Auburn Magazine Spring 2011

Try our ultimate football trivia quiz pg 26

SPORTS

Snow day can’t stop the party on the Plains pg 38 PHOTO ESSAY

Ed Dyas ’61, Tigers All-American kicker and orthopedic surgeon pg 61

OBIT

SPRING 2011

The Year of the Tiger How we roared, soared and scored our way to the top

Total Sports Travel would like to congratulate the Auburn Tigers on winning the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

We would also like to thank the dedicated fans who chose Total Sports as their championship travel partner and look forward to another

Total Sports

Travel

great season.

For information on 2011 away game travel packages, visit or call

www.totalsportstravel.com/auburn

888.367.8781. Signup online to receive the latest travel information and follow us on

ToTal SporTS Travel iS The official away Game Travel parTner of TiGerS UnlimiTed and The aUbUrn alUmni aSSociaTion.

.

Lifelong Learning at Auburn University

Auburn University provides lifelong learning opportunities for residents of the Auburn Community, via personal enrichment, professional development, and youth programs.

We invite you to explore our offerings and join us in our never-ending pursuit of a life full of learning!

Professional Development

We offer professional development training for individuals and business clients, such as, tax preparers, attorneys, and teachers. If your career requires recertification, or if you are looking to enhance the skill set of yourself or your employees, visit our website to learn about the professional training opportunities offered.

Personal Enrichment

Participants in our personal enrichment programs actively engage in strengthening mind, body and spirit, through a variety of learning programs, such as our Community Courses (for all ages) or OLLI at Auburn (geared towards seniors). So, whether you have an interest in early American History or learning the art of watercolor painting, we have something for you.

Summer Youth Programs

Our summer programs are designed, in conjunction with academic departments, to introduce students to the programs and areas of study offered by the university. Most of the programs are residential and, therefore, allow the participants to experience college life, first-hand, by living in dorms, eating in the dining halls and participating in supervised social activities held in the university’s state-of-the-art facilities.

Visit the Office of Professional and Continuing Education online for information on all of our program offerings:

www.auburn.edu/opce Auburn University is an equal opportunity educational institution/employer.

The All-In Crowd After hours of hard-fought football, where did quarterback Cam Newton always head after a game? To the Auburn student section of the stadium, of course. Newton’s postgame celebrations with his fellow Tigers were just one example of the Auburn family’s loyalty and againstall-odds togetherness during this magical season.

Photograph by Jeff Etheridge

S P R I N G

2 0 1 1

From the Editor

Dear Gene

Betsy Robertson

BETSY ROBERTSON

Suzanne Johnson

EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Editor, Auburn Magazine

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

This is a love letter I never expected to write: Gene Chizik, you have accomplished what some folks considered an impossible feat, and I’m not referring to the Tigers’ first national championship in more than half a century. You’ve actually transformed me—an eyeglasses-wearing, literature-loving, grammar-correcting geek—into a bona fide football fan.

When I joined Auburn University’s Office of Alumni Affairs staff six years ago, I’d only ever attended one football game in my life, and that was only because my date, who planned the outing, hadn’t really gotten to know me very well. We didn’t last long after that.

High school football? Never. College football? Nope ... too busy studying to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein.

Professional football? I mean, really, I’m from Georgia. The Atlanta Falcons? Nah.

I liked Tommy Tuberville just fine—he seemed like a cool guy and all. Stable. Decent sense of humor. Calm and collected.

My type. I attended a few games in Jordan-Hare Stadium after moving to Auburn, and that was fun in the way going to a friend’s party is fun: That is to say, it’s a good time for a few hours but nothing to obsess over.

Then you came along, with your coldsober demeanor and go-for-broke attitude.

When it was announced in 2008 that you

would be Auburn’s new head football coach, I’d never heard of you—and please don’t take that personally, because the names Vince Lombardi, Mike Ditka and John Madden meant absolutely nothing to me either at the time. No, I assumed my relationship with football would remain largely unchanged under your regime—a reason to invite a few friends in from out of town, not a reason to live.

Then you and your staff put Cam Newton on the field last fall, and sparks ignited. My extended family was shocked when I suggested we all get together on the day after Thanksgiving to watch the Iron Bowl, and I’m pretty sure I sent one of my aunts into cardiac arrest when I called her on the evening of Jan. 10 to make certain her TV was tuned to the BCS National Championship game. Even though you made it impossible to enjoy Auburn’s first snow day of the year—it’s difficult to relax when the biggest sporting event in your university’s history collides with a treacherous winter storm—I want to thank you for awakening in me an appreciation for the game. What’s more, I’m happy for the cameraderie that your team’s success has fostered—not only among my own relatives, but also among the Auburn family— this year. War Eagle!

AUBURN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1077– 8640) is published quarterly; 4X per year; spring, summer, fall, winter, for dues-paying members of the Auburn Alumni Association. Periodicals-class postage paid in Auburn and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located in the Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. Phone (334) 844–1164.

Fax (334) 844–1477. E–mail: aubmag@auburn.edu. Contents ©2011 by the Auburn Alumni Association, all rights reserved.

LETTERS Auburn Magazine welcomes readers’ comments, but reserves the right to edit letters or to refuse publication of letters judged libelous or distasteful. Space availability may prevent publication of all letters in the magazine, in which case, letters not printed will be available on the alumni association website at the address listed below. No writer is eligible for publication more often than once every two issues. No anonymous letters will be accepted. Auburn Magazine is available in alternative formats for persons with disabilities. For information, call (334) 844–1164. Auburn Magazine is a benefit of membership in the Auburn Alumni Association and is not available by individual subscription.

To join, call (334) 844–2586 or visit the association’s website at www.aualum.org.

ADVERTISING INFORMATION Contact Betsy Robertson at (334) 844–1164.

POSTMASTER Send address changes to 317 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849–5149.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Shannon Bryant-Hankes ’84 ART DIRECTOR

Stacy Wood WEBMASTER

Jeff Hall UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER

Jeff Etheridge EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Sarah Hansen ’11 Rebecca Lakin ’11 Abby Townson ’11 DESIGN ASSISTANT

Nayeon Kim ’11

PRESIDENT, AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Jay Gogue ’69 VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Deborah L. Shaw ’84 PRESIDENT, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Bobby Poundstone ’95

AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR

Neal Reynolds ’77 AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD

betsyrobertson@auburn.edu

Maria Baugh ’87, John Carvalho ’78, Ed Dickinson ’70, Christian Flathman ’97, Tom Ford ’67, Kay Fuston ’84, Julie Keith ’90, Mary Lou Foy ’66, Eric Ludgood ’78, Cindy McDaniel ’80, Carol Pappas ’77, Joyce Reynolds Ringer ’59,

Allen Vaughan ’75

Roar Soar as Tigers.

for Life.

The Auburn Family has certain distinctive traits. Our students earn their stripes in and out of the classroom as they become Auburn Tigers, and earn their wings when they carry that knowledge into their future, inspired by the Golden Eagle that symbolizes the Auburn Spirit.

Odds are, theirs will be a soaring future. More than 90 percent of our graduates are employed within six months of earning a degree, and the majority of them have offers in hand before they graduate.

The Auburn experience is so positive that 97 percent of our alumni rate it as excellent, and 94 percent say if they had to go to college again, they would again choose Auburn.* In addition to a national championship in football, Auburn is winning off the field, too. With 95 new professorships for faculty stars, solutions-focused research, our brightest and largest freshman classes three years in a row, and a $4.3 billion economic impact, this roaring attitude and soaring spirit know no boundaries.

Go Tigers! War Eagle! Either way, the sky’s the limit.

www.auburn.edu *Most recent graduate surveys

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

War Eagle,

Josh!

The College of Human Sciences congratulates CHS alumnus Josh Bynes and the Auburn Tigers football team, 2010 BCS National Champions!

While our Tigers are demonstrating their competitive advantage on the playing field, the College of Human Sciences is demonstrating its competitive advantage in the classroom, in scientific research, and in the global community through:

 Instruction that combines next generation technologies with innovative curricula, challenging internships, and the opportunity to study abroad and earn an International Minor as part of Joseph S. Bruno Auburn Abroad in Italy, Auburn’s only year-round overseas campus.

 Research productivity in areas such as children and sleep, diabetes and obesity, body imaging, and consumer behavior, ranking Human Sciences second among all schools and colleges on campus in external research funding per faculty member.

 Outreach initiatives such as the annual International Quality of Life Awards at the United Nations honoring world leaders; the Women’s Philanthropy Board, educating women to succeed as financial donors and decisionmakers; and the War on Hunger, Auburn’s founding partnership with the UN World Food Programme, encompassing more than 160 universities committed to ending hunger around the globe.

 Partnerships with the public and private sectors, including Under Armour, Inc., the West Paces Hotel Group, and the Harris Early Learning Center, all of which represent dynamic models of collaboration that foster innovation and exemplify academic excellence.

The College of Human Sciences prepares winners like Josh Bynes ’10 to take their place in the global community by offering educational experiences that enable them to become professionally competent, globally aware, and socially engaged. www.humsci.auburn.edu 6

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

On the cover Tigers quarterback Cam Newton and head coach Gene Chizik get their game faces on during a warm-up chat before the BCS Championship game on Jan. 10.

Spring 2011 F R O N T 4 From the Editor

Gene Chizik, you made a fan out of me.

8 The First Word

What are your gameday superstitions? Do they involve underwear?

Signing day summary

22 Tiger Walk

Notes from the 2010 football front, a Tigers game of 20 questions and a quick look at some of this year’s new recruits.

10 College Street

Wiping up after victory celebrations at Toomer’s, your alma mater’s new online look and a big gift for Auburn.

B A C K 47 Alumni Center

Meet new Auburn Alumni Association president Bobby Poundstone ’95, and find out which former AU cheerleader is on the new season of “Survivor.”

On top of the world in 1957

16 Research

Why antimatter matters, nanotechnology’s cancer link and dogs of war.

18 Roundup

What’s happening in your college? Check it out.

About 78,600 football fans—a record crowd for the University of Phoenix Stadium—attended the BCS National Championship game in Arizona.

F E A T U R E S

22

He’s a prowler of sidelines and a scowler at cameras. He’s also a sculptor of young men, an evangelist of hard work and maybe even a football visionary. Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik faces news reporters and has the final word.

28

Marching across country

20 Concourse

Fishy business: A student swims with dolphins, and Led Zeppelin meets a new species of loach. Plus, the AU Marching Band goes to Glendale.

7

Hail to the Chief

The Year of the Tiger

48 Annual Report

A summary of your Auburn Alumni Association’s recent achievements.

50 Class Notes 61 In Memoriam

Auburn bids farewell to a football hero.

It had all the drama you could ask for: Close calls, controversy, a single star player, come-from-behind wins and Heisman hype. Through it all, week after week, all the 2010 Auburn Tigers did was win-win-win: 14 and oh! by mike tierney photographs by jeff etheridge

38

War Eagle! ’Nuff Said.

A winter storm foiled travel plans and put the big campus game-watching party on ice, but things were plenty hot in Auburn on championship day. Check out our photo essay chronicling the Jan. 10 action on the Plains. photographs by melissa humble

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Tigers kicker Ed Dyas ’61

64 The Last Word

Rheta Grimsley Johnson ’77 ponders the Cam Newton phenomenon.

L E T T E R S

T O

T H E

E D I T O R

The First Word THE TOPIC The rolling of Toomer’s Corner upon a sports victory, the “War Eagle” battle cry, the noble prekickoff glide, dip and turn of an eagle’s wing.

Auburn’s football traditions range from the simply quirky to the sublimely majestic; all of us embrace them, but some alumni go even further, designing individual—and very personal—rituals to help the Tigers defeat opposing teams. We recently asked the Auburn Alumni Association’s 9,000-plus Facebook fans how they went about safeguarding the Tigers’ 14 gridiron victories this past season.

I always get a pedicure before each game and have orange polish with blue “tiger stripes.” They are my “Tiger toes.”

—Lisa Burney Davis ’86, Muscle Shoals I chew Orbit orange gum at every game. In those close games when we fell behind, I passed gum out to Auburn fans all around us. It seemed to help turn the games around.

—Tina Russell Douglass ’88, Birmingham While watching the ballgame in the “man cave,” we make everyone switch chairs or sofas at halftime so as not to be complacent or get too comfortable.

—Doug Fraser ’83, Franklin, Tenn.

Lucky boxer shorts. I buy a new pair every year.

One year after a loss, I stripped down and threw that year’s pair onto the fire in the fireplace.

—Garrett Gerst Jr. ’88, Cumming, Ga. I still have the shaker that I got at my first football game, freshman year, 11 years ago. I still bust it out and shake it, even if it is just in my living room, during every game.

—Rebecca Harkins Hill ’03, Huntsville We don’t let my brother watch any of the games live, because they always lose when he does. Tapedelay only for him.

—Nancy Pritchett Hood ’69, Tampa, Fla. Orange panties—I wore them every game in the 2004 undefeated season and every game this year. I also wear the same orange-and-blue flip-flops each game—even in November!

—Laurie Parker Jordan ’87, Scottsboro If we are watching the game at home, we sit in the same seat throughout the game. No trading seats! And we never get the toilet paper out until the game clock says 0:00. My husband made the mistake of getting rolls for everyone only seconds

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before the game ended (once), and we ended up losing to Tuscaloosa.

—Amanda Nelson Mitchell ’98, Houston Signing day

I really enjoyed your article “Bo Now” (Winter 2010). It brought back a lot of memories of attending Auburn games when Bo was there. As I’m sure you know, Bo’s first game at Auburn was against Wake Forest in 1982. The following morning in The Birmingham News there was a color photo of Bo in action during the game. I clipped the photo from the paper and mailed it to the athletic department, hoping Bo would sign it and send it back. Sure enough, I got it back, and it read “War Eagle, Bo Jackson #34.” To me this was better than Christmas!

