlotte, North Carolina and was succeeded by former Auburn head coach Richard Quick who led Stanford and Texas to 12 NCAA titles in two decades of coaching between 1984 and 2005.

Men's basketball

The Auburn men's basketball team has enjoyed off-and-on success over the years. Its best known alumnus is Charles Barkley.

Other NBA players from Auburn are Chuck Person, Wesley Person, Chris Porter, Marquis Daniels, Moochie Norris, and Pat Burke.

Women's basketball

The Auburn women's basketball team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse Tennessee and other competitive programs such as LSU, Georgia, and Vanderbilt, Auburn has won four regular season SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. AU has made sixteen appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament and only once, in the Tigers first appearance in 1982, have the Tigers lost in the first round. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games from 1988–1990 and won the Women's NIT in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after twenty-five years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly experienced, former Purdue and US National and Olympic team head coach, Nell Fortner. Standout former Auburn players include: Ruthie Bolton, Vickie Orr, Carolyn Jones, Chantel Tremitiere and Monique Morehouse.

Baseball

Women's Golf

Auburn's Women's Golf team has risen to be extremely competitive in the NCAA in recent years. Since 1999, they hold a 854-167-13 (.826 win percentage) record. The team has been in five NCAA finals and finished second in 2002 and then third in 2005. The program has a total of seven SEC Championships (1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2009). The seven titles is third all time for Women's golf. ^[2] In October 2005, Auburn was named the #3 team nationally out of 229 total teams since 1999 by GolfWeek magazine. Auburn's highest finish in the NCAA tournament was a tie for 2nd in 2002. ^[3]

Since 1996, the team has been headed by Coach Kim Evans, a 1981 alumna, who has turned the program into one of the most competitive in the nation. Coach Evans has helped develop All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year as well as three SEC Freshman of the Year. She has led the Tigers to eight-straight NCAA appearances. She is by far the winningest Coach in Auburn Golf History, having over 1100 wins and winning six of Auburn's seven total SEC Titles. Evans was named National Coach of the Year in 2003 and has coached 8 individual All-Americans while at Auburn.

Women's Soccer

Auburn Soccer has been one the top programs of the SEC. The team started in 1993 and after some growing pains is now a constant player in the SEC Conference championship race. Auburn won four straight SEC West division titles between 2001-2004 and a fifth in 2006. They won the Regular Season SEC title in 2002. Despite all the success, Auburn has yet to win an SEC Tournament, though they have finished Runner-Up three times.

The 2006 Auburn soccer season saw the Tigers playing only five seniors and 13 freshmen who saw significant playing time. Despite the youth, Auburn went on to an 11-5-3 including a 5-3-3 mark in the SEC to retake the SEC Western division title. The Season ended on a 3-1 loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to California in Tallahassee, Florida.

Equestrian

Women's equestrian first debuted in 1996 and became the school's 21st varsity sport five years later. The team has been led by Greg Williams since its debut. In 2004, the team won its first championship at the Southern Equestrian Championships, which started in 2003. ^[4] In 2006, the team won its first Varsity Equestrian National Championship, capturing Auburn's first national title outside of football and swimming and diving. The team earned its first Hunt Seat national title in 2008, while the Tigers finished third in the overall standings. ^[5]

Although equestrian is not yet sanctioned by the NCAA, Auburn competes with 19 other Division I schools, including SEC foes Georgia and South Carolina. The NCAA classified equestrian as an emerging sport in 1998. 40 Division I and Division II schools are required for the sport to be recognized by the NCAA. Currently, there are 23 programs, and more are expected to be added each year. ^{[6] [7]}

Track and Field

Auburn's Women's Track and Field won the 2006 National NCAA Outdoor title convincingly by outscoring USC 57-38.50. The track title was the 4th National Championship won by Auburn in 2006. In Outdoor Track and Field, the previous highest finish for the Women was 14th in 2002 and 2003. The Auburn men have finished second in the NCAA Outdoor championships twice in 2003 and 2008. The men have earned two third place finishes in 2000 and 2007.

Traditions

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 athletes' dormitory) 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. Auburn is the first known school to conduct an organized procession of players into the stadium. Today the team, led 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. According to former athletic director David Housel, Tiger Walk has become "the most copied tradition in all of college football." As it grew in popularity, the Tiger Walk has become a fixture for road games. Fans will gather at visiting stadiums and cheer the team on from the busses into the stadium.

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. Charlie Crawford, Auburn’s landscape manager, has stated that the oak trees are dying.

War Eagle

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 an 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 every 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. The eagle was once housed on campus in The Eagle's Cage, but the cage was taken down and the eagle moved to a nearby raptor center.

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, snuck 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 returning to Auburn's schedule after nearly two decades of absence. ^[8]

Rivals

Auburn has two primary rivals, The University of Alabama and The University of Georgia. The stretch of games against these two schools is known traditionally as Amen Corner and also used to include the game against the University of Florida. Alabama is the most heated rival, and this rivalry is considered to be one of the most intense in the country. Competitions between the schools are know as the Iron Bowl. Alabama holds the all-time edge with a record of 39 wins, 33 losses and 1 tie.

Georgia and Auburn compete in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry, dating back to 1892. The game was played in Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The series is extremely close, with Auburn holding a 53-50-8 record. Auburn has only been outscored by Georgia by 45 points in the 111 game history of the series. It is one of the longest running and most played series in the NCAA.

Auburn also has a very competitive football rivalry with the LSU Tigers. The two share more than just a nickname, as they have both enjoyed success in the SEC's Western Division. Auburn or LSU has won at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship for six of the last seven years. Auburn won it outright in 2000 and 2004, LSU tied Auburn and then went on to the SEC Title Game in 2001 and 2005. LSU also won the tiebreaker over Ole Miss in 2003 to go to the SEC Title game. The only three times Auburn or LSU did not go to Atlanta in the last seven years was 2002 when Arkansas won the three-way tie breaker with the two Tiger teams, in 2006 when Arkansas made it to Atlanta with a win over Auburn, and despite losing to LSU, and in 2008 when Alabama won the SEC West with a 8-0 SEC record.

Some of Auburn's former rivals included the Florida Gators, the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, each of which was mitigated (or, in the case of Georgia Tech, ended) with the SEC expansion and division restructuring.

References

1. All-Time Football Standings
2. No. 6 Women's Golf Rallies In Final Round To Win SEC Championship
3. Auburn Women's Golf named No. 3 Program since 1999
4. South Carolina Ready To Host Southern Equestrian Championships
5. Auburn Equestrian Rides to a National Championship in Hunt Seat
6. Varsity Equestrian: About
7. Equestrian earning its spurs as NCAA sport
8. Wreck Tech Pajama Parade, Pep Rally Set For Friday Evening