Wildest Dreams

Alumni Stories, Auburn Magazine, Women of Auburn

Wildest Dreams

Author and New York Times writer Margaret Renkl looks for answers to societal ills in the harmony between humans and nature.

Since 1970, the year that Margaret Renkl ’84 turned 9, we have lost 3 billion birds in North America. To her, details like these—conscientious, critical, maybe even apocalyptic—are not factoids filed away, but symptoms of a fracturing, tenuous relationship between humans and nature.

Across a prolific writing career that includes three books and hundreds of columns for the New York Times, environmental destruction becomes a form of injustice. From the degradation of America’s wetlands, to the ecological cost of Valentine’s Day flowers, through wit and wisdom she urges readers to take action before it’s all gone.

“These natural cycles I had always found so reliable, so trustworthy and so reassuring, are no longer reliable,” said Renkl. “When I was younger, it felt like whatever turmoil, whatever concerns I was facing, the bluebirds were still going to build their nest. I can’t make such assumptions anymore.”

Renkl is only a few months removed from the book tour for her latest release, “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year.” Published in October 2023, the book is a week-by-week examination of the nearby natural world, indoors and out. Beginning on the first day of winter, she meditates on changing seasons, adjustments of weather, and the migration of wildlife as metaphors for her own life.

“My hope is to encourage people to get outside more, to listen to the birds and learn the names of the wildflowers. Paying attention to nature has a way of calming the mind and settling the soul.”

Paired with 52 exquisite illustrations by her brother, the artist Billy Renkl ’85, the book was a way for her—and by extension, the reader—to find in nature a peace that is too often absent from the human world. Those who find peace in nature can’t help falling in love with it—and, hopefully, will work a little harder save it.

“My hope was that people would read it one week at a time as the seasons unfolded—that they would read about what’s happening in my yard and be inspired to go outside and look at what’s happening in their yard, or their local park, or in the little strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road. A lot of people are reading it that way, and it’s really wonderful to see that happening.”

Renkl has always found solace in the natural world. One of her favorite things to do as an Auburn student was to head out to the agriculture fields and watch the cows, or wander the woods and dirt trails where forestry classes studied.

“I was just a few steps away from campus, but it felt like I was in a really rural, separate place. I’ve always just thought of nature as the place where I belonged.”

Four 1980s college students sit together in a university building.

Renkl (right) was editor of The Circle, Auburn’s student interest magazine in 1984.

Her senior year at Auburn she took an environmental biology class—a subject she didn’t yet understand—and it awakened her to what humans were doing to the planet, a message that colors her worldview to this day.

She lasted a semester at the University of Pennsylvania before homesickness for the Southeast spurred a transfer to the University of South Carolina, where she met her husband and earned a graduate degree in creative writing. They moved to Nashville where they taught English and started a family.

An aspiring poet, Renkl published a short collection, “The Marigold Poems,” in 1993. Already, her proclivity toward nature was in full bloom. Though she would later switch to prose, the musicality of language and careful choice of words remains.

While raising three children she freelanced for national magazines and edited the book section of the Nashville Scene, a weekly newspaper. In 2009 she became founding editor of Chapter 16, the free literary website of Humanities Tennessee that covers the state’s literary community.

In addition to promoting authors, books and literary events, Chapter 16 under Renkl’s tenure also published interviews with noted celebrities like former president Jimmy Carter, the late Georgia congressman John Lewis and bestselling author David Sedaris. Under her tenure, Chapter 16 earned Humanities Tennessee the prestigious 2012 Schwartz Prize for public humanities programs from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

After a decade at the helm, as well as by now a weekly contributor for the New York Times, she stepped aside a month before the publication of her first book, 2019’s “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss.”

In “Late Migrations,” nature becomes a character itself, evoking memories of bygone days or used as metaphors for personal experience. The title comes from a profoundly personal experience—replacing her vegetable garden with milkweed, the only plant where monarch butterflies hatch—to hopefully stall their impending extinction.

“I am old enough now to have buried many of my loved ones, and loss is too often something I can do nothing about,” she wrote. “So I lie awake in the dark and plot solutions to the problems of the pollinators—the collapse of the honeybee hives and the destruction of monarch habitats—in the age of Roundup.”

Since 2017, her Times columns have given her a wide audience and a national reputation. But it is a demanding responsibility she doesn’t take lightly. Like the changing seasons, she recognizes the time will come for something else.

“Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined writing a weekly column for the New York Times,” she said. “I don’t know how long I’ll want to do it, but I’m grateful for the chance to write about the things that matter most to me, especially the vulnerability of the natural world, for such a large audience. That’s truly a gift.”

On August 7, Margaret Renkl will speak at a convention for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, alongside her brother Billy, to discuss “The Comfort of Crows” and her reasons for writing it.

By Derek Herscovici ’14

Pondering Their Future

Alumni Stories, Auburn Magazine, Campus, Faculty

Pondering Their Future

Harry Ponder ’70 retired from Auburn in 2017, but his legacy lives on. Three of his landscape horticulture students—Justin Sutton ’05, Kim Byram ’94 and Jeff McManus ’88—cite his leadership and passion as big influences.

A man in a hat stands outside in a group of people, speaking to them and holding an oak leaf.

Harry Ponder taught landscape horticulture at Auburn for 40 years.

Talk to any landscape horticulture graduate from Auburn and they’ll tell you about the incredible scientific education they got. They learned the names of plants, growing climates and soils. But they also talk about how much they learned about dealing with people and leadership.

And no one person’s name gets mentioned more than Harry Ponder ’70, the horticulture professor who retired from Auburn in 2017 after 40 years. Ponder began his career by working at his family’s third-generation nursery business, Ponder’s Nursery in Dadeville, Ala. He started teaching at Auburn in 1978 and became beloved for knowing every student’s name and his tireless work helping to get them jobs upon graduation.

“In 1978 I started what I called a job placement service,” Ponder said. “I started placing students and never did I dream that we would become the only department on campus that placed 100% of our graduates. That built into a huge operation where we had companies coming from California because we promoted that we have the best horticulture graduates in the United States.”

He was instrumental in helping Sutton, Byram and McManus in their careers, connecting McManus with then-Chancellor Robert Khayat of Ole Miss when he was looking to transform the campus.

“All three of these guys have incredible people skills,” Ponder said of Sutton, McManus and Byram. “They’ve got leadership qualities. They’re a little bit different type of leaders, but they are all leaders in their own way.”

“He was amazing, and he just made it exciting,” McManus said of Ponder. “But the thing I really liked about Dr. Ponder was not all his knowledge, and that he knew the plant names. He knew my name. And that made an impression on me, and I’ve tried to emulate him in my leadership style.”

By Todd Deery ’90

Former Director of Urban Studio is Dreaming and Doing

Auburn Magazine, Faculty

Former Director of Urban Studio is Dreaming and Doing

For Cheryl Morgan ’74, the best plans are a good mix of doable and aspirational.

Beth Thorne Stukes and Cheryl Morgan at the dedication ceremony for the new Cheryl E. Morgan Design Lab.

Morgan, emerita professor in Auburn’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC) and former director of its Urban Studio, dedicated her career to helping communities balance goals for growth and economic development with keeping features that set those cities apart. She provided leadership for the revitalization of Railroad Park and the Rotary Trail in Birmingham and, through the Studio’s Small Town Design Initiative, collaborated on strategic development in more than 100 smaller cities.

“I think Cheryl is an exemplary leader in our state of what architecture can and should be, especially urban architecture,” said Beth Thorne Stukes ’81, education advocate and member of the Auburn University Foundation Board of Directors. “The way she allows people to hope and dream about what their community can be and the way she offers that hope back is life-changing for communities.”

Stukes and Morgan met amid recovery efforts after two tornadoes ripped through Cordova, Alabama on April 27, 2011. Stukes chaired Cordova’s Long-Term Recovery team, and Morgan lent her expertise to help the city plan its future.

“I saw how Cheryl let people share their ideas for how we could rebuild and the way she made people feel that they had been heard. She took their thoughts and allowed them to picture having a future in the midst of nothing but rubble, trees and junk,” Stukes said. “She was able to still that chaos and let people dream.”

Unbeknownst to them at the time, the two already shared another connection—Stukes’ son, Brent Uptain ’00, had been Morgan’s student at Urban Studio during his fifth year as an architecture student at Auburn.

Auburn’s purchase and renovation of the Hood-McPherson building created multiple opportunities for philanthropic support. Stukes seized the opportunity to make a gift to the project to name the second floor the Cheryl E. Morgan Design Lab in honor of Morgan’s career and her 12-year tenure as director of Urban Studio.

