A column in the Montgomery Advertiser on Sep. 26, 1951, welcomed a new era in Auburn football with a prophetic statement.
"The Auburn team that takes the field Saturday will show the old spirit, fight and determination typical of Auburn's good teams of years ago," wrote Max Moseley, who went on to accurately predict a victory over two-touchdown favorite Vanderbilt in coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan's debut as the Tigers' head coach.
It was a bold statement considering Auburn had become the worst football program in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers won just three games combined during the 1948 and 1949 seasons, then hit rock bottom by going 0-10 and scoring just 31 points in 1950.
Enter Jordan, a Selma native and former three-sport athlete on the Plains who was the line coach for Wally Butts at Georgia before being hired by Auburn athletic director Jeff Beard.
Instant turnaround.
After winning a combined seven games in Jordan's first two years, including three SEC victories that first season, the Tigers pulled off a shocking 13-0 win over No. 15 Ole Miss in 1953 and then tied 13th-ranked Mississippi State 21-21 on their way to a 7-3-1 season and a berth in the Gator Bowl.
It was Auburn's first winning season since 1942 and its first postseason appearance in 16 years. By 1955, there was enough interest to expand the football stadium.
"When we first came to Auburn, the alumni were upset and the players were kind of down in the dumps," said Joe Connelly, a defensive assistant who coached for 25 years under Jordan and another three under Doug Barfield. "We knew we had to really get them by the collar and work real hard with them. Coach Jordan said we had to make them a more mentally tough football team than they had been in the past.
"As it turned out, there was a little more talent here than we thought. Once they got a little toughness, we started winning."
Four years later, Auburn won them all. Then the Tigers did something they had never done and haven't since -- finishing the season ranked No. 1 in the nation.
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| Auburn University football coach Ralph 'Shug' Jordan, a Selma native, remains the college's all-time winningest coach. |
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The Associated Press declared Auburn the national champion after a perfect 10-0 season in 1957. About 5,000 fans celebrated the announcement at Toomers Corner, and another 12,000 showed up for the official presentation of the national championship trophy. "I think that day everyone realized what a tremendous turnaround Coach Jordan had accomplished at Auburn," Connelly said. "We've been pretty good in football ever since."
During one stretch between 1956 and 1958, the Tigers played 24 games without a loss. From worst to first, the resurrection was complete.
In Jordan's 25 seasons, Auburn compiled a record of 175-83, finished the season ranked in the top 20 in the nation 13 times and in the top 10 seven times and played in 12 bowl games. He remains the school's all-time winningest coach and is a member of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
"In modern football today, I don't think coach Jordan gets enough credit for what he did at Auburn," said running back Terry Henley, who played with Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Pat Sullivan and also was a part of the 1972 team that captured the legendary 17-16 victory over rival Alabama on a pair of blocked punts.
"The foundation he laid at Auburn when he got there in the early 1950s to when he left was unprecedented," Henley added. "If you look at the players he developed, the toughness he instilled, the respect he brought to that program, he deserves more accolades than he gets."
During Henley's three years on the varsity squad, the Tigers went 28-5, won two of the three bowl games they played in and finished with national rankings of 11th, 12th and fifth.
None were bigger than the 1972 Iron Bowl, which spawned "Punt Bama Punt" bumper stickers after Bill Newton blocked a pair of punts and David Langner scooped up both and returned them for touchdowns for perhaps the most improbable win in Auburn football history.
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With his players, Jordan was a stern disciplinarian and a demanding coach. Conditioning drills were intense. Fatigue was not tolerated. |
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"There will never be anything to equal that," Henley said. "Two blocked punts by the same guy, with the same guy running it in from nearly identical spots on the field ... That will never happen again." Afterward, a jubilant Jordan led an emotional celebration in the Auburn locker room.
"Here he was in his late 60s and he was up on a table leading us in singing, 'War Eagle!'" Henley said. "It was a sight."
For Newton, a former walk-on, it was an unforgettable moment.
"What I remember most is him telling us that of all the teams we coached, including the national championship team, we were at the top of the list," he said. "That was such a sense of pride for us. It was right after the Sullivan and (Terry) Beasley era, and a lot of people said we didn't have any talent. What that team accomplished was pretty remarkable."
Despite all his victories, which surpass greats such as General Bob Neyland and Bobby Dodd, Jordan's legacy is as much about the man he was off the field as the coach he was on it.
"What a Southern gentleman he was," Henley said. "He would go to speaking engagements and when he walked in that door the room would just light up with his kindness. He never forgot a name and he spoke to everyone. He never failed to compliment the lunchroom workers at the schools we visited. When he walked out, it was like you had just left a family reunion."
With his players, he was a stern disciplinarian and a demanding coach. Many players dreaded being called into Jordan's office -- "it was like going to see the principal," Newton said -- and his conditioning drills were intense. Fatigue was not tolerated.
"When you learned, you could run from Montgomery to Auburn and not get tired, you knew you could play for coach Jordan," Henley said.
Twenty-four years after his death, Jordan's influence is still felt by those who knew him. Henley has an oil painting of his former coach in his office. Newton said he often thinks of Jordan and the influence he had on his own life.
"Having the opportunity to play for Coach Jordan is as meaningful to me as anything I've ever experienced," Newton said. "It means as much to me as I'm sure it does to the Alabama players who played for coach (Bear) Bryant. What he meant to Auburn and to the players he coached is really hard to put into words."