Another memory I have is when I finally got to meet Bo in person. After games, my grandfather would take me down to the locker room where the players would exit. I would get a ton of autographs after games … Greg Carr, Donnie Humphrey, Doug Smith, Tommy Agee and so forth. One time I was waiting outside, and some man asked whom I wanted to see. Of course, I wanted to see Bo. He said I needed to go back inside the stadium tunnel where the players come out onto the field. Bo didn’t like to exit where the others did, because he would get swamped by fans. So I stood outside the tunnel and waited. Here come Bo and Lionel James. I walked with them halfway around the stadium, just the three of us, until they exited through another tunnel. I sure felt like I was important that day!

—Kevin Bagwell ’00, Birmingham Running down a dream

The “Bo Now” story (Winter 2010) reminded me of a picture I saw in The Birmingham News of Bo Jackson racing the kids. I was at that A-Day game in ’84, and I remember that Bo didn’t participate in the scrimmage because he was running in a track meet that day. I also remember that this “challenge” race was not a huge event with a lot of publicity— more a simple halftime entertainment promotion for the Auburn fans. It was obviously something Bo volunteered to do.

Two things stand out to me about this race.

First, many teenage boys chose to race Bo, and they, along with the smaller kids, were allowed to start at the 20-yard line while Bo started on the south goal line. Many of the racers jumped the start and were maybe 10 yards or so downfield when the race officially began. I, and many others, thought there was no way Bo was going to catch them. To our surprise, Bo turned on the jets and caught the last barefooted cheater with room to spare. His momentum carried him through the north end zone and

into the stands, where he spent the second half lounging and signing autographs. All in all, it was just another Bo Jackson “wow” moment.

The second thing is how this minor event represented everything that is the Auburn family.

Back then, the A-day games were, by today’s standards, a lightly attended event. The atmosphere was very relaxed and free from the security constraints placed on fans at games nowadays.

Nothing except common sense prevented someone from walking straight from the stands and onto the playing field—no gates, no security guards and no prickly hedges. Children would entertain themselves during the games with a game of two-hand touch football between the stands and sidelines. Kids ran onto the field as soon as games ended in hopes of snagging a souvenir chinstrap or wristband.

Families stood out on the field while the band and majorettes performed postgame concerts. It was indeed a family-friendly event, and Bo made sure it was on that day in 1984.

—Paul Henson ’80, Birmingham Bo love

I want to tell Jeremy Henderson ’04 that I feel like he has written the best article on Bo Jackson ever (Winter 2010). I thought it took a wonderful turn by including 2010 Tigers quarterback Cam Newton. The article inspired me and made me cry with pride.

—Juliane Jenkins Isola ’85, Montgomery International presence

I enjoyed the article about Bo Jackson ’95 (Winter 2010). On a cruise ship off the coast of Italy, I ran into some ’Bama fans. When one of them said she hated it when ’Bama was ranked preseason No. 1, I told her she didn’t hate it nearly as bad as I did. I would love to be able to tell her now that it’s much better to be No. 1 at the end of the regular season than before the season starts.

Now for my Bo story. While on a tour in Rome, I met someone wearing a “Bo Knows” shirt.

Naturally, I struck up a conversation with him.

Turns out he wasn’t an Auburn man—he was a friend of (retired basketball great and former Auburn center) Charles Barkley. It was great to spend some time with an Auburn fan.

—Phil Robinson ’60, High Point, N.C. NEXT TOPIC What did you do to celebrate Auburn’s

national championship win in January? Send us your story: E-mail betsyrobertson@auburn.edu or write Auburn Magazine, Attn: Letters to the Editor, 317 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849-5149.

We’ll run the letters in our next issue.

Auburn University Outreach – a winning team!

Auburn University is a leader in Outreach, helping individuals of all ages meet educational goals, building more effective organizations, and improving the quality of life at home and abroad.

Carnegie Foundation Classification for Community Engagement Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships

Auburn University is an equal opportunity educational institution/employer.

LIFELONG LEARNING - TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE - PUBLIC SERVICE Auburn University’s non-credit professional and continuing education programs for youth, professionals, and seniors offer quality lifelong learning experiences to thousands of participants across the United States. Auburn’s renowned academic expertise provides innovative solutions making public, private and civic organizations – nationally and internationally – more efficient and effective. Our faculty and students engage directly with hundreds of community partners to promote the public good here and abroad.

Visit our website to learn more about Auburn University’s wide variety of Outreach programs • On-site and on-line offerings • Camps and college-prep programs • Workforce and executive development • Professional continuing education • Nationally-recognized Osher Lifelong Learning Institute • Technical consultation and quality management • Extension and community-based programs • AuburnServes engagement network

www.auburn.edu/outreachchampions

C A M P U S

N E W S

MELIS S A H U MBL E

COLLEGE STREET Q and A WAS THERE ANY DOUBT AUBURN SENIOR WES BYRUM WOULD HIT THE LAST-SECOND FIELD GOAL TO CLINCH THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?

Instead of getting flustered, Wes excels in high-pressure situations. He’d be the one guy in the nation I’d pick to make that kick. He wanted the ball so he could come through for the seniors.

Tim Conrad

Byrum’s trainer Founder, BIGfoot Kicking, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Clean-up crew Patricia Lamar tuned her TV to the BCS National Championship game on Jan. 10, but not because she wanted to— it’s part of her job.

“We typically just have to watch the game and see,” she says. “We’re on standby.”

Lamar is the district manager for Rite Way, the Montgomery-based commercial janitorial service contracted by Auburn University for more than a decade to detoilet-paper Toomer’s Corner after Tigers football victories. And NCAA eligibility rulings. And BCS announcements.

And even—there were two lengths of tissue—when offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn decided not to take a certain job at Vanderbilt University.

“We’ll get calls then, like when Cam won the Heisman, and when Auburn got the No. 1 in … what’s it called? … the BCS, they called us. But usually just after a game,” Lamar says.

She dispatches an eight-to-10-member crew early on Sunday mornings to remove toilet paper from the walkways and lawn at the campus entrance, as well as the two iconic oak trees. They hose the paper off the trees; they shovel it off the ground. The job can last into the evening.

How much does it cost? Lamar won’t

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say. But if the university pays by the hour—or by the pound—she insists the cleanup after Auburn’s come-from-behind win over South Carolina in September would have been the most expensive.

A recent WSFA-TV report from Montgomery stated that Auburn city workers were responsible for clearing the Toomer’s toilet paper. Lamar saw it and laughed.

“I was watching that, and I was, like, ‘Now wait a minute.’ I don’t know who told ’em that, but if that’s what they think, OK.” City officials may assist with the cleanup, but only when the celebration spills over onto city property—which is happening with increasing frequency, Lamar says. Rite Way’s duties also are expanding: This past year, toilet paper has routinely stretched from Toomer’s Corner all the way to Samford Hall and more than a block west of the town center along Magnolia Avenue.

It’s been that kind of season.

“We have to deal with every piece of toilet paper,” she says. “And while we’re cleaning it, they’re still rolling it. They’ll come and roll it while we’re there.”

—Jeremy Henderson ’04/The War Eagle Reader. Adapted and reprinted with permission.

ONLINE UPDATE For the first time since

The new website also

2005, Auburn Univer-

has been tailored for

sity’s website has a new

enhanced performance

look. The redesigned site—

on mobile devices.

www.auburn.edu—officially launched in January.

Large, inviting photos

“The new site allows us to do a better job telling the Auburn

on the home page now

story,” says Brock Parker,

link to stories about

multimedia specialist

Auburn people and their

and content manager.

accomplishments.

“Before, we relied mainly

From the top right of

on one-dimensional news

the screen, readers may

releases. With this site,

click on the new “Take

we are staying ahead of

5” feature, in which a

the curve by moving to

member of the Auburn

a multimedia approach.

family is highlighted

Nowadays, people expect

each week.

more when they log on.”

N E W S

AUBURN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

C A M P U S

Flashback

11

100 years ago

75 years ago

50 years ago

25 years ago

10 years ago

Spring 1911

Spring 1936

Spring 1961

Winter 1986

Winter 2001

A decade into the new century, Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s female student population had grown to nine. Described in the Glomerata as more priceless than diamonds and fairer than the brightest pearls, the “dear Auburn girls” of 1911 were outnumbered 728 to nine, representing 1 percent of the student population.

Today, women make up about 49 percent of Auburn’s student body.

Bolling Hall Crenshaw, head of the mathematics department, died at 68 after serving on the Auburn faculty for 44 years. University president Luther N. Duncan described his passing as “an irreparable loss to Auburn.” Longtime colleague George Petrie added: “We respected him; we admired him; we trusted him; we loved him.”

A civil war over integration raged across the South. In Alabama, The Auburn Plainsman ran pro-integration discussions led by editor J.R. “Jim” Bullington ’62.

Angry school leaders subsequently established new rules for the paper, forcing the Student Publications Board to vet content before publication. A year later the Plainsman was forced to cease publication temporarily because of its pro-integration stance.

Folks were still celebrating the announcement that Vincent “Bo” Jackson ’95 had edged out University of Iowa quarterback Chuck Long to win the Heisman trophy in what was then the closest contest in the history of the award. Days later, Texas A&M beat Auburn in the Cotton Bowl despite Jackson’s second-quarter score on a 73-yard screen play, and his total 200 yards.

Auburn University’s board of trustees fired then-president William Muse, a reformer popular with faculty and students. Meanwhile, some 2,000 students, supported by faculty and alumni, participated in a protest on campus and at the state capitol against then-Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman’s appointment of a pair of new trustees who many felt exemplified the “lack of vision” the governor had for Auburn.

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Above: More than half a century ago, another Auburn football team accepted college football’s national championship trophy.

Pictured: team captain and All-American end Jimmy “Red” Phillips ’58, then-Auburn president Ralph Draughon ’22, captain Tim Baker ’58 and Associated Press national sports editor Ted Smits, who presented the trophy to head coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan’s 1957 team.

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Hitting the mark The Auburn Scholarship Campaign, begun in 2010 to raise money for bigger, more competitive financial aid packages in order to attract top students, has surpassed the $3 million mark. University fundraisers hope to increase the amount to $15 million by the end of the year.

Riding high JAY GOGUE ’69

President, Auburn University

SOFTWARE BONANZA Siemens Corp. donated nearly $200 million in classroom software to Auburn University in November, the largest inkind gift in the institution’s history.

The new software will be incorporated into the curricula of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the College of Human Sciences to support academic programs ranging from apparel merchandising to architecture and engineering.

Siemens PLM Software, a unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management software and services. “The experience gained in the use of these tools better prepares students for today’s highly competitive manufacturing jobs requiring full knowledge of modern technologies and tools,” said Hulas King, the company’s director of global community relations.

Other institutions that have partnered with Siemens PLM Software include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State University, Purdue, Arizona State University, Rutgers, Michigan State University, Brigham Young University and Carnegie Mellon.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

The last five months have been nothing short of extraordinary. Most, if not all, of us followed our football team as it captured its second national championship and seventh conference title, not to mention a third Heisman trophy.

Congratulations to head coach Gene Chizik and the Auburn Tigers for going the distance to remain undefeated in front of a world audience.

I also want to commend the efforts of the men and women of the volleyball, equestrian, and swimming and diving teams, which also have brought accolades to the university.

Working with students, and watching some become champions in sports and others champions of academics—including our two 2010 Rhodes Scholarship finalists and record-breaking 130-plus merit scholars in this year’s freshman class—are perhaps the most rewarding parts of a university president’s job. In the last few years, my wife, Susie, and I have met thousands of Auburn students, and we’re constantly amazed at the caliber of young men and women across our campus: highly motivated and ambitious; global in perspective; oriented toward serving others; eager to have their views challenged. We could go on with the many more positive characteristics we routinely observe in today’s Auburn students. We’re impressed, and we’re confident you would be as well.

Many of these same students are eager to share that their Auburn experience

is made possible through scholarships, fellowships and other forms of financial support. They don’t hesitate to tell us what they value the most, and they recognize that many of their opportunities are made possible through the generosity of the Auburn family.

Some value the chance to learn from faculty who are not only leaders in their respective disciplines but who also truly care about helping students succeed. Others value small classes and the regular interaction with professors and other students those class sizes encourage. And for others, it’s the opportunity to take advantage of a growing number of international study or research programs.

Again, the list could go on and on, but it’s clear that students wish to express their gratitude for the chance to experience Auburn to its fullest. They understand that many of our alumni and other donors are helping them realize their futures.

Even as the financial needs of today’s students are greater, the assistance we receive from the state has been cut by the largest amount in our history. Faculty, staff and members of the board of trustees have worked together to keep costs down wherever and whenever possible. At the same time, we’ve worked to maintain and strengthen Auburn’s academic quality, remain in the “Top 100 Best Values in Colleges” as rated by Kiplinger’s Finance Letter, and are increasing the breadth and depth of research to improve quality of life and economic vitality. That’s our commitment to our Auburn family. War Eagle!

jgogue@auburn.edu

luxury living on the trail U N B E L I E VA B LY P R I C E D .

From Auburn fans to golf lovers to retirees, National Village has several luxury living options for you directly on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Come see a spectacular model home designed by Kay Green, one of the nation’s top interior designers, and tour the available homes at National Village in Opelika.

Owning one of these two-bedroom to four-bedroom homes gives you access to world-class golf, miles of walking trails, access to fitness room, pool and dining at the Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel. Come see why Golf World readers named Grand National the number one public golf location in the country. Auburn/Opelika was also named “One of the Top 10 Retirement Locations for Golf” in the country. Now you can call it home at National Village.