“I was blown away by Beth’s generosity and for honoring my work in this way,” Morgan said. “Calling it a design lab and instilling the idea that this will be a place where students will expand their thinking, try new things, evaluate prior finds and determine goals for new results is wonderful nomenclature.”

If you would like to support the innovative work of Urban Studio, visit AuburnGiving.org/urbanstudio24 or email Christopher Griffin at cgriffin@auburn.edu.

A Tip of the Cap: The Rookie Auburn Tiger (R.A.T.) Program

Auburn History, Auburn Magazine

A Tip of the Cap: The Rookie Auburn Tiger (R.A.T.) Program

Remembering the long-lost tradition and tribulations of Auburn freshmen “Rats.”

Orange felt cap with a variety of writing on it, some pins, and a blue A.

The Auburn University Marching Band has this thing called the R.A.T. Program.

“It’s to help integrate freshmen and smooth the transition from high school to college,” said junior Acelynn Arballo, a R.A.T. program leader for the ’23-’24 school year. “It’s just a great opportunity to help them out.”

There are parties. Cookouts. Even a R.A.T. prom.

“R.A.T. stands for Rookie Auburn Tigers,” Arballo says. “We kind of know the tale. It was like the freshmen got off the train and you could hear them scurrying around campus and so they just called them rats. I think that’s where it came from. We’ve definitely heard the story.”

But probably not the whole story.

In name, if not exactly spirit, the R.A.T. Program is the last vestige of an unofficial institution that left an impression—often literally—on generations of Auburn students. “Rats”—that’s what freshmen used to be called at Auburn. And most everywhere else.

The Dictionary of American Slang cites 1850 as the first use of “rat” to mean “a student, especially a freshman or new student.” So, it wasn’t one of those uniquely Auburn traditions.

Black and white photo from 1960 with two men with rat cap

But Auburn got in on the act early. And with gusto. Paddling. Head shaving. Forced midnight runs. Whatever inglorious rite of passage an upperclassman could conceive, a rat had to quietly endure with little more than a wink in the Glomerata.

“We were all just rats,” wrote 1916 freshman class historian Armstrong Cory in the Glomerata, “and most of us felt it.”

Early on, the harsh treatment of freshmen was usually contextualized not as the random abuse it frequently was but punishment for violations of the gradually codified rat regulations, most of which centered on the custom’s defining expression: the rat cap.

References to Auburn “rats” date to the 1890s. But the Auburn rat cap—orange, short blue brim, blue “A” on the front—first appears in an address to freshmen in the 1917-1918 Auburn Student Handbook.

“Rat caps must be worn at all times during the weekdays except when in military uniform,” reads the handbook.

By 1923, the degree to which rat rules defined Auburn culture was making headlines across the South. An AP article written that November—“Auburn Freshmen Must Don Rat Caps and Observe Code”—informed readers that, among other things, freshmen couldn’t pass through the main campus gate and had to provide matches to seniors upon request.

The article insisted the checklist didn’t constitute hazing, which administrators had done their best to eliminate. It was merely an organized effort to reinforce the natural campus pecking order in a way even professors could get behind.

Black and white photo of a group of students with one student holding a rat cap above his head from 1961

“Members of the upper classes as well as members of the faculty decided that there should be a sharp line of distinction drawn between the freshmen and the upperclassmen,” proclaimed the article.

Regardless of assurances that consequences for getting caught without your rat cap would no longer be physical in nature, male freshmen at Auburn and across the country knew better. Which is why the gameday practice of snatching rat caps from the skulls of rival rooters had been its own Saturday spectacle for decades.

In 2011, an Auburn graduate sought to return the cap he’d swiped from a Bama freshman in the late 1940s and apologize. The thought of the torture the poor cap-less Capstoner surely suffered, he said, had wracked him with guilt for years. If he had snatched the hat about ten years later, though, it probably wouldn’t have been an issue.

Throughout the 1940s, the tradition slowly began to temper. That women were, all in good fun, now also expected to abide by the accessory slowly softened rat life into more spectacle than duty, more pageantry than punishment. Yearbook photos of shorn men on the receiving end of a paddle began to be replaced with group photos of smiling coeds in cute caps à la the early Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers.

black and white photo of a student holding a rat cap from 1960.

