Cleaning up my work computer and found this in my personal files. 53 years ago
1972 "Lewis Grizzard on Auburn"
I must admit the fact an Auburn man once saved my life has something to do with
all of this. And I must admit
further what follows will be completely biased. I simply couldn't allow the
opportunity to pass without saying a few more words in behalf of the 1972
Auburn football team.
And in behalf of Auburn itself.
I got my first taste of sin at Auburn; 16, or close to it, with a bottle of Old
Something an of-age friend had purchased at the state store up the road at Opelika. As I recall it now, I wound up in a lonely stall in the third-floor restroom of
a fraternity house while the party roared onward downstairs. There, as my life flashed in front of me and, being grateful I had at least
heeded my mother's words not to smoke, a kind Auburn student, a veteran of such
incidents, wet-toweled me back to health. I never got his name, but I have been forever grateful, and I have held a warm
place in my heart for Auburn ever since, although I sought higher education elsewhere.
It is with that preface I hereby state I do, indeed, hope Auburn wins its Gator Bowl game
against Colorado, and that is the signal for all my poison pen pals from down
the road in Tuscaloosa to start buying stamps.
Auburn.
I think of purity for some reason.
Of nothing to do but
go to Toomer's and talk about what you talked about the day before and the day
before that.
Of a low hippie ratio on campus. Of real grass growing on the football field.
Of grown men in sweaters and open-collared shirts with 50-yard line seats.
I think of Gerald Rutberg, a friend of mine, who edited the college newspaper
at Auburn and used to ask me every day how I thought "The Big Blue"
would do against whomever.
Of Bottle, Ala., which is actually a suburb of Auburn.
Of the Yearouts. Of Pat Sullivan, still the most exciting college football
player I've ever seen.
Of Shug Jordan.
There are two remarks that still stand out in my mind concerning Shug Jordan,
and those two lines say it all. I once asked Harry Mehre if he thought Shug would quit coaching amidst the
illness and the rumors. "Shug will coach as long as he can. He still loves the things most coaches
don't think about anymore. He still loves the rah-rah part of this thing. He walks onto the field and hears all that War Eagle business they do down
there, and Shug knows it's all worthwhile," said the old coach.
The first time I went to Auburn on business, I asked former Journal colleague,
Tom McCollister, what kind of interview was Shug Jordan. "Talking to Shug," Tom replied, "Is like talking to your
daddy."
Auburn.
I think of the basketball coach, Bill Lynn, who looks and sounds like a
hard-shelled Baptist preacher.
Of journalism
professor David Housel saying, "Auburn is in the best interest of the
American dream."
Of Buddy Davidson, who has never found either of the two topcoats I have left
in the Auburn press box.
Of Bill Beckwith, the worst golfer in history ever to score a hole-in-one.
Of a golf tournament they had at Auburn once and the beer they carted to you on
each tee, and of shooting 95 after being one-over through seven holes. That
damn beer.
Of Randy Walls.
Randy Walls was the quarterback in 1972, Sullivan's successor. He was the
number four quarterback at the end of spring practice.
"It wasn't what Randy did for us this year," said an Auburn coach.
"It's what he didn't do. He didn't make mistakes."
Actually, he did make one. So excited was he about starting Auburn's first
game, the young sophomore went out for the pre-game warm-up with his jersey on
backwards.
In the Georgia Tech game, Randy Walls didn't do anything right but win the
football game. "I didn't know Walls could run like that," somebody in
the press box said after a
30-yard jaunt that resembled your grandmother going after the mail. "He
can't" was the reply.
He can't. But he did.
Auburn.
I think of the pasture land adjacent to the campus. Of my favorite Auburn line,
"What do you get if you cross an Auburn man and a gorilla?" A hairy
county agent."
Of not being able to smoke in the Auburn Coliseum. Of the old Sports Arena and
Layton Johns. Of Terry Henley.
"Them FSU players bit me on the leg in the pile-ups," said Terry
Henley, college football's answer to Will Rogers. "They must not have had their pre-game meal."
Did Terry Henley get tired carrying the football 25 times a game?
"Hell, no," said Terry Henley. "I carried it 50 times a day in
spring practice."
Auburn.
I think of unlisting my telephone number after an irate Auburn fan, a woman,
called my home and said she hoped poison darts rained down on my body and I
died.
Of a fellow from my
hometown writing me and saying to never come back because "you stink,
stink, stink." And all because I wrote Pat Sullivan was bush for not talking
to writers after losing to Alabama.
Of picking against Auburn all year long, except once --the LSU game. ,
Of Owen Davis' line,
"Jordan waved his hand, and the Red Shirts parted."
Of Auburn students covering the whole town in toilet paper after the Alabama victory and somebody
saying, "You mean they used both rolls?"
Auburn.
It went 9-1 when it wasn't supposed to win three; defeated three top 10 teams,
stopped the nation's longest winning streak three times, got a bowl bid, and
did my heart a lot of good.
WAR EAGLE!!!
Lewis Grizzard