LAKE HOMES PRICED FROM THE LOW $400s and GOLF COTTAGES START IN THE $170s. ( The golf cottage homes are complete with fully equipped kitchens including refrigerator and washer and dryer and flatscreen TV. ) Tour the furnished model and available homes by calling 334.749.8165 or stop by for a visit. National Village is located in Opelika adjacent to Grand National on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Homes are open seven days a week. www.nationalvillage.com

Spring Fling sale

All information is believed to be accurate but is not warranted.

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Guilty as charged Jurors convicted 26-year-old Courtney Lockhart of capital murder in November for the 2008 shooting death of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk, rejecting his lawyers’ defense that Lockhart was traumatized by combat service in the Iraq war. He is scheduled for sentencing in March.

Meet the Prof Norman Godwin ’91 Director, School of Accountancy College of Business BACKSTORY Godwin decided as an under-

STADIUM FOOD: It was just that kind of year. Jordan-Hare Stadium and Toomer’s Corner, created of gingerbread and icing, joined the 15-by-20-foot holiday gingerbread village produced each year by the chefs at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. It took an estimated 272 hours to produce this year’s village, not to mention 300 eggs, 100 pounds of sugar, 40 pounds of flour and 7 pounds of butter.

DUCK A L’ORANGE Anyone for some “duck

at Auburn University and

big. “The Camburger had

the Duck” (barbecued duck

stew”? Oregon fans may

Dixon Conference Center,

our half-pound patty, roast

sliders with slaw). Bar

have had their fill of

chowed down on a three-

beef and melted Swiss

patrons sampled the “Cam-

slogans meant to skewer

course “Duck Hunt” menu

served on a Kaiser roll with

opolitan,” “Trooper Punch”

the mighty Ducks, but

featuring duck prosciutto

your choice of barbecue

and “Aubie Collins,” among

Auburn-loving chefs,

with braised beets, arugula

sauce or petal sauce,” said

other beverages.

bartenders and hospitality

salad with marionberry

operations manager Joe

executives used the op-

vinaigrette and crispy duck

McNally. The restaurant

like we couldn’t have

ponent’s mascot to develop

chips, sweet-and-sour

also offered a “Quacker”

possibly imagined,”

some creative marketing

roast duck with grapes,

sandwich made of chicken

Van Der Reijden said.

ploys aimed at attracting

raisins and Oregon morels,

breast marinated in Oregon

“It was a lot of fun.”

football fans to their places

and Willamette Valley

pinot noir. Niffer’s kept

of business in January.

chocolate eggs filled with

the items on its

wild blueberry jelly and

menu through the

Championship game ap-

white chocolate mousse.

end of January.

proached, some restaurants

The wait staff dressed as

“Sales were huge,”

took the culinary theme

referees.

McNally reported.

As the BCS National

literally. At Auburn’s popu-

Guests at Auburn’s

stops to turn the hotel into

campus hotel received

Niffer’s Place, patrons

a Tiger football paradise,”

extra rolls of toilet

could order a “Camburger”

said hotel manager Hans

paper to take to

paired with “Cammy-Cam

van der Reijden. “We

Toomer’s Corner. In the

Juice,” named after the

wanted to make The Hotel

hotel’s Piccolo lounge,

sweet Gatorade-based

at Auburn University the

diners sampled three

concoction swilled by Ti-

destination for fans who

duck-based appetizers,

gers star quarterback Cam

couldn’t make it to Glen-

including the “Dippin’

Newton on the sidelines.

dale to cheer on our boys

Duck” (a duck egg roll with

in orange and blue.”

citrus sauce), the “Lame

Meanwhile, diners at Ariccia, an upscale Italian restaurant at The Hotel

14

“We pulled out all the

lar burger-and-beer spot,

Across town at Niffer’s, the Camburger was, well,

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Duck” (duck-fat chips with truffle salt) and “Dominate

“Everything sold out

graduate at Auburn that he wanted to one day join the faculty. “A friendship with a professor (during) sophomore year sparked my interest in becoming a professor,” he says. “I wanted the professor lifestyle, and I wanted to make an impact on students.” Godwin returned to the Plains after completing his doctoral degree at Michigan State University in 1996. He teaches financial and managerial accounting, and his favorite research study is entitled “Testing Efficiency Across Markets: Evidence from the NCAA Basketball Betting Market.”

ON SCREEN With help from Auburn’s

Office of Communications and Marketing, Godwin has created more than two dozen oneminute educational videos focused on financial literacy. “The videos explain how to understand all the different financial terms swirling around you,” he says. Each video uses a visual metaphor to help explain a financial concept or term. “The idea is that the visual metaphor corroborates what we’re trying to get across,” he says. “We try to create funny, whimsical metaphors that support the concept.” To help explain credit card jumping—transferring card balances to take advantage of short-term lower interest rates—for example, Godwin likens the practice to ice-barrel jumping, complete with vintage video footage.

SPREADING THE WORD

Walmart is using some of the videos in Godwin’s series to educate its employees on financial principles, and a local TV station in Montgomery has aired the videos during its news broadcasts. Godwin hopes to eventually reach— and teach—consumers nationwide.

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

• Auburn-Magnolia • Auburn-Thach • Auburn-S.College • Homewood

• Tuscaloosa • LaGrange, GA • Montgomery • Dothan

• Inverness • Opelika • Mobile • Warner Robins, GA

• Columbus, GA • Columbus (uptown) • Troy • Huntsville

Auburn Mag Momma's ad 2011.indd 1

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Proceeds benefit student scholarships as well as alumni programs and services.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Research

ITSY BITSY SCIENCE An Auburn engineering

cal compounds, known

faculty member was

as “nanomaterials,”

among 85 researchers

might be assembled

named by President

for use in macroelec-

Barack Obama as a

tronic devices, sensors,

recipient of the pres-

electro-optical devices

tigious Presidential

and antimicrobial coat-

Early Career Award

ings that could prevent

for Scientists and

the spread of disease.

Engineers.

award recognizes not

Chemical engineer-

The early-career

ing associate professor

only Davis’ research,

Virginia Davis joined

but also her work

18 other National Sci-

with elementary and

ence Foundation recipi-

high school students.

ents earlier this year

Winning scientists

at a White House cer-

and engineers receive

emony. Davis studies

research grants of up

how tiny structures of

to five years to further

chemicals and chemi-

their studies.

Fruit and nuts The federal government issued more than 600 patents to Alabama inventors last year—more than any other year in recent memory, according to the Associated Press—and while they didn’t all have the cachet of a new fishing lure or deer decoy, Auburn horticulture professor Bill Dozier ’63 held his own amidst the sea of new gadgets and technologies. Dozier received patents in 2010 for a pair of plants: a variety of kiwi he calls “AU Fitzgerald” as well as a type of chestnut tree dubbed “AU Buck IV.” What’s new about a kiwi and a chestnut tree? Dozier’s kiwi fruit will

stay fresh at higher temperatures than other varieties, and his chestnut tree is more resistant to disease than similar nut-bearers.

Auburn’s Office of Technology Transfer works with private businesses to license the products of university research, including the new fruit and nut varieties.

A Tuskegee company, for example, will grow and market the new chestnuts, Dozier says.

Afghan hounds For years the bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs bred and trained by Auburn University’s canine-detection research center have been helping fight the domestic war on terror. Now they’ll undergo special training to hone their noses on “improvised explosive devices”—also known as IEDs—before being deployed to Afghanistan. IEDs, such as car bombs, have become the Afghan rebels’ most deadly weapon, causing more than 70 percent of American casualties.

In December, Auburn entered into a two-year, multimillion-dollar partnership with the Joint Improvised-Explosive-Device Defeat Organization, a Department of Defense unit whose goal is to sniff out bombs before they kill or maim U.S. soldiers. Detector dogs are capable of finding 80 percent of IEDs in the field by identifying odors emitted by the explosives.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

“Our goal is to produce superior detector dogs that contribute to national security and to protection of troops,” says Timothy Boosinger, dean of Auburn’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

BPObucks C L L E G E S T R E E T Auburn University will receive $938,000 of the $5 million in funds designated

by British Petroleum for Alabama’s Marine Environmental Science Consortium following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The funding is spread over multiple research projects in the colleges of science and mathematics, engineering, and agriculture, plus the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.

Research JEFF ET H ERI DG E

CANCER FIGHTERS

Atom datum In the beginning, there was “matter” and “antimatter,” mirror opposites that held each other in check. Somehow, the balance got skewed, matter gained an advantage, and antimatter was converted to energy in one Big Bang. You know what happened next.

Trouble is, since antimatter is obliterated upon contact with matter—which is everything we can touch and see, including ourselves—it’s hard to prove some of the most basic fundamentals of physics.

So when an international team of scientists recently managed to trap and hold the antimatter version of the hydrogen atom for the first time in history, the event was hailed as a critical breakthrough in the physics field.

Auburn physics professor Francis Robicheaux was a member of the group whose work was published by the journal Nature in November.

“Our paper described the first positive results, so the number of particles was small, and the amount of time we held them was short,” Robicheaux says.

In the months since the paper was submitted, though, the researchers have

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

“vastly improved the trapping efficiency and the length of time the atoms are trapped,” he adds.

Robicheaux and his fellow scientists from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Brazil, Israel and Japan have been working toward their goal for five years. Robicheaux serves as a theorist to the team, providing computer simulations of how the trapped antimatter might behave.

The lack of antimatter in the universe remains one of the biggest mysteries of science. The research collaboration at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland, confined the antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic trap for more than 170 milliseconds.

A CERN research team managed to make large quantities of antihydrogen atoms eight years ago but had not found a way to keep them from being destroyed and releasing their vast energy within millionths of a second of touching the matterbased walls of the experiment.

Although Robicheaux is Auburn’s only official team member, he also credits the work of seven AU undergraduates who helped with portions of the project.

Our bodies are geared

system,” Petrenko

to fight the ravages of

says. “Unfortunately,

cancer but, as cancer

different environmental

mortality rates show, our

and genetic factors can

immune systems don’t

affect this ability.”

always get the job done.

than 1.5 million new

Auburn pathobiolo-

In the U.S., more

gist Valery Petrenko will

cancer patients will be

be working on ways to

diagnosed and more

use nanotechnology to

than half a million will

treat common cancers

die this year.

as part of Auburn’s

Center for Translational

challenge, our goal is to

Cancer Nanomedicine—

develop a nanotherapeu-

a National Institutes

tic defense system that

of Health designation

will be more power-

awarded the College of

ful than the immune

Veterinary Medicine in

system in its ability to

December. Petrenko will

recognize and destroy

serve as the center’s

appearing cancer cells

principal investigator,

in the human body,”

heading a group of

Petrenko says. “Our

scientists from other

concept is based on

universities as well as

the use of our propri-

industry and government

etary phage display

partners.

system—a collection of

genetically engineered

The center, estab-

“To respond to this

lished with a five-year,

nanoparticles, or ‘magic

$1.7 million NIH grant,

bullets’—that exceed

will work to develop new

the repertoire of natural

nanotechnology-based

antibodies and immune

strategies for treating

cells a thousand times.

lung, pancreatic and

From this collection we

breast cancers.

select particles that

specifically recognize

“The human body is

naturally programmed

cancer receptors and

to protect itself

convert these particles

against cancer using

into nanomedicines that

its powerful immune

destroy tumors.”

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Charge on, Tigers fans Auburn University officials have approved two new Bank of America “Spirit of Auburn” credit card designs featuring the official Auburn Tigers national championship logo.

Applicants may choose from either a Platinum Plus MasterCard with a photo of Jordan-Hare Stadium or a Platinum Plus Visa card featuring a shot of Tigers football players. Standard interest rates range from 13 to 21 percent; proceeds benefit academic scholarships. For more information, see www.auburn.edu/spiritcard.

Roundup COLLEGE OF

Agriculture The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Soil Dynamics Laboratory celebrated its 75th birthday in November. Located on the Auburn University campus, the lab evolved out of researchers’ work on the interactions of machines and soil during the early 1920s and 1930s. The USDA completed what was then called the Farm Tillage Machinery Laboratory—which included 13 huge soil bins where researchers could conduct experiments using full-scale machines—in 1935.

For the next halfcentury, scientists used the lab to learn more about soil compaction, the effectiveness of tillage tools, the effects of farm equipment on soil and even how to design better tires for military vehicles.

The unit also was responsible for building Auburn’s rhizotron, a type of underground observatory used by scientists to learn about root systems. … Alumni can keep up with the College of Agriculture and its students through an online blog maintained by the Office of Ag Communications and Marketing and the Ag Communicators of Tomorrow. Bloggers are predominantly agricultural-communications majors, who

18

write about campus events and occasionally post poems or essays. Read the AGazine at wp.auburn. edu/AGazine.

COLLEGE OF

Architecture, Design and Construction Officials of the northeast Alabama town of Section, located atop Sand Mountain overlooking the Tennessee River, are working with Auburn University landscape architects to develop a master plan for growth that protects both the city’s scenic views and its economic landscape.

Faculty members Michael Robinson and David Hill will help draft a zoning ordinance, craft an environmentally sustainable design plan and develop the community’s brand.

The Appalachian Regional Commission offered the team a $50,000 grant to support the project. … Architecture dean Dan Bennett ’68 and associate industrial- and graphicdesign professor Randall Bartlett ’80

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

were listed among the Design Futures Council’s 25 “most admired educators of 2011.” The council’s bimonthly publication, DesignIntelligence, also mentioned Auburn’s architectural bachelor’s degree program as having rated No. 1 in its survey of architecture deans.

COLLEGE OF

Business Auburn’s executive MBA program for working professionals ranks 35th in the U.S. and 75th in the world, according to the Financial Times’ 2010 survey of executive MBA programs.

In 2009, the Auburn EMBA ranked 40th nationally and 84th globally. The rankings are based on colleges’ alumni career progression, school diversity and international reach, and faculty

idea generation and research productivity.