By the late 1950s, Auburn student handbooks carried merely hopeful suggestions that freshmen continue to follow rat rules as best they could. The 1960s were more of the same.

By the 1970s, rat cap sightings were rare, and the rats all but extinct.

A 1978 Opelika-Auburn News nostalgia piece offered theories on the demise—changing times, changing fashions. Dean of Students James Foy blamed the bouffant. It was kind of cruel, he said, to force a rat cap atop a beehive.

“Today,” the article read, “the Auburn Band is the only group that honors the time-honored tradition.”

But at some point, even the band stopped—with the caps, at least. Only the name remains, albeit with rewired connotations. Where once the term was explicitly pejorative, now it’s sweet.

Where now describing the welcome rats receive as a “warm reception” is completely sincere, it once dripped with irony. And probably some tears.

“…a long three months’ vacation will be sufficient for us to get into good trim to receive the incoming ‘Rats,’” read the freshmen class history in the 1898 Glomerata. “Shall we be kind to them? That is a useless question. We all firmly believe in the old maxim: ‘Do unto others as they have done unto you,’ and as we were accorded such a warm reception upon our entrance, the duty of making it interesting for all new men consequently devolves upon us and we shall endeavor to be equal to the occasion by dint of much muscular exercise during the summer.”

By Jeremy Henderson ’04

Track ’em Tigers: An Inside Look Into Auburn’s RFID Lab

Auburn Magazine, Campus, Students

Track ’em Tigers: An Inside Look Into Auburn’s RFID Lab

From corralling cows to locating your luggage, Auburn’s RFID Lab is helping companies and people track their most valued possessions.

Man holding up and looking at an RFID tag.

Justin Patton, executive director of Auburn’s RFID Lab, examines an RFID tag. The tags are similar to barcodes but don’t need to be seen to be scanned.

“We’re doing innovation,” said Justin Patton, executive director of Auburn’s world-renowned RFID Lab. Then he stops himself. “A better word, really, is transformation.”

He makes a good point: RFID (an acronym for Radio Frequency Identification) has existed for decades. Allied forces used the technology in WWII to identify whether incoming airplanes were friendly or enemies. But the lab’s student workers, alongside its faculty and staff, are transforming and improving the ways in which tracking technology is used in industries like retail and aviation.

You likely interact with RFID all the time, whether you’re aware of it or not. If you’ve been to the grocery store, tracked your pet, used an E-Z pass on a toll road, or even competed in a race, you’ve encountered the technology.

RFID uses radio frequency waves to wirelessly transfer data and identify and track “tags” that are attached to objects.

It’s made major waves in the retail industry by streamlining inventory tracking, preventing theft and providing insight into potential trends. A store associate armed with a “reader” can track hundreds of tagged products in seconds from yards away, as well as provide data on which products are most often shoplifted.

“Giving something a name or identity that didn’t have a name or identity is important because it makes that thing important,” said Patton. “Once we give each individual thing a name, it gives it value.”

An RFID tag is essentially a barcode with fewer restrictions. Unlike a barcode, you don’t need to actually see the tag to scan it, which saves a ton of time on inventory management.

But RFID’s influence goes way beyond the retail industry: farmers use RFID-equipped ear tags to keep an eye on their cattle. Airlines use it for everything from refreshment-cart maintenance to baggage tracking. Medical professionals use it to manage medication inventories.

As you read this, Auburn’s RFID Lab is currently developing new uses and tracking methods. The possibilities are endless.

Cattle Call

How RFID is used to track cattle from farm to fork

Tagging
Livestock is tagged with a small RFID tag containing a unique identifier. Tags can be attached to the ear, neck or leg of the animal.

Identification
RFID readers installed in various locations like gates, feeders and milking stations emit radio waves that interact with the RFID tags on the cattle. This allows for quick identification of individual animals and their movements.

Monitoring
RFID technology enables farmers and ranchers to track important data about each animal, including health records, feeding schedules, breeding history and vaccination status.

Traceability
In addition to daily livestock management, RFID tags allow food to be tracked after it leaves the farm and throughout the supply chain, helping to assure food safety and quality.

Working with the Fortune 500

Patton has been with the RFID Lab, originally located at The University of Arkansas, since its inception in 2005 and has witnessed its development firsthand. “RFID in 2005 was kind of like AI in 2024,” he said. “That was the buzz at that time.”