The Auburn EMBA is a 21-month program that combines oncampus residency with distance education and international study; participants must have at least eight years of progressively responsible work experience to be admitted. For more information, see http://emba.business. auburn.edu.

COLLEGE OF

Education Education associate professor James Witte is going the extra mile to serve his students. Witte, who coordinates the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology’s adult and higher education program, this spring will simultaneously teach classes at Suez Canal University in Suez City, Egypt, and conduct an online course for American students. “I’ll be in Egypt, teaching my class in Auburn, just to demonstrate the flexibility of the technology involved,” Witte says. “The change in technology is fascinating, and it’s really fun to watch it grow.” During his visit to Suez City, Witte will lead three class sections—an undergraduate session on the nature of adult education and two graduate courses,

including one on dissertation development.

“The folks in Egypt are looking very hard at how dissertations are developed in other countries,’’ he said.

“It’s sort of a way for them to see how we do things here.’’

Shepard SAMUEL GINN COLLEGE OF

SCHOOL OF

Engineering

Forestry and Wildlife Sciences

Korean car manufacturer Hyundai is funding an Auburn research study designed to define drivers’ optimal posture based on various body types. Woojin Park, a faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, received a grant of more than $110,000 from Hyundai American Technical Center Inc. for the project, which aims to explore car interiors designed to accommodate different body sizes, including those of larger people.

Many drivers struggle to sit comfortably in their cars because of their body dimensions and preferred driving postures not typically considered by car designers, Park says. The result: aches and pains, decreased driving performance, and lower auto sales.

Park’s study will help evaluate vehicles for optimum interior design and identify “size-friendly” and “size-neutral” vehicle interiors.

A Mississippi State University professor has been tapped to head Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.

Jim Shepard, formerly associate director of Mississippi State’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center, led the university’s Department of Forestry from 2005 to 2008.

He also served 18 years with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement in Gainesville, Fla., and seven years as an associate professor in the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation. He earned a doctoral degree in forest resources from Mississippi State in 1985, specializing in soils, and formerly served as a research scientist for five years at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where his work focused on the

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

biogeochemical effects of atmospheric deposition. “I am impressed with the state of Alabama’s huge diversity of forest ecosystems, from the mountains of the north to the coastal wetlands,” said Shepard, who succeeded retired dean Dick Brinker in January. “I am looking forward to leading a school whose faculty, staff and students are ensuring a bright future for the forest and wildlife resources of Alabama and beyond.”

Bank Alliance in Phoenix. St. Mary’s, which is the oldest food bank in the U.S., serves two-thirds of Arizona’s 15 counties and provides its clients with nearly 300,000 meals per day. Auburn president Jay Gogue described the event as “close to the hearts” of Auburn students, who have worked with the United Nations World Food Programme since 2004 on behalf of the organization’s global

posium on the history of the Alabama press featuring Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports writer Tony Barnhart, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg and syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson ’77.

Speakers discussed how Alabama reporters and editors have covered pivotal events in the state’s history, including the civil-rights movement and last year’s Gulf Coast oil spill. Mary Helen Brown, Breeden Eminent Scholar for the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn, directed the event.

SCHOOL OF

Nursing

COLLEGE OF

Human Sciences About 300 volunteers representing both Auburn University and the University of Oregon teamed up a day before the BCS National Championship football game in January to sort donated food and pack emergency food boxes on an assembly line at St. Mary’s Food

19

battle in the “War on Hunger.” With Auburn’s College of Human Sciences at the helm, more than 100 universities have mobilized under the banner of “Universities Fighting World Hunger.”

COLLEGE OF

Liberal Arts The College of Liberal Arts in January sponsored a public sym-

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Associate professor of nursing Bonnie Sanderson has been elected president of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. The organization is dedicated to reducing morbidity, mortality and disability from cardiovascular and pulmonary disease through education, prevention, rehabilitation, research and disease management.

Sanderson, who has clinical, academic and research experience in preventive and rehabilitative cardiology, has been active in the group for 25 years.

She joined the Auburn faculty in 2009.

COLLEGE OF

COLLEGE OF

Sciences and Veterinary Mathematics Medicine

HARRISON SCHOOL OF

Pharmacy

Twenty-one teams participated in the 14th Annual Harrison School of Pharmacy Scholarship Golf Tournament at Auburn Links in September, which raised more than $5,000 for student scholarships. Guests of honor included Tommy Lorino ’59 of Panama City, Fla., and Jackie Burkett ’60 of Fort Deposit, both of whom were members of Auburn’s 1957 championship football team, as well as Tom Bryan ’73 of Opelika and Bucky Ayers ’69 of Auburn, who played on the 1966 team.

Auburn professor Charles E. “Chuck” Savrda, chair of Auburn’s Department of Geology and Geography, is serving as interim dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics following the death of dean Marie Wooten in a car accident in November. Savrda, who has taught at Auburn since 1986, earned a bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from Rutgers University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Southern California. His research emphasizes trace fossils and their use in stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental and paleoceanographic analyses. He also serves as associate editor of the academic journal Ichnos. Savrda will lead COSAM until a national search for a permanent dean is completed.

The College of Veterinary Medicine broke ground in December on its planned $74 million small-animal teaching hospital and educational wing.

The building’s first phase, which includes 34,000 square feet of educational space and three new classrooms, is scheduled for completion next year.

Officials hope to wrap construction on the hospital itself, featuring 200,000 square feet of clinical, examination and waitingroom space, in 2014.

“We’ve added on as much as we can,” said building committee chair William Brawner, a clinical sciences professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “We’re growing, the demand for veterinary research is growing, and we have both physically and programmatically outgrown the current hospital.”

S T U D E N T

L I F E

CONCOURSE

Whole lotta loach Interview Alex Cardell Senior, finance THE 4-1-1 Alex Cardell is head coach of the Lee

County Special Olympics basketball league and serves as president of Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity. He hails from Germantown, Tenn.

WHO’S YOUR INSPIRATION? Inspired by his spe-

cial-needs sister, as a teenager Cardell frequently volunteered to help run basketball leagues for other special-needs children. Upon enrolling at Auburn, he was disappointed to find no such league existed locally—so he called Lee County Special Olympics director Alison Hall and, within months, had started a weekly basketball league. The program, open to children ages 8 and older, is now one of Special Olympics’ most popular offerings. “Last year, the league had 25 team members who regularly participated,” Cardell says. “It’s an inspirational group.”

HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL? “I’m trying to get

through college in three years, so I’ve had to learn to manage heavy course loads. I’m a member of the Honors College as well, so figuring out how to schedule those classes and my business classes has proven to be a juggling act. I have a lot of support from my friends and family. They are always willing to help and work around my hectic schedule. Auburn has already taught me so much, but by the end of my time here I want to be prepared to take on the challenges that the global business world presents.”

WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER GOALS? Commercial

and investment banking are Cardell’s first career choices, and he’s hoping to get a position lined up before he graduates in May. “I really like the idea of the fast-paced, team environment of investment banking,” he says. “I hope to be able to continue to mentor the basketball program.”

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

What does legendary guitarist Jimmy Page have in common with a freshwater fish?

Only the name of a band.

Justin Havird, an Auburn University graduate student in biology, combined his research on fish types with his passion for Led Zeppelin by naming a type of loach after the rock group.

In the course of his work, which includes typing and identifying fish, Havird had the opportunity to assign a name to a new species of loach marked by its unusual extended pectoral fin rays.

“The structure that makes this spe-

cies unique reminded me of the guitar that Jimmy Page played,” Havird says.

That guitar was a double-necked Gibson EDS-1275, which Page strummed for the Led Zeppelin classics “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love,” among other songs. Havird’s newly typed loach now goes by the unwieldy, decidedly nonmusical name of lepidocephalichthys zeppelini. In the fish rock hall of fame, it joins zappa confluentis, named after avantgarde musician Frank Zappa, and cirolana mercuryi, named for the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

FLIPPER GOES TO WAR Does the dolphin’s reputation as the puppy of the sea—smart, affectionate and unassuming—mask the mind of a secret agent? Auburn University mechanical engineering major Stephen Walls thinks so: He recently worked with U.S. Navy personnel to train bottlenose dolphins to help identify enemy divers.

During his internship at the Point Loma naval base in San Diego, Walls worked aboard ship for six hours a day assisting trainers in the Navy’s marine mammal program, which teaches dolphins and sea lions to do jobs ranging from finding enemy sea mines to guarding piers, ships and harbors against unauthorized swimmers and divers.

“The capabilities of the Navy surprised me,” Walls says. “It’s amazing what they’ve come up with in the past 35 to 40 years.”

To warn of an enemy diver approaching, a dolphin nudges the invader with his nose, sending a signal to the ocean’s surface—and to Navy monitors—through a device in its mouth.

Walls worked for three months through the Office of Naval Research’s internship program, which set him up

with the contractor Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

He learned of the internship from Auburn associate research professor Lewis Payton, a 25-year U.S. Navy veteran.

—Sarah Hansen

JEFF ET H ERI DG E

S T U D E N T L I F E No dice Oregon Ducks fan Ryan Tharp found no takers for his offer of marriage to any “Auburn hottie” willing to answer a Craigslist ad and join him for a shotgun Vegas wedding following the BCS Championship game. Apparently no Auburn woman was willing to accept the 25-year-old law school graduate’s terms: that the fan of the losing team pay for an annulment. Tharp didn’t gain a wife but did attract 100 new Twitter followers after news reports of his scheme swept the Internet.

Syllabus COURSE NAME POLI 3190 “International Relations

of the Middle East” INSTRUCTOR Jill Crystal, professor of political sci-

ence, College of Liberal Arts THE SCOOP Crystal’s course is one of the most

popular classes offered by the Department of Political Science. “We do a rather rapid, forced march through history, beginning with Islam and moving through several centuries in the first few weeks,” she says. “The emphasis is on the present, however, and, from the start of the course, we talk about the news.”

Strike up the band When Auburn University Marching Band members returned from their holiday break in January, no one had the luxury of easing into spring semester. Instead, they hit the practice field—and by Jan. 8, 380 musicians and 30 university staffers had loaded their instruments onto a pair of chartered jets and headed to Phoenix for the BCS National Championship game.

“Once we got there, eight buses were waiting on us,” said Nayeon Kim, a senior member of the Tiger Eyes flag line.

“And the weather in Arizona was absolutely beautiful.”

The band performed at a Scottsdale, Ariz., pep rally as well as at the Phoenix Zoo the day before the big game and again at two other venues on Jan. 10 before traveling to the University of Phoenix stadium.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

“It was something we’d been looking forward to all season,” said band member Katie Morgan. “Early on we thought maybe it was a possibility, and it was a great way to end our year.”

The band’s playlist in Glendale included, naturally, “War Eagle,” Auburn’s official fight song, plus Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” and “Glory, Glory to Ole Auburn,” a takeoff of Julia Ward Howe’s famous “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“It was a big stage and a great opportunity for the band as ambassadors of Auburn University, the athletics department, the state and the conference,” said band director Corey Spurlin. “In everything we do, we want to be great representatives of Auburn.”

WHO TAKES IT Political science majors predomi-

nantly, although students from other disciplines tend to enroll because they find the topic interesting, Crystal says. “I also typically have ROTC students and, often now, students returning from tours of duty in the region.”

SUGGESTED READING Students in the course read

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East: The Roots of Anti-Americanism by Kylie Baxter and Shahram Akbarzadeh (Routledge, 2008), which “those new to the topic find more accessible than some texts,” Crystal says. She also recommends William Cleveland’s A History of the Modern Middle East (Westview Press, 2004).

S P O R T S

TIGER WALK AU BU RN U NIVERS IT Y PH OTOG RAPH IC S ERVICES

Hail to the chief

How head coach Gene Chizik won our hearts

“Gene who?” That was the question asked by bewildered alumni in December 2008 upon learning that Auburn University athletics director Jay Jacobs had hired a little-known former Tigers assistant coach from Clearwater, Fla., to replace 10-year veteran and fan favorite Tommy Tuberville as the face of Auburn football. A scant two years later, we have our answer: Gene Chizik is the man who officially put our team back on the national map.

How emotional is it for you, after two years and the controversy over your arrival, now being 14-0?

GC: You know, it is not about my arrival.

That’s not how I live my life. I live my life

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

trying to do the right thing and guide 18to 22-year-olds to do the right thing and to go from good to great. We try to give them everything they can have, on the field, off the field, spiritually, in the classroom, as a student. And that’s how we live our lives.

We are going to do it the right way. We always have done it the right way.

It is not about how I arrived or how I leave; it is not about Gene Chizik. It is about the Auburn family. When I flew in the night I took the job, there were about 800 fans at the airport, and they were awesome. So I don’t know what the appearance was on the outside. We’ve got great fans, and that’s all myself and my family have experienced since I got here.

Typically serious and never flashy, Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik ignored the naysayers and quietly put together a championship football program.

How do you explain how the championship game played out defensively?

People were expecting a lot of points.

GC: Well, about five weeks earlier we challenged our defense, and I think they’d had about all they wanted to hear about the speed and the tempo. Coach (Ted) Roof (defensive coordinator) had a phenomenal game plan. He called a phenomenal game. We went into the game with very few things that we wanted to do. We wanted to execute, and if they were better than us on this night, then they were just better than us on this night. But these guys played their rear ends off. Our defense was focused for one month. They went out and practiced every day to win a

T I G E R

W Tigers A L Kon iPad Apple iPad users may now follow all the sports action on the Plains via the new official Auburn Tigers iPad app, which features video highlights, game schedules, standings, scores, photo galleries, game replays and more—plus exclusive BCS National Championship game footage. The app is available for downloading in the company’s iTunes store for $3.99.

national championship—every day—and they came out and executed on game day.

You talk about the word “respond”—they responded. One of the reasons we will be able to wear that ring is because of how well they played.

What was the mentality when Oregon scored late in the fourth quarter?

Did you say anything specific on the sidelines?

GC: You know, to be honest, no, I did not say anything different, because it was business as usual. We have been there and done that so many times. And we knew what we would have to do to win the game. We knew we had to manage the clock right, number one. We knew we had to get some first downs. But we were going to move the ball down methodically and try to get it into position to kick the field goal with no time left on the clock. That was the idea. We’ve done it before. We’ve done it numerous times. And that was the idea, so we didn’t have to say anything. I think our team’s been through this so many times that they understood what we had to do.

Talk about the day you chose your offensive coordinator, Gus Malzahn.

GC: Obviously one of the most important hires is your coordinator, and Gus was my first choice. I did not know Gus, wanted to get to know him and wanted to make sure he was the right guy to lead our

23

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Do you remember the first time in practice with quarterback Cam Newton, when you guys went back in your meeting rooms and said, “Wow”?

GC: Yeah, right when he first walked out and we saw him in his uniform, that’s when we said, “Wow.” I hoped he could play like he looked.

Spring practice was interesting. There were days where we had our potential “wow” moments. I felt like when it came to throwing the football, there were some things we could get polished up. He had a nice release. We knew he had a good arm. We felt like repetitions in this offense would eventually accumulate, and it would become muscle memory for him.

In our running game, that was a little harder to evaluate, because we don’t tackle our quarterbacks in spring practice. We don’t hit them. So we didn’t know, again, whether a 7-yard gain may turn into a 70yard gain. We’d blow him dead in a scrimmage, and he would be like, “Oh, coach, I had another 25 yards on that.” And we are going, “Yeah, right.” And then, in the very first game, you could see that was the case. That was the evolution offensively of what we were trying to do with him.

Each week, Gus and I would sit down and say: “What’s the next thing?” We knew he could carry the ball 10 times a game. Are we OK in this league to give it to him 20? Because when you see how physically he can run the ball, when you see how he can get things on the perimeter to run the ball, he can mix things up, then we started saying, boy, he can carry the ball this many times and be OK.

All the guys have been joking around, telling things about Cam—that he can’t play basketball, but he is a good dancer, for example. Is there

anything else we don’t know about Cam Newton?

GC: I have seen him dance with my son during practice when he was supposed to be paying attention, but we caught him on film. He doesn’t know that.

Let me tell you what, he is a baby at heart now. He has got the heart of a child. I mean, that’s the way he is. Just watch him with children. You can walk in through a crowd of 200 people, and the first person he will go up to is the young boy or young girl.

What’s your take on the discussion of whether or not Nick Fairley was a dirty player?

GC: I think it is absurd, to be honest with you. The bottom line is real simple. You have a 315-pound defensive tackle and, if you can’t block him, sometimes people are going to get hurt. We don’t want that.

We don’t want to see anybody get hurt.

But when you can’t block a guy that’s 315 pounds, that happens. He plays hard for his school, and he plays hard for his teammates. And there is no mention, no talk— never—that has to do with any dirty play.

Again, it is absurd. That’s not what we teach. That’s not who we are. That’s not who he is.

JEFF ETHERIDGE

Can you speak to the confidence you had in field goal kicker Wes Byrum, Auburn’s all-time leading scorer?

GC: We knew, without question, when the game comes down to the end, whenever we put that ball within reason, he is going to make it. And there was no question in our mind. All we had to do was put the ball in the right spot. We didn’t know how far we would be able to get it down, but usually if we can get it somewhere inside 50 yards, we have a lot of confidence that he will kick it through. We don’t even bat an eyelash—we get it there, and he kicks it.

He does it in practice with everybody yelling and screaming at him. We have done that every day (in practice), where he’s got to make the game-winning field goal with everybody giving him every distraction known to man. He does it every day.

young guys first. I knew he could coach football, but it is very important for me to hire coaches that I know will be good around these young guys. I want to know if they’ll be good for coaching my son if he were ever to play. And Gus is a phenomenal man. He is obviously very good at his craft. I’m just blessed to have him on our staff. He’s got a great relationship with all the kids (and) coaching staff, and our relationship is second to none.

T I G E R

W A L K

Georgia senators bark back Auburn fans serving in the Georgia Senate introduced a resolution in January commending the team on its gridiron success, provoking mild grousing from fellow officials, many of whom are Georgia Bulldogs fans. A rumble of dissent swept through the body when the commendation, sponsored by George Hooks ’70, D-Americus, Bill Hamrick ’88, RCarrollton, and Prattville native Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, was brought to a vote. In the end, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle settled the matter: “The ayes clearly have it.”

24

Thanks to an unlikely

to the Peace Corps’

hero, Peace Corps

regional manager;

volunteer Carmen Brit-

the words “once-in-a-

ton ’07 watched her

lifetime chance” might

first Auburn football

have been used. And

game of the season on

then there was a chance

a TV set located in the

meeting with Harry K.

nicest house in Manila,

Thomas Jr., the U.S.

Philippines.

ambassador to the

Philippines, at an em-

Britton is four

months into a 27-month

bassy Christmas party

stint in the Peace

in Baguio City to which

Corps, assisting chil-

various Peace Corps

dren with special needs

volunteers were invited.

in a rural community in

the Philippines. Despite

ton her name and where

limited Internet access,

she was from, which

she kept up to date with

fueled the conversation.

the past season’s stats

and scores via friends

Cam Newton play in

and family on Facebook

a few games and that

but was unable to actu-

his family from South

ally view a single game.

Carolina were upset

“Since August I’d

(with the season),” Brit-

been asking how I could

ton says. “I asked if he

watch Auburn football,

would recommend a bar

and no one could tell

or hotel that might be

me,” says Britton, who

showing the game.”

grew up in Auburn

and graduated with a

Then he motioned for a

bachelor’s degree in

staffer.

psychology and a mas-

ter’s degree in applied

tant, ‘This is Carmen.

behavior analysis.

Get her information.

She will be coming

When she learned

Thomas asked Brit-

“He said he had seen

Thomas frowned.

“He told his assis-

the Tigers would be

over to the house on

playing for the champi-

Jan. 11 at 5 a.m. I’ll be

onship, she knew she

asleep—don’t wake me

had to try something.

up—but she is welcome

to watch the game.’”

Her plan: take a four-

hour motorcycle sidecar,

then bus, then taxi ride

with joy. On game day,

to Manila, crash at a

she donned an Auburn

hostel, then find an

shirt, located the proper

open bar showing the

jeepney route and

game at dawn.

snacked on energy bars

sent from home. Then,

The first problem?

Britton nearly cried

A rule prohibiting vol-

sweet victory.

unteers from overnight

—Jeremy Henderson

travel. The second? The

’04/The War Eagle

whole barhopping thing.

Reader. Reprinted with

permission.

Britton appealed

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

TODD VAN EMST

JUST ANOTHER THRILLA IN MANILA

New kids on the block As the Auburn University coaching staff huddled around a big-screen TV in the War Eagle Conference Room, Tigers special-teams coordinator Jay Boulware hopped up from his seat, slipped into his jacket and bounded down the stairs of the Auburn Athletic Complex. “I’ve got to go back into the parking lot,” the famously superstitious assistant coach said. “That’s where I was for the last one.”

A few moments later, the room erupted with excitement as 310-pound Gabe Wright of Columbus, Ga.—one of the top defensive line prospects in the nation— announced he would play football at Auburn. It was another signing day victory for head football coach Gene Chizik and his staff of relentless recruiters.

Wright turned his baseball cap around in the style of assistant coach Trooper Taylor as he looked into the camera and explained why he picked Auburn. After whittling his favorites down to three Southeastern Conference schools, Wright went with the one that felt most like home: “This is where I felt the most comfortable.” Earlier in the day, Valley safety Erique Florence, regarded by many as the top prospect in Alabama, had announced he too would play at Auburn. “I love Auburn,” Florence said. “It’s a family thing.”

National signing day began early on Feb. 2 at the athletic complex. The chirp

of a fax machine broke the morning silence in the “war room” shortly after 6 a.m., when Suwanee, Ga., high school quarterback C.J. Uzomah signed on as a Tigers tight end, making him Auburn’s first official signee of the day.

Twenty-one letters of intent would follow, from Valley and Hoover, Mobile and Gadsden, Columbus, Ga., and Marietta, Ga. The new recruits join a class that also features three highly regarded early enrollees already on campus.

So how does Auburn lure a top offensive tackle prospect such as Christian Westerman of Chandler, Ariz., who switched from a previous commitment to the Texas Longhorns? Chizik says it’s not a hard sell; he simply encourages them to visit the campus.

“I tell them I don’t really want to describe it,” Chizik says. “I tell them, ‘I just want you to come see it, because Auburn is second to none on game day.’

“I’ve said it a million times: Our fans are the best in the country. They are the loudest, and they are the most passionate.

Recruits can’t believe it when they come here and they see it.”

While this year’s players are changing, the coaches are not—which also aided Chizik’s staff in propelling Auburn’s 2011 signing class to a Top 5 national ranking.—Jack Smith

Discover Auburn University’s Summer Youth Programs.

Shape your future, develop your interests, and have fun at one of our many academic camps in 2011!

architecture | apparel + interior design | building construction | creative writing | digital forensics engineering | fisheries | industrial design | leadership | musical theatre | veterinary | world affairs To learn more and register, contact the Office of Professional and Continuing Education at 334-844-5100 or online

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AN AUBURN TRADITION Situated on the charming campus of Auburn University, just a short walk from quaint, historic downtown Auburn.

Individuals & Groups, Alumni, Family & Friends, Meetings, Conferences & Special Events

241 South College Street • Auburn, Alabama 36830 Direct: 334-821-8200 • Fax: 334-826-8755 • reservations@auhcc.com • www.auhcc.com

25

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

T I G E R

W A L K

They got swag Craig Stevens selected a Sony PS3 game system, while Darvin Adams went with the Nintendo Wii. About 50 Auburn football players chose Lane recliners as souvenirs from the Tostitos BCS National Championship Bowl gift suite. Each could pick from a selection of swag ranging from BCS gear to 32-inch TVs and mountain bikes.

Twenty Questions,Tiger Edition Think you know all about the 2010 BCS national

B. Heisman rival Cam Newton

B. Josh Bynes, senior linebacker

champions? Step to the line of scrimmage and show

C. Nosa Eguae, freshman right end

C. Darren Bates, sophomore linebacker

us what you’ve got.

D. Eltoro Freeman, junior linebacker

D. Nick Fairley, junior tackle

1. Which running back broke Tommy Lorino’s

8. Which Auburn football coach is the father of

15. Which player is infamous for doing startlingly

1956 record for average yards per rush in a single

12-year-old twin sons?

accurate impressions of his coaches?

season?

A. Head coach Gene Chizik

A. Kodi Burns, senior wide receiver

A. Senior Mario Fannin

B. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn

B. Cam Newton, junior quarterback

B. Freshman Michael Dyer

C. Defensive coordinator Ted Roof

C. Nick Fairley, junior tackle

C. Sophomore Onterio McCalebb

D. Assistant coach/wide receivers coach Trooper

D. Darvin Adams, junior receiver

Taylor 2. Which practical-joking team member made secret

16. On a preseason team trip to a local water

videos of the coaches without their knowledge?

9. Who did Cam Newton once compare to “a cartoon

park, who ignored the rides and spent his time

A. Cam Newton, junior quarterback

network”?

talking shop?

B. Zac Etheridge, senior safety

A. The coaching staff

A. Cam Newton, junior quarterback

C. Ryan Pugh, senior center

B. Running backs Mario Fannin and Michael Dyer

B. Gene Chizik, head coach

D. Antoine Carter, senior left end

C. Left tackle Lee Ziemba

C. Gus Malzahn, offensive coordinator

D. The offensive line

D. Trooper Taylor, assistant/wide receivers coach

say: “You’ve got to say ‘whoa’ to him in practice.

10. How many times has Auburn ended its football

17. How long is senior offensive guard Byron

He’ll run until his legs fall off.”

season with a perfect record?

Isom’s hair?

A. Demond Washington, senior defensive back

A. Seven

A. Twelve inches

B. Neiko Thorpe, junior defensive back

B. Six

B. Sixteen inches

C. Mario Fannin, senior running back

C. Three

C. One-half inch

D. Onterio McCalebb, sophomore running back

D. Four

D. Six inches

4. Which player has the most followers on Twitter?

11. What did defensive line coach Tracy Rocker ’89

18. When assistant coach Trooper Taylor invited

A. Cam Newton, junior quarterback

require his players to do in order to improve their

team members to his house prior to Auburn’s De-

B. Nick Fairley, junior tackle

conditioning between fall and spring semester?

cember holiday break, what did he make them do?

C. Eric Smith, junior halfback

A. Run sprints

A. Sing carols

D. Zach Clayton, senior tackle

B. Jump rope

B. Watch Oregon game film

C. Eat extra helpings of turkey, dressing, and cran-

C. Make gingerbread houses

5. Who is Cam Newton’s favorite movie actor?

D. Decorate his Christmas tree

A. Oscar winner Denzel Washington

D. Spend more time in the weight room

3. About which player did head coach Gene Chizik

berry sauce

B. Former Miami Hurricanes tackle Dwayne “The

Rock” Johnson

19. Which player’s parents attended Auburn?

12. Which Auburn records did the 2010 team set?

A. Ryan Pugh, senior center

C. Rapper-turned-actor and producer Will Smith

A. Single-season scoring record

B. Lee Ziemba, senior left tackle

D. The ultimate Old West tough guy, John Wayne

B. Single-season total offense

C. Mike Blanc, senior tackle

C. Single-season yards rushing

D. Zach Clayton, senior tackle

6. In the 2011 BCS championship game, who urged

D. Most touchdowns in a single season

freshman running back Michael Dyer to keep run-

E. Most quarterback sacks in a single season

20. The Tigers overcame double-digit deficits in

ning after a near-miss tackle in the fourth quarter—

F. All of the above

four games during the 2010 season. Their oppo-

a probable game-changer?

nents were:

A. Terrell Zachery, senior receiver

13. Which senior holds the school record for con-

A. Clemson, Kentucky, South Carolina and Alabama

B. Quindarius Carr, junior receiver

secutive starts?

B. Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama

C. Darvin Adams, junior receiver

A. Mike Berry, senior guard

C. Mississippi State, Clemson, LSU and Alabama

D. Bart Eddins, senior left guard

B. Ryan Pugh, senior center

D. Clemson, South Carolina, LSU and Alabama

C. Byron Isom, senior guard 7. With whom did Oregon’s top playmaker and Heis-

D. Lee Ziemba, senior left tackle

man candidate LaMichael James exchange the most

26

You can find them online at

trash-talk during the championship game?

14. Who led the team in tackles?

A. Nick Fairley, junior tackle

A. Craig Stevens, senior linebacker

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Where are the answers?

AuburnMagazine.auburn.edu.

You wouldn’t

EXPECT

to get this excited

about a “board” room.

It probably doesn’t surprise you that

we’re pretty good

at hosting meetings.

But what you might not expect is how

good we are outside the board room. Get

your team thinking in new directions with a cooking class or

obstacle course, or bring us your kid’s

baseball tournament or swim meet. Our

championship roots

UN

run deep, and we’ll

make you a hero too when your event is

the most successful

o n e e v e r. C a l l o r v i s i t u s o n l i n e t o d a y.

expected

aotourism.com | info@aotourism.com 334.887.8747 AU Alumni spring 11.indd 1

2/3/2011 4:38:28 PM

It was a family affair: a football season that began with a murmur and ended with a mighty roar. Along the way, Auburn fans circled the wagons against controversy and cheered on the Tigers’ ability to follow head coach Gene Chizik’s advice: “You lock and load, and you do what we do.” And all we did was, well, win. b y m i k e t i e r n e y

On the second monday in december, the face of Auburn University football sits in the CBS studio green room that houses guests-in-waiting for “The Late Show with David Letterman,” waiting to spread the tale of the Tigers beyond sports devotees to a general audience.

A whirlwind visit to New York City—chock-full of interviews, photo shoots, tours, TV appearances and, of all things, an improvised “Tiger Walk” outside the theater where he would accept the most recognized individual award in American athletics—is winding down, and Cam Newton is fighting fatigue. Not surprisingly, fatigue is losing.

In a low voice, to nobody in particular, he reads out lines on cue cards, which must suffice in lieu of a rehearsal. He’ll soon be center stage—a by-now-customary spot—to present Letterman’s signature segment, the “Top 10” list. The words are supplied by a scriptwriter, unlike the ones he delivered from note cards at the Heisman Memorial Trophy ceremony two nights earlier. “Thank you to the Auburn family,” he said at the dais, “for all the support you’ve given me in these trying times.”

If Newton hadn’t grasped the concept of the Auburn family before, it rang clear to him on his stroll to the Heisman presentation. Hundreds of non-blood kinfolk, many of them Manhattanites, cheered his arrival.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

At the TV studio, Newton is overdressed in a tuxedo. There will be no time to change before a black-tie reception that concludes his substantial bite out of the Big Apple. He is nearly flawless in delivering the “Ten Things Cam Newton Can Say Now That He Has Won the Heisman,” breaking into his Pepsodent smile after each.

“Next season, I’m joining the cast of ‘Glee’ as the gruff quarterback with the voice of an angel.”

This wasn’t the moment to reflect on a stranger-than-fiction year that began with him as one of several quarterbacks trying to catch the coaches’ eyes—not even assured of playing time, much less a starting role.

“I’m not playing in the national championship game. I have a math quiz the next day.”

Tigers quarterbck Or a lifetime of superlatives crammed Cameron “Cam” Jerrell is expected to into one stuffed scrapbook of a season— Newton be a first-round pick in the overtime escape against Clemson, the the NFL draft in April. clock-eating drive against Kentucky, the At Auburn, the 21-yearHeisman winner 65 points against Arkansas and 51 against old became one of only Ole Miss, the dazzling comeback against three players in NCAA Georgia, the comeback-of-the-ages against history to both throw and rush for at least Alabama, the takin’-care-of-business at 20 touchdowns in the same season. the Southeastern Conference.

TODD VAN EMST

The Year of the Tiger

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

T H E

Y E A R

O F

T H E

T I G E R

Y

ou watched the games. You know how the Tigers won them. What you may not know is what transpired off the field to make it happen. So, herewith, in chronological order, are the “Ten Things That Set the Stage for the Bowl Championship Series Title.”

10. The Recommitment Nick Fairley, in a ritual played out thousands of times each year, announced at his high school that he would attend Auburn. What distinguished the May 2008 ceremony in Mobile was that Fairley had gone through this same exercise a year earlier. His high school grades had come under scrutiny for possible tampering, however—Auburn was not linked to the case—and he had detoured to Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Miss.

Some athletes elect to start fresh under such circumstances and reopen their recruitment to other colleges, but Fairley renewed his pledge to Auburn—not that hordes of schools were clamoring for his services. He had been a coveted, but not to-diefor, prospect out of high school, more so as an offensive lineman.

As a defensive tackle for the Tigers, No. 90 terrorized opposing linemen—and the quarterbacks they struggled to protect—so relentlessly this past season that he was recognized as Newton’s counterpart: the primo defensive player in the country and winner of the 2010 Lombardi Award. Fairley is the second Lombardi winner in Auburn’s history—the first was Tracy Rocker, currently the Tigers’ defensive line coach, who received the award in 1988.

9. The Hire Jay Jacobs braced himself for the flak. Auburn’s harried athletics director knew when he hired Gene Chizik—who’d won just five games in two seasons at his previous gig—in December 2008 that some Tigers fans might not embrace the choice.

“I was not completely prepared for the passion of the Auburn people,” the former walk-on offensive tackle recalls diplomatically.

In the wake of former head coach Tommy Tuberville’s resignation, outraged fans expressed their feelings in phone calls— even to Jacobs’ home—and e-mails culminating in a public heckling as he debarked a plane at the Auburn University Regional Airport. That he could handle. The Facebook posts and verbal insults directed at his daughters, he could not. “That wasn’t fair,” he says. “They didn’t sign up for that.”

To Jacobs, it wasn’t just that Chizik was “the smartest defensive man I’ve ever been around” or that he recognized some-

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

JEF F ET H ERI DG E

“Even I have no idea how the heck this BCS works.”

Or the ordeal involving his father, the Rev. Cecil Newton, who allegedly sought money in exchange for Cam’s commitment to Mississippi State during recruitment, which forced Auburn— even though not implicated in the NCAA’s investigation of the allegations—to “limit” Cecil Newton’s access to the program, resulting in his conspicuous absence at the Heisman festivities.

“Need to see ID? How about this?”

And with that, Newton assumes the familiar Heisman pose— one arm tucking in an imaginary football, the other extended forward, fingers raised as if inviting Letterman’s audience to give him a high five.

Defensive tackle Nick one eager to teach players that there’s Fairley started just more to life than blocking, tackling and two games in 2009 but broke from the beating the University of Alabama. What pack during the 2010 impressed Jacobs, he says, was Chizik’s season. Some say he simple offer of thanks to the A.D. when may be the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick. he left Auburn in 2004 after working as an assistant for two years.

“That was class,” recalls Jacobs, noting how coaches are inclined to summarily pack up and leave for new positions.

8. The Other Hire Two weeks later, in late 2008, Chizik hired an offensive coordinator just five years removed from coaching high school athletes. Gus Malzahn signaled plays from the sideline with a whole mess of numbers on flash cards, prompting mild ridicule in some corners. He had been one-season-and-done in his prior SEC job, departing Ole Miss as coordinator after crossing philosophical swords with head coach Houston Nutt.

Chizik, who regards himself as a devout Christian, found a kindred spirit in Malzahn, a reputed 24/7 coach who, in truth, takes an hour or two each day for matters other than football.

7. The One Who Took One For The Team Kodi Burns started seven games as quarterback in 2008, making him a logical contender with Chris Todd (five starts) for the role in 2009. Burns, admitting to himself that Todd was better

T H E

suited to Malzahn’s quick-strike system, volunteered to switch to wide receiver. His passionate plea to the team to rally around Todd resonated through the title season, prompting tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen to describe Burns as “the true definition of a team player.”

“I had to step back and let somebody else run the show,” Burns recalls. “We’ve got to stick together as a team. It’s not about one person.”

The football gods rewarded Burns for his unselfishness. In a wildcat play against Ole Miss in October, he threw a touchdown pass to—of all people—Cam Newton. Against Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game, Newton returned the favor, connecting with Burns for a touchdown that jump-started the offense. The Auburn family recognized Burns’ play with its biggest ovation during the athletics department’s official championship celebration Jan. 22 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

6. The Commitment Newton, home for the holidays from Blinn College in tiny Brenham, Texas, in 2009, spun through Auburn just before Christmas for a recruiting visit that left him “on cloud nine.” A week later, he quietly signed, which put the coaching staff only on cloud six or seven. Newton was the reigning national champion quarterback—but only at the junior-college level.

At the time, the Tigers were in Florida, focused on an Outback Bowl that they would win in overtime despite allowing Northwestern to gain more than a third of a mile. Finding Auburn in the 2010 preseason rankings would require digging nearly to the bottom of the list, and, later, when the 2010 media guide was published, Newton was a faceless entry in the “Other Players” category.

4. The Songs Months before Tigers fans began raising and lowering their arms to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” from this year’s hip-hop hit chart, running backs coach-cum-musical director Curtis Luper began selecting gospel tunes for team Right: Tigers running sing-a-longs at mid-week player meetback Onterio McCalebb ings. Before the second game of the 2010 was the first Auburn season, reserve quarterback Barrett Trotfreshman to ever rush for 100 yards or more ter suggested Bill Withers’ classic 1972 in his first two games. soul single “Lean On Me.” He’ll play again for the Tigers this fall.

The song’s lyrics and message struck

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T H E

T I G E R

a chord with the team after it held on for dear life against Mississippi State. “Lean On Me” became the Tigers’ anthem, and players belted out the lyrics on the floor of the Georgia Dome, a fitting coda to a brand-new SEC title.

3. The Fun Chizik, who encourages social gatherings that sometimes involve the families of coaches and staff, signed off on a Halloween costume party that followed a four-game gauntlet of consecutive SEC wins in October. The Tigers let loose, about two dozen of them donning costumes, some shamelessly—including Cam Newton, who wore a short, frilly white dress. Tailback Mario Fannin, summoning his experience as a high school drama student, spent $7 at Walmart for fake teeth and a fright wig, put on a vintage Dominique Wilkins jersey, stuffed his shirt and pants with pillows, and arrived as an aging basketball player.

The getup earned Fannin first prize in the costume contest, although Newton’s attire generated more social-media buzz. The quarterback’s outrageous outfit, inspired by the 2010 film Tooth Fairy, was credited with triggering a team-wide tension release that set up the stretch run.

2. The Backward Walk With media coverage of Newton and his family growing whitehot, the Auburn family rallied to its quarterback’s defense. Several hundred fans staged a “reverse Tiger Walk” on the eve of Auburn’s homecoming game against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, with a veritable flash-mob gathering outside the Auburn Athletic Complex as the team filed out on its way to the Tigers’ home-game-eve hotel in Montgomery. Supporters repeated the gesture the following week, just prior to the Georgia game, in even greater numbers. The message: “We got your back.”

JEFF ETHERIDGE

5. The Catchphrase At last year’s spring practice, Chizik welcomed back an intact coaching staff that provided welcome continuity; no other SEC team was similarly blessed. To the players, he presented rubber wristbands sporting the message “G2G”—shorthand for “Good to Great.” It was a not-so-subtle message to a team that, despite winning eight games in 2009, had too often frittered away leads.

What seems absurdly obvious now—the identity of the quarterback—was murkier then. Deep into the practices, Chizik, assessing the candidates, said, “Thank God we don’t need to name him tomorrow. We need more time.”

More time left Chizik with the confidence that the new transfer could handle Malzahn’s elaborate offense. Eventually Auburn officials released a depth chart that listed Cam Newton as the starter.

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1. The Iron Bowl Victory The Auburn locker room was anything but funereal at halftime during the 75th Iron Bowl, the annual family-vs.-family feud, in November. Moments earlier, all that seemed left for the Tigers, behind by 24 points, were last rites. A late touchdown defibrillated the team—still, the Tigers were losing by 17 points to the defending national champs.

Then linebacker Josh Bynes stood and asked a question: “Who has the heart to join the rally and make history?”

“We comin’, we comin’,” answered Newton, repeating his mantra-of-the-moment.

As Chizik preached patience, safety Zac Etheridge reminded himself of the continuous comebacks: “Once you do it one time, you have faith that you can always do it.”

And so they did, riding a jet-like propulsion in the second half to run down Alabama 28-27 and, a week later, run over South Carolina in Atlanta for the SEC championship—prompting a torrent of Internet searches and phone calls seeking BCS National Championship game tickets and accommodations in or near Glendale, Ariz.

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brightens and begins describing a feed-the-hungry charity event at Turner Field in Atlanta. For two hours, Newton says, he dished out green beans—“Santa beans,” he calls them—to the homeless.

“It was an eye-opener for me,” he says. “I had to step outside Cam Newton the athlete and step into Cam Newton the human being.”

Now he’s morphing back with mixed emotions. A big game— the biggest—looms.

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here were, of course, marriage proposals and toilet-paper rolling, dancing in the streets and celebratory photographs, tales of selflessness and selfishness, and stories of winter-weather interference from the thousands of alumni who did and did not attend the BCS Championship game on Jan. 10 in Glendale. Here are a few of their stories.