As a graduate student studying computer engineering, one of his professors was Bill Hardgrave. While Hardgrave is considered something of an Auburn icon (he oversaw major growth as the Harbert College of Business during his tenure as dean), he was also quite successful during his time at Arkansas.

Hardgrave founded and directed the Arkansas RFID Lab until he left for Auburn in 2010, installing Patton at the helm. Later, a financial gift from Raymond Harbert ’82 allowed the whole operation to move to Auburn in 2014.

“I’m an Arkansas grad, but this was a step up for us and we were very lucky to make that move,” said Patton.

RFID scanner sits next to shelves full of a variety of jeans.

The lab is testing numerous technologies that help businesses take inventory, including this autonomous scanner.

The lab, located inside a sprawling former Bruno’s grocery store on Glenn Avenue, almost looks like a vintage movie studio. The space is separated into a group of sets (smaller operating labs) that are dedicated to different purposes. There’s a mock retail store where students test inventory tracking processes, and an imitation Delta terminal and plane (with legitimate airplane seats, to boot). In the back is a sensory-free room worthy of science fiction movies—complete with blue padded walls—that enables researchers to test RFID tags in a completely controlled environment.

The RFID Lab conducts research in four major industries with four major partners: Delta, UPS, McDonald’s and Walmart, which is one of the lab’s oldest partners.

“If you want to put somebody to sleep, you start talking to them about inventory,” joked Patton. “I think it’s boring because it’s fundamental. You assume you know what you have.”

Once you see a student worker use a handheld reader to identify hundreds of products in seconds, it becomes a lot more fascinating. The now-essential resource saves workers hours of painstaking itemizing, prevents theft and provides customers with a better shopping experience.

A woman uses an RFID scanner and digital tablet in a simulated airplane interior.

Close-up of a woman looking at an RFID tag on a gray suitcase.

Delta’s $6.2 million gift to Auburn in 2017 not only funded the university’s aviation building, it also provided research funding for the RFID Lab. In the seven years since, student researchers have polished and refined tag capabilities that allow flight attendants to track a plane’s food and beverage inventory, and airline workers to track checked luggage—a long-overdue development for anyone who’s ever “lost” their luggage on a flight.

And then there’s UPS, the lab’s major package logistics partner. As far as that goes, “everyone wants to know where their packages are,” according to Patton. “This makes that information faster and more accurate.”

The lab’s partnership with McDonald’s helps the restaurant chain improve their operational flow while enhancing ingredient traceability and visibility. The Food Safety Modernization Act requires U.S. food manufacturers to digitally track their products for recalls and food safety, and RFID is a significant enabler.

The food space is new ground for the RFID team, but Patton is excited about the potential for more supply chain transformation, not to mention the sustainability benefits the research will bring. RFID tags make ingredients traceable, eliminating the need to oversaturate the supply chain with food products that will either rot on store shelves or get thrown away at home.

“We throw away like 20 or 30 percent of what goes through the food supply chain,” Patton said. “Isn’t that crazy? This is one of those rare instances where a good business win aligns with better efficiency, better sustainability and less waste.”

As much as has already been accomplished, you can expect a lot more innovation on the horizon—not only in Auburn, but around the world.

In April 2024, the lab announced a major partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico to promote RFID and to enhance collaboration in research, education and workforce development via the Weapons Production–Technology and Nuclear Training Program.

“The WP-TNT partnership with LANL will advance RFID technology for precision location systems, and hopefully open up many paths of opportunity for Auburn students to work with a premier government technology lab,” Patton said in a news release.

Meanwhile, Switzerland-based semiconductor manufacturer EM Microelectronic joined the lab’s advisory board in April. This relationship will open up new research opportunities, particularly in the Bluetooth space.

Corporate Partners Using RFID

Logos of Avery Dennison, Boeing, Checkpoint, Datascan, Delta, EM Microelectronic, Hanes, GS1 US, Kohl's, McDonald's, NXP, Nike, PVH, Sensormatic, SML, T-Mobile, Tageos, Walmart, and Zebra.

Students as Partners

“We very much rely on our students. They are our partners in this,” said Jade Bruce ’15, the RFID Lab operations manager who the student workers lovingly refer to as their “work mom.” She’s not wrong—students from a variety of majors are hands-on collaborators, researchers and even presenters at the Auburn lab.

Emma Rhyne ’24, a recently graduated senior who served as laboratory technician and team lead, earned two bachelor’s degrees—one in psychology and one in law and justice. She says her hands-on experience in the RFID Lab prepared her for law school, which she plans to attend in the fall.

“Working here has really broadened my horizons to how technology can impact all other types of fields,” Rhyne said. “Now I’m considering going into technology law or patent law because of the things I’ve been able to see at the lab and how RFID goes into everything. This is such a new and emerging field, the law will have to follow along with that. So who better to go into that type of thing than someone who has experience with it?”

Margo Lewis, a junior, said her experience on the BUZZ Team (a team of students focused on advancing the lab’s communications and marketing efforts) is setting her up for a successful career in public relations and marketing.

“Since I started working at the lab, I really didn’t know what area of PR I wanted to go into,” said Lewis. “At the lab, I’ve been able to hone in on a lot of skills that are super transferable. I applied for this job because I thought if I could apply for a job about a technology I’ve never heard of and find a way to communicate and market that effectively, then I can do anything.”

Sophomore Josie Stough, also a marketing major, agrees. “When most people think about marketing, they think about flashy advertisements about sports or fashion—but when you learn how to market something as simple as a tag, not only to our partners but to our students, you can market anything, really.”

A student in his cap and gown stands in front of the Auburn University Stadium Video board.

And then there’s Brandon Huff, a freshman who plans to go into supply chain management. Huff was a junior at Auburn High School when some older friends who worked at the lab invited him to help out at the 2021 graduation—because Auburn’s graduation ceremonies are yet another aspect of everyday life that is touched by RFID. Graduating students are given an RFID tag that displays their name on the screen as they cross the stage. After assisting at previous graduations, Huff ran the show for the May 2024 Auburn commencement.

“[Working here] has helped me out in terms of team building and learning how to work on a team, but it’s also given me a huge technological advantage. It has taught me how to solve a lot of problems on my own,” said Huff. “Being at the lab forces you to come up with solutions. It has taught me how to be intuitive.”

A New Kind of Educational Experience

Patton, who was a student himself when the lab started at The University of Arkansas in 2005, believes students are capable of way more than most people give them credit for. He expects a lot from the students who work in the lab, and they’re often rewarded in the end. Graduating students are frequently hired by the lab’s corporate partners.

“I’m very proud that we impact a lot of students who are able to start their own careers, build their networks and fund their education along the way by the very people they’re going to eventually go out and work for.”

In the end, it looks like the RFID Lab is pioneering change in more than just industry—Patton thinks the future of higher education will look a lot like what’s going on inside the former Bruno’s grocery on Glenn Avenue.

“Education’s changing, and college won’t be the same as it has been,” he said. “I think it’s going to become more like what happens here, where we’re doing experiential learning, working with outside companies and helping with the hiring cycle.”

As the 20th century advanced, so did RFID. By 1973, the technology was officially patented by an entrepreneur who used the tags to unlock doors without keys. The rest, as they say, is history. Or at Auburn, the future.

By Corey Ann Williams ’17

They Still Do That? The Evolution of Auburn University Traditions

Athletics, Auburn History, Auburn Magazine, Campus

They Still Do That? The Evolution of Auburn University Traditions

From rolling trees with toilet paper to jumping in fountains on Leap Day, the history surrounding some of Auburn’s most beloved traditions may surprise you.

Collage of images from various eras in Auburn's History.

Auburn University celebrates a rich history of traditions dating back to its founding in 1856. New traditions are being integrated into the school’s history each year, while old traditions are stronger than ever. From where they started to where they are now, here are four of Auburn’s most celebrated traditions from the perspective of current students and seasoned alumni.

Auburn’s Roaring Welcome – Tiger Walk & Tailgate

From the echoing cheers of fans lining the streets for Tiger Walk to the uniting fun of tailgating, these traditions have been a staple on Auburn’s campus.

Instead of the huge crowds we see today, the first Tiger Walk consisted of a group of kids walking up the street to meet the team, cheer them on and ask for autographs. Since then, it’s grown into thousands of fans lining the streets from the Athletics Complex all the way to the stadium.

“Tiger Walk has become bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Ricky Smallridge ’82, a longtime Auburn resident since the early 1980s. “And now they’re doing Tiger Walk at even the away games.”