“I volunteer through my church with a micro-lending project in southeast Asia. I was in Jakarta on Tuesday morning (12 hours ahead of Atlanta) for a meeting with the board there. They knew how much the game meant to me and actually called the cable company to add ESPN to its package so I could see it. I watched into the second quarter, when all of the meeting attendees arrived. One of the workers in the office kept passing me updates. When Oregon tied the game in AUBURN UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES

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nter the auburn athletic Complex, turn right and step into the Anthony J. Raine Reception Center, a veritable mini-museum of Auburn football.

Enclosed in glass are player and team awards, inflated and flattened footballs from significant games through the ages, and even cheerleading uniforms from as far back as the 1940s. Supersized portraits of prominent coaches and athletes fill one wall.

Sculptures of iconic eagles, one of them larger-than-life, representing Auburn’s beloved battle cry imbue the place with the ambiance of a nature preserve.

Someday soon, artifacts of Cam Newton’s career will find their way here. Just now though, the room offers Cam in the flesh, facing reporters during the regular news conferences he has come to dread.

Newton removes his goofy woolen ear-flap cap, revealing a handsome face unmarked by bumps or bruises. At 21, he hasn’t yet mastered the art of subtlety: Every muscle in his face expresses the emotion of the moment, from that characteristic joyful grin to the occasional annoyed grimace. It’s fairly easy to imagine Newton gracing the big screen, whether on a 52-inch living room TV or in a larger-than-life IMAX film. It isn’t lost on him that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, defensive tackle for the University of Miami’s 1991 championship team, starred in the movie Tooth Fairy, which Newton had parodied just two months before.

“Lemme ask y’all the questions. How about that?” Newton suggests in his inimitable way, alluding to his own previous responses to questions. “Y’all just reword it.”

The smile has disappeared, and he fields football-related questions indifferently, offering decent Opposite and right: Auburn’s Cam Newton sound bites but little insight. The holidays played with a hurt back, had provided a hideout from media, espeand senior kicker Wes cially those digging for information about Byrum clinched the winning field goal in his dad’s alleged doings. the BCS National When someone inquires about how Championship game’s final seconds.

Newton spent Christmas, he suddenly

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the fourth quarter, we called a stop to the meeting so I could watch the final two minutes. Our friends in Jakarta know nothing about college football, but they laughed and laughed, watching me jump up and down as we came back to win the game. When the first thing Cam said after the game was about glory and honor to God, you could have heard a pin drop.”

—Mark Granger ’82 “After two days of skiing in Salt Lake City, I met up Sunday with my Tiger tailgating and season-ticket crew of 12. One of our party finally got a ticket to the game at face value from the will-call window in the second quarter. After the game, I got in a car with five others for the four-and-one-half-hour drive to Las Vegas. When we arrived around 3:30 a.m., I could not believe how many other Tiger fans—at least a hundred—were as crazy as us to make the same drive. On my flight back through Detroit, I had plenty of envious looks and a few congratulations. I was still wearing my AU sweatshirt.”

—Michael Head ’87 “Our excellent adventure to the BCS National Championship was more than a trip—it felt like a pilgrimage for the Auburn faithful. I removed my late father’s Auburn letterman watch from its case and put it on my wrist. He would be with us in spirit. When the winning field goal cleared the uprights, grown men and women cried and hugged and kissed strangers. After a big hug and kiss for my husband, Lon, I sat for a minute and remembered my daddy’s No. 43. He played on Auburn’s first bowl team in 1937. I knew he was smiling from heaven.”

—Theresa Jenkins ’68 “Growing up in rural Alabama, I often wondered why my dad leaned to Auburn rather than Alabama. He would tell me, ‘Auburn is just different,’ even though he did not attend the school. We have shared our love for Auburn over the years, but this year was special. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 2009, and I visited him on several occasions to watch games.

In our last-second win over Kentucky, we laughed, stressed, yelled and high-fived like we were at the game. When it was over, my mom said, ‘That is the most excited and happy I have seen your dad in many years.’ I am convinced that the run by Auburn this year has helped dad continue to pull through. I will remember it for helping a father and son bond more in a most difficult time.”

—Greg Majors ’86 “We had the RV packed and ready to go to Auburn to tailgate for the championship game. The plan was foiled by the snowstorm, so we made the best of the situation and had a party for about 20 fans who could walk through the ice and snow to our house. Our son, Mac, an Auburn sophomore in Germany to study abroad, had gone to great lengths to watch the game on his computer. He was distressed at the poor quality, so we set up our computer in front of the flat-screen TV, and he was able to ‘Skype’ the game live with his family and friends here. The laughter, the joy and the tears in our living room were shared from thousands of miles away in another country. He even got to see us roll our ‘mini’ Toomer’s oak in the front yard.”

—Dawn Hastie Patterson ’84 and Charles M. “Chip” Patterson ’83

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“As a loyal fan since my life-changing conversion from the dark side—’Bama—when I started at Auburn in 1977, I had been waiting for Monday night’s game for what seemed like an eternity. Due to the hard economic times, I lost my job in early 2009 and we started cutting our household budget, which included downgrading to basic cable, meaning no ESPN. The Wednesday before the game, we decided to upgrade so we could watch it. We received dozens of new channels—all except ESPN. The first of many phone calls was made on Thursday reporting our problem. I made an appointment for a technician to come on Monday. Well, the ‘snowpocalypse’ hit Sunday night. Monday, we woke up to almost 5 inches of snow on the ground, and I panicked. I called Comcast Corp., and they told me no one would be able to come out that day. I told them I had been waiting 50 years to see this game, and there was no way I was going to miss it. Finally, I called my aunt and uncle, who live about four miles from us. The drive was treacherous, but my wife and son and I were able to watch our beloved Tigers with loyal ’Bama fans! The next day, my wife was called by a Comcast technician, who was able to solve the ESPN problem over the phone.”

—Paul E. White ’82 “Our big plans to drive to Auburn and watch the game in the Auburn Arena were a victim of the weather. When I woke up to so much snow and ice, I was quite reluctant to watch the game at home alone. I packed a backpack, put on hiking boots, grabbed my trekking poles for mountain hiking and headed out for a threemile hike to a buddy’s house to watch the game. I traveled down the middle of the East/West Connector in Smyrna, Ga., where one passerby took my picture. It was well worth the effort!”

—Jeff Jackson ’97 “I thought everyone who follows major college football had heard of Auburn’s unique battle cry/greeting, ‘War Eagle.’ My husband, brother, sister-in-law and I visited the Grand Canyon before the game. Auburn fans had almost filled the national park. As we skirted the ice in one rather wooded spot along the rim, my husband and I greeted a smiling, middle-aged couple wearing Oregon green and yellow. My husband, laughing, told them that they would get tired of hearing ‘War Eagle’ at the game. The man asked, ‘What is that?’ My husband, a reformed Georgia Tech man, stepped back, cupped his hands and yelled ‘Warrrr Eeeeagle.’ All through the woods and rim, those lovely, inspiring words rang out.

—Suzanne Pearson Collins ’70 “Every time I’d watched Auburn play in the previous five years, they seemed to lose. It has gotten so bad that I will not watch the games and will not let anyone tell me the score until the game is over. My daughter, an Auburn sophomore, even texts me if things are not going well to make sure I am not watching. As you can imagine, I am subject to some abuse for this situation.

This season, despite all the success, I did not watch one game live, and no one in my house watched the national championship game. We did not know the final score until we got the text from Auburn. While I am not vain enough to think my watching the game has any impact on it, I am superstitious—probably because I was born on a Friday the 13th. Whatever it takes.”

—J. Stephen Stellman ’81

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“While dining with friends in Arizona after the game, we ran into a couple of gentlemen in Auburn gear who, noticing our similar attire, engaged us in the usual niceties. One said his friend had played on the last Auburn national championship team in 1957. I was obviously blown away and, trying to conjure up a name from that team, blurted out, ‘Wow, so you played with Tommy Lorino and those guys!’ The other gentleman modestly replied, ‘I’m Tommy.’ A surreal moment at the close of a surreal experience.”

—Jay Moore ’70

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perating on a few hours of sleep, Cam Newton and his newly-crownedchampion teammates head to the Phoenix airport with different destinations in mind. Cam is off to another late-night TV appearance; the rest of the team is flying home. On the way, Chizik receives a congratulatory call from President Barack Obama. The

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coach says goodbye, starts punching the keypad and cracks, “Let me get his cell phone number in my phone so I can call him when I want.”

The line would have played well on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” but it is Cam-the-ham whom they want in Hollywood, assuring Leno equal time with Letterman. This time, no tuxedo—Newton goes casual, opting for stylish sweats with the familiar Auburn logo.

Leno can’t resist remarking on Newton’s good looks, comparing his own famously extra-long chin to the athlete’s. The pair chat about junior college (“my rehab year”), Cam’s goals for his first and only Auburn season (“I was aiming for the moon”), his father (yes, blocking out distractions was exhausting) and his surprise at winning the Heisman (yeah, right).

Newton’s charm is never more evident than when he confides to Jay his intention to operate a daycare center someday.

Cam, an endearing mix of man and boy reminiscent of Tom Hanks’ character in “Big,” wins over yet another audience with his version of “What Do I Wanna Be When I Grow Up? Football star/babysitter.”

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The TV screen beams photos of the petite motorized scooter that once carried the 6-foot-6 Newton between classes. Leno hints at a possible vehicle upgrade by asking whether Cam intends to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft, bypassing his senior season. Newton promises to let him know.

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few nights after the Leno appearance, Auburn issues a media alert stating the inevitable: Cam Newton will forego his senior season and turn pro. It is believed that he did not alert Jay Leno of his plans.

The following day, Nick Fairley follows suit. The 300-pound tackle, one of nine siblings, shares the decision from his favorite venue for issuing life-changing announcements—his old stomping grounds, Williamson High School in Mobile, which presumably will be the site for news of his retirement from the NFL.

A third early exit provides a final surprise in a season full of them. Wide receiver Darvin Adams, a junior from Canton, Miss., is projected as a late-round draft pick.

Like a traditional family wrestling with a mix of pride and sadness as one of its own leaves for college, the Auburn family experiences similar emotions when an accomplished athlete quits school in favor of going pro. The farewells of Newton, Fairley and Adams from a team top-heavy with seniors compromise the chances of a sequel this year. Among those whose eligibility expired were four starting offensive linemen (including all-stars Lee Ziemba and Ryan Pugh), three reliable defensive linemen, a linebacker and a safety.

Reinforcements are on the way from a recruiting class that the geeks who evaluate such things rate among the nation’s best. Jacobs, still bent on keeping his coaching staff intact, grants across-the-board raises, none more generous than the one given to Gus Malzahn, winner of the 2010 Broyles Award for the nation’s best assistant coach. Targeted by two colleges with head coaching vacancies, Malzahn is persuaded to stay with a deal reported to be worth as much as $1.3 million annually, perhaps the most of any assistant in the country.

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he Raine Reception Center makes room for its newest item—the American Football Coaches Association National Championship Trophy, made of Waterford crystal, weighing 45 pounds and worth $30,000. Its value to Auburn? Priceless.

Paul E. White, the frustrated alumnus from Stone Mountain, Ga., whose cable company failed him in his time of need, is undecided about whether to keep his premium TV package into the upcoming football season, though he leans toward switching to another provider.

And J. Stephen Stellman, the superstitious alum, tentatively plans to keep not watching. “The team seems to win when I don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “Why break up a good thing?”

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Sated and elated The concession stands, having been de-winterized for Auburn University’s official national championship celebration at Jordan-Hare Stadium in January, were down to funnel cakes and popcorn kernels before the players had even been introduced.

The hot dogs and nachos had already been gobbled up by the 78,000 Tigers fans in attendance. The number of people who showed up amounted to 8,000 more than the university planned for and 30,000 more than city officials expected. The Auburn family was hungry.

There were old men there, bundled against the cold in officially licensed sweatshirts. Some of them had been waiting for this moment since they were students at Alabama Polytechnic Institute. Some of them thought they might not live to see another one.

There were boomers there, just babies when it happened the first time, who’d thought they might not live to see another one.

And there were young fans there who said to themselves: “So this is what a championship looks like.” It had been 53 years.

“We’ve got a big God,” Chizik told the crowd, “and he said ‘yes’ to Auburn football.”

Beside Chizik, sunlight glinted off the trophies that proved it. Behind Chizik were the players—including the “blessed individual” who won the Heisman Trophy and the merry “tweeter” who garnered the Lombardi Award—who proved it.

Nearby was the giant mass of Auburn students who showed up hours early to stand on the field, ensuring their small part in this moment, along with children who, chasing wind-blown commemorative posters, sneaked across the end-zone wall when security wasn’t looking, and sometimes even when they were. That proved it, too.

“There’s a lot of love in front of me and a lot of love all around this place,” Chizik said, head bowed with emotion.

“You are the best fans in the United States of America, and you have helped us and been a huge part in being the best football team in the United States of America.

“War Damn Eagle.”