For fans and players alike, Tiger Walk is an opportunity to connect with each other and get pumped up for the game ahead. For Anna Chason Buchanan, current junior and student recruiter, Tiger Walk gave her a moment that she’ll cherish for a lifetime.

“When I was younger, we had a tailgate close to Tiger Walk. We got up to the very front and I was standing there with my jersey on and bows in my hair. I was probably nine or 10 and I got a high five from Cam Newton,” said Buchanan. “I was so excited, and I was squealing. We still talk about it to this day.”

The walk begins exactly two hours before each game. However, much earlier than that, fans from all over pitch their tents for a good old-fashioned tailgate party.

Collage of images from Auburn's Tiger Walk.

Since he was little, College of Human Sciences communications editor Graham Brooks ’14 and his tailgating family set up camp to enjoy a full day of Auburn fun. “We’ve got to the point where we joined a tailgate, and we all pitch in and do a lot of different work for it,” said Brooks. For over 20 years, the tailgate has occupied the same spot and is equipped with grills, fryers, chairs and tables, a generator and TVs.

For Brooks, tailgating is more than an excuse to party all day — it’s cherished time with friends and family. “One of my favorite things about it is just getting together and seeing everybody each week from our tailgate, and catching up on life,” he said.

On game days, the air is filled with the electric excitement of thousands of fans as they all pack into the stadium awaiting the next great Auburn tradition.

Winging It – The War Eagle Flight

Since its debut, the War Eagle’s flight has captured the hearts of students, alumni and fans alike, marking the beginning of each home game.

“I would say that the Eagle Flight is my favorite tradition because it came along after I was out of school and became so popular even around the country. Everyone knows about it,” said Smallridge.

During the 2000 football season, War Eagle VI brought this new tradition to the stadium, soaring above the heads of cheering fans. Brooks recalls watching the inaugural flight when he was only 9 years old.

“I remember being there, it was incredible to watch,” said Brooks. “I’ve always loved that tradition and so has my family. I would always try to get into the stadium before that took place.”

While the first official flight occurred in 2000, a popular legend of the battle cry goes back to 1892.

During a home game, a Civil War veteran’s pet eagle broke loose and began circling the field as Auburn began celebrating their win against Georgia. Seeing the soaring eagle, fans began shouting “War Eagle” in victory. Since then, the War Eagle battle cry and Eagle Flight have become intertwined as symbols of Auburn’s spirit.

Collage of images of Auburn's War Eagle Flight throughout the years.

For current graduate student and mic man Dalton Odom ’22, the Eagle Flight holds a special place in his gameday experience. Before he runs out onto the field to cheer and rally the crowd, the flight begins. Usually, Odom is accompanied on the field with a former football player taking on the role of honorary mic man. To Odom, the best part of Eagle Flight is watching them in awe of the eagle.

“One thing they all tell me is, ‘You know, I never got to see this when I was a player because we were always in the locker room.’ Seeing their faces beaming, just being on the field watching it, has always been the coolest part to me. They look like the little kid that I was when I was younger,” said Odom.

Coming from a family of Auburn alumni, Buchanan has been watching the flight for as long as she can remember. To this day, her favorite memory of Eagle Flight springs from the Texas A&M game during her sophomore year.

“We both had losing seasons, Auburn and Texas A&M. Cadillac was our assistant interim head coach, and everyone in the stadium was like, ‘This is it. This is our game.’ We beat Texas A&M, the eagle went, and we finally swag surfed,” said Buchanan. “Then Cadillac got up on the mic man pitch and started saying, ‘War Eagle!’ It was just so electric.

Better Than Snow – Rolling Toomer’s Corner

When the game comes to a triumphant close, fans young and old rush to Toomer’s Corner, grab the closest roll of toilet paper available and begin celebrating their win with a flurry of snow.

“Rolling Toomer’s shows how people you don’t even know can come together to celebrate the school they love,” said Morgan Watkins ’22, current graduate student. “It’s such a visual representation of how proud we are of Auburn and what the school and teams mean to us.”

In the 1960’s, Toomer’s Drugstore owned the only telegraph in Auburn. Without phones, Toomer’s employees were the first to get news of away Auburn football games. If the Tigers were victorious, the Toomer’s employees would throw the telegraph paper over the trees and power lines to inform Auburn students and locals of the win.