Alumni cried. Fans cheered. We were, finally, full. —Jeremy Henderson ’04

NO. 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 8 9 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 15 15 16 17 17 18 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 24 25 26 27 28 28 29 30 30 31 32 33 35 35 35 36 37 38 38 39 40 40 41 42 43 44 45 45 46 47 47 48 48 49 50

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NAME Trovon Reed Cam Newton Aairon Savage DeAngelo Benton Shaun Kitchens Zac Etheridge Michael Dyer Jake Holland Jonathon Mincy Antonio Goodwin Anthony Morgan Quindarius Carr Ryan White LaDarius Owens Chris Davis Demetruce McNeal Craig Sanders Barrett Trotter Demond Washington Neiko Thorpe Clint Moseley Ikeem Means Josh Bynes Ryan Shoemaker Kodi Burns Wes Byrum Neil Caudle Drew Cole Eltoro Freeman T’Sharvan Bell Onterio McCalebb Jordan Spriggs Ryan Smith Daren Bates Mike McNeil Mario Fannin Wade Christopher Anderson Mack Chandler Brooks Steven Clark Twun Bonner Trent Fisher Eric Smith Jessel Curry Jonathan Evans Dimitri Reese Jacob Kerby Cody Parkey Ladarious Phillips Jawara White Sam Brown Ralph Spry Chris Humphries Chris Otersen Robert Cooper Philip Pierre-Louis Philip Lutzenkirchen Patrick Lymon Davis Hooper Antoine Carter Craig Stevens Joey Caldwell Nathan Taylor Woody Parramore Dakota Mosley Michael Goggans Ryan Pugh

POS. YR. WR FR QB JR DB SR WR SO WR FR SS SR RB FR LB FR S FR WR FR DB SO WR JR DB FR LB FR CB FR DB FR DE FR QB SO DB SR DB JR QB RS FR DB SO LB SR P SR WR SR K SR QB SR DB JR LB JR DB SO RB SO DB FR S FR LB SO S JR RB SR LB JR WR FR K JR P FR CB FR DB FR RB JR LB FR LB SO WR FR FB RS FR K FR FB FR LB FR WR JR WR JR LB JR TE JR TE RS FR WR SO TE SO RB FR RB JR DE SR LB SR LB SO WR JR DB SR TE FR DE SR OL SR

NO. 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 60 61 61 62 63 64 64 65 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 83 84 85 87 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 97 98

NAME Watson Downs Justin Delaine Bart Eddins Jeffrey Whitaker Corey Lemonier Ashton Richardson Byron Isom Harris Gaston Eric Mack Donnie Riggins Josh Harris Chad Slade Blake Burgess Chase Seals Forrest Hill Tunde Fariyike Jake Lembke Mike Berry Bobby Ingalls Ed Christian Ryan Preston Andre Harris John Sullen Andrew Parmer Lee Ziemba Jamar Travis Brandon Mosley Jorrell Bostrom A.J. Greene Roszell Gayden Jared Cooper Emory Blake Terrell Zachery Cameron Groce Codey Frederick Travante Stallworth Derek Winter Darvin Adams Nick Fairley Joel Bonomolo Kenneth Carter Mike Blanc Nosa Eguae Dee Ford Derrick Lykes Zach Clayton

POS. LB DE OL DT DE LB OL LB OL OL DS OL OL OL DS OL DS OL OL OL OL OL OL OL OL DL OL OL OL OL OL WR WR TE WR WR WR WR DL DE DT DL DE DE DL DL

YR. SO FR SR FR FR JR SR SO FR SO JR FR RS FR FR FR FR RS FR SR JR FR FR RS FR SO SO SR SO JR SR JR JR JR SO SR FR FR SO JR JR JR JR FR SR RS FR SO SO SR

COACHES Gene Chizik - Head Coach Jay Boulware - Assistant Coach/ Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends Jeff Grimes - Assistant Coach/ Offensive Line Phillip Lolley - Assistant Coach/ Secondary Curtis Luper - Assistant Coach/ Running Backs Gus Malzahn - Offensive Coordinator/ Quarterbacks Tracy Rocker - Assistant Coach/ Defensive Line Ted Roof - Defensive Coordinator/ Linebackers Trooper Taylor - Assistant Head Coach/ Wide Receivers Tommy Thigpen - Assistant Coach/ Secondary

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Wh ile fan s lucky e noug h t o ha v e g a me t i c ke t s b a sk ed i n s un ny Ar izo na , A ubur n w a s t a c kl e d by a w i n t er st o rm .

Bu t no t even a ha l f - i nc h of i c e c oul d c hi ll t h e l o ca l s pir it. A d ay in t he l i f e of A ubur n, J a n. 10, 20 1 1 : I n t h e end , To omer ’s w a s c ov e r e d i n w hi t e , but i t w a sn ’t sn o w.

War Eagle! ’Nuff Said.

A bone-chilling layer of ice couldn’t hide the reigning sentiment as the morning of Jan. 10 dawned. Freezing rain and sleet forced university administrators to cancel classes and urge students to stay home until things thawed out.

Few listened.

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It had all the makings of the biggest celebration Auburn University had ever seen. Local hotels were booked solid with fans intent on celebrating a national championship on the Tigers’ home turf. Orange-and-blue decorations festooned the Auburn Arena, awaiting the thousands of fans expected for a campus viewing party where members of the Auburn family could watch the BCS Championship game on huge video screens. The Student Center had been set up to handle the overflow crowd; our team had only to win, and the “All-In” Auburn Tigers love-fest would begin.

But Mother Nature had other plans—namely, a brewing winter storm. Warnings were activated on Sunday, Jan. 9, threatening ice and widespread power outages in the Auburn area—enough for campus administrators to cancel the arena party and strand some fans already en route to Auburn.

But what’s a little ice when there’s a national championship on the line? The hotels filled up as planned; sports bars, restaurants and private homes became impromptu game-watching venues; and, in the end—when the storm failed to deliver what forecasters had predicted—thousands raced to Toomer’s Corner seconds after kicker Wes Byrum’s beautiful spiral sailed through the uprights for a last-second victory, 22-19.

The toilet-papering reached heretofore-unseen proportions and stayed for days, the sight of white-draped oaks remaining to welcome students returning to campus for spring semester and the Tigers’ triumphant homecoming from Glendale, Ariz.

She made a valiant attempt, but, on Jan. 10, even Mother Nature couldn’t stop the party. Join us on a photographic journey through Auburn’s 2011 championship day.

P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y M E L I S S A H U M B L E

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Above and right: Despite the onslaught of satellite trucks parked at Toomer’s Corner and roving reporters hungry for interviews with Tigers fans, a few diligent students took time to huddle up with a hot cup of java and put in some study time ... or might he be reading the sports columns?

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Above and left: Fans crowded Carmike Cinemas Wynnsong 16 theater on East University Drive, which aired ESPN’s game coverage on the silver screen. First came the solemnity of the national anthem, then angst-ridden faces as we bit our nails during a game many thought would be a high-pointer for the Tigers. Meanwhile, area eateries served duck dishes to ward off the cold.

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Above and opposite: After the game ended with a 22-19 victory over Oregon, Tigers fans donned coats, gloves and scarves, and headed to Toomer’s Corner, emptying store shelves of Charmin, Cottonelle and Quilted Northern. Within minutes, thousands of revelers were screaming “It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger” in unison, and the rolling of the oaks commenced.

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Right and above: Collegiate merchandise retailers started printing national championship T-shirts moments after Auburn’s winning field goal—a good thing, since fans surged into Tiger Rags and other stores in downtown Auburn moments after the game and all the following day, buying up everything in sight. Among the souvenirs: Highland Mint’s $350 framed photo of the University of Phoenix stadium augmented by four 24-karat gold-plated commemorative coins.

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Left: Auburn University remained closed the day after the big game due to freezing temperatures and the threat of icy precipitation, but that didn’t keep locals and students from rehashing the event inside barbershops and on the street. Blearyeyed fans took pictures of each other underneath the white curtain at Toomer’s Corner.

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War Eagle!

Your alumni association is composed of more than 46,000 Auburn alumni and other friends of Auburn University. Last year, more than 450,000 users visited our website, and 18,500 people participated in local alumni club activities. We distributed more than 170 scholarships and served more than 9,000 hot dogs at our hospitality tent before home football games. We raised $70,000 for scholarships by selling Toomer’s Corner bricks, and nearly 200 alumni and friends chose to vacation with us. There’s something here for everyone! Join today!

w w w. a u a l u m . o r g / j o i n

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At Auburn, we’re all in BOBBY POUNDSTONE ’95

President, Auburn Alumni Association Hello and War Eagle! This is my first column as president of the Auburn Alumni Association. I certainly did not expect to be chosen for this tremendous honor any more than most of us expected our football Tigers, at the beginning of the season, to be national champions. I am honored and humbled to be your president and look forward to serving you.

A friend e-mailed me a picture of an “AU Family—All In” billboard from Arizona just about the time my flight took off for Phoenix. As I boarded the plane full of fellow members of the Auburn family, I could not help but think how perfectly the slogan captured the essence of what it is to be an Auburn person. We truly are part of one big family. That said, I suppose it is appropriate in this column to introduce you to my branch of the Auburn family tree. I am a third-generation alumnus. My grandfather enrolled at Auburn later than most college freshmen, as he first made a detour into the Army and served our country in World War II. Both of my parents are Auburn graduates, as is my wife, Katie. I graduated from Auburn in 1995 with a degree in business management. Katie and I have two children, John, 6, and Claire, 4, who I fully expect to graduate from Auburn in the classes of 2027 and 2029.

One of the beautiful things about the Auburn family is that it is inclusive; one does not have to be able to trace Auburn graduates in the family lineage in order to be accepted. The Auburn family is also infectious—in a good way. I recently ran into a friend, a Chicago native transplanted to Birmingham. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Notre Dame who had the good sense to adopt Auburn as his team of choice when faced with the inevitable question: Are you an Auburn fan or an Alabama fan? He displayed even better sense when he married an Auburn girl. From there, he became a part of the

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family, is now a football season-ticket holder and, like many of us, paid much more than any reasonably prudent person should for tickets to the championship game. He told me that his niece from Naperville, Ill.—who has no other connections to our university—had enrolled at Auburn. Stories like these are great examples of the fact that there really is something special about our Auburn family.

For those of you who are not members of the Auburn Alumni Association, I invite you to join by going online at www. auburnforlife.com or calling (334) 8442586. If you’re a past member but let your membership expire, I think you will be pleased to see the benefits added in recent years. Of particular note, the association is in the process of instituting a “membership unity” program that will automatically enroll association members as members of their local Auburn clubs with no extra fees or dues. Speaking of which, our clubs are as active and vibrant as they have ever been. In conjunction with the athletics department, we will soon be kicking off the second season of our Tiger Trek tour, which will bring coach Gene Chizik and his assistants to our clubs across the nation to celebrate our national championship season. For cities and dates, see www.aualum.org/clubs.

This football season has been an exciting and long overdue experience for us all. I want to extend congratulations and thanks to coach Chizik and his assistants, the players, and the athletics staff for making this season one for the ages. Your association is committed to spreading the Auburn spirit to alumni in every corner of the world. If you have comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to call on me. Until next time, War Eagle! And to Delaney Garvin from Naperville, Ill.: Welcome to the family.

N E W S

Calendar March 2–15 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: SAMBA RHYTHMS

Uncover the cultural and historical riches of South America’s east coast. From $3,299. Info: (334) 8441143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

March 5 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS BANQUET

Dinner and induction ceremony at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

Info: (334) 844-1150 or www.aualum.org/awards.

March 6–17 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: PANAMA CANAL

Marvel at one of the world’s most impressive feats of engineering. From $3,795. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

March 7 AWARD NOMINATIONS OPEN

Nominations will be accepted through May 31 for the Auburn Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Minority Achievement Award and Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award. Info: (334) 844-1150 or www.aualum.org/awards.

March 12–21 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: ISRAEL

See sights ranging from the Sea of Galilee to the Garden of Gethsemane. From $2,595. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

March 30–April 12 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: MEKONG RIVER

Discover mysterious Cambodia and Vietnam.

From $3,695. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www. aualum.org/travel.

April 2–13 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: HISTORIC REFLECTIONS

Enjoy popular ports of call in Turkey, Greece, France, Spain and Italy. Also offered May 15-26.

From $3,699. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www. aualum.org/travel.

April 4-19 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND

This journey brings you the best of both countries at an enjoyable pace. From $4,899. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

April 28-30 GOLDEN EAGLES REUNION

bpoundstone@bradleyarant.com

Honoring the classes of ’41, ’46, ’51, ’56 and ’61.

Info: (334) 844-1150 or www.aualum.org/groups/ golden-eagles.html.

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

2009–2010

Annual Report

Our story DEBBIE SHAW ’84 Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director, Auburn Alumni Association

I have always listened with respect and admiration to the great stories of the 1957 national championship team, the team led by quarterback Lloyd Nix, the team which is often recognized during halftime presentations at Auburn football games. What great memories they gave us. But those are not my memories. Not to make the greats of that team feel old, but I was not even born in 1957. I can only listen to the stories and try to gain an understanding of what it was like to win a national championship.

Enter the 2010 season. I’ve always loved Auburn football, but the excitement of this season was like nothing I have experienced. Only the 1993 and 2004 seasons came close. But what began as a regular start became something much bigger midseason. Each game brought more excitement. Many of our games were so exciting that I did not even want to leave my seat to visit the ladies’ room. Halftime meant staying put to watch our outstanding band.

Watching Cam Newton play gave me chill bumps. I found myself staying in the stadium after the games, along with several thousand others, dancing to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win” and eventually swaying to the alma mater as I put my arms around whoever stood next to me. You see, this season—this national championship season—is one for our generation to remember for a lifetime. Can one fall more in love with Auburn? Oh yes. The love deepens; the pride gets stronger. We’ve been given a great gift from this football team. I think I now know what those who experienced the national championship in 1957 felt. And now I get it. I really get it. War Eagle!

debbieshaw@auburn.edu

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Thank you for your membership in the Auburn Alumni Association! Your support of Auburn University is appreciated and valued.

Correia Khodadadi Lau Noe Hamilton We are proud to present this annual report, which highlights the activities, awards and successes of your association. In this time of national economic hardship, Wentworth Foshee McCormick Crocker Bell our membership continues to increase. Auburn people are very committed to for five-year terms. Selected this year were: their university, and it shows in their involvement and Chris Correia, psychology; John Drew Hamilton, actions. An exceptional staff in the Office of Alumni