During the infamous “Punt, Bama, Punt” Iron Bowl matchup in 1972, fans ditched the telegraph paper and covered Toomer’s Corner in toilet paper after Auburn’s 17-16 victory. A joke was that Alabama was destined to be No. 2 in the country headed into the final stretch before Auburn beat them and snuffed their season. The punchline went “Auburn beat the #2 out of them.”

The tradition has only grown stronger since 1972, and today the beloved oak trees get rolled after many different athletic victories, not just football.

Collage of images of Auburn's Toomer's rolling tradition throughout the decades.

“The first tree I ever rolled was when I was four or five with my dad who went to Auburn. My blood family,” said Buchanan. “Now I roll Toomer’s with my Auburn Family, who’s all the friends that I’ve gotten to make throughout my time here. And I think it’s a really sweet thing.”

One of the most notable Toomer’s rolls for recent Auburn graduates was when the Auburn Men’s Basketball team advanced to the Final Four in 2019 for the first time in Auburn’s history.

“I remember the sun was setting as we were all running to Toomer’s. Samford Lawn had this orange haze to it, and I remember there were so many people and so much toilet paper being thrown that it was dusty in the air from the toilet paper. It was this orange, dusty haze just all across the lawn. That was really fun,” said Odom.

As thousands of fans swarm Toomer’s Corner after a big win, there is one thing students are careful to avoid on their trek from the stadium.

Sealing Your Fate – The Legend of the Auburn Seal

Sitting outside Langdon Hall, The Auburn University seal is one of the most beautiful pieces of campus history. Legend has it, if an Auburn student steps on the seal, they will not graduate in four years. Additionally, stepping on the seal reputedly means never finding your true love at Auburn and being cursed with seven generations of die-hard Alabama fans in your family.

As someone who accidentally stepped on the seal during his undergraduate years, Odom provides a testament to the truth behind the curse.

“I was taking pictures of a friend of mine for her graduation. She was on top of the steps at Langdon, and I was just backing up, and I felt the texture of the ground change. I looked down and I was like, ‘Crap.’ [And] looking back, I didn’t graduate on time, I have not found a wife here, and I’m praying against seven generations of Alabama fans.”

If you’re unlucky enough to curse yourself, there is one way to reverse the effects. At midnight on Leap Day every four years, jumping in the freezing water of the President’s fountain will free you of the curse.

Buchanan and her friends took advantage of the opportunity this year on February 29, despite never actually being cursed from stepping on the seal.

“A couple kids stepped on the seal earlier that day to curse themselves and then jumped in the fountain to reverse the curse. But I just felt like I couldn’t do that,” joked Buchanan. “I can’t disrespect the seal like that.”

Buchanan and her friends approached the fountain before midnight to watch the eager students waiting for their chance to jump in. She did not plan on getting in the freezing water because she had never been cursed.

“As midnight approached, everyone was counting down from 10. Three, two, one, and midnight finally hit, and everyone just swarmed the fountain. People were cheering and splashing all around. And I looked at my friend, and I was like, ‘We have to do this. We’re never going to get this opportunity as students again.’ So we got in with them. And the fountain was overflowing, and people were putting their heads under and completely dunking. One girl even had swim goggles on. It was just really sweet.”

While current students should remain cautious when passing the seal, graduates can walk freely past Langdon Hall without fear of being cursed. Some graduates, however, remain superstitious.

“When I graduated from undergrad I still refused to step on the seal even though I had just graduated – mostly because I haven’t graduated from grad school yet,” said Watkins. “At that point it was probably fine, but that’s something that I just didn’t want to do.”

Collage of images of the Auburn University Seal through various stages of construction.

From rolling Toomer’s Corner to the festivities of Tiger Walk, these timeless traditions are more than just customs that show school spirit – they are the heartbeat of the Auburn family.

“Every school has their own traditions, but I think ours sets us apart and are just so different,” said Odom. “They are a part of the framework of who we are as an Auburn family.”

As current students and alumni continue to embrace these traditions, the Auburn spirit will shine for years to come.

“I think back to Cadillac Williams’ quote, ‘If you love Auburn, Auburn will love you back,’ said Buchanan. “People have really felt that. I think the more that people buy in, the more that they get out of it. And I don’t see that changing.”

To learn more about how you can carry on these traditions and other beloved Auburn rituals, click here.

By Kaitlyn McCarthy ’24 and Mia Esposito

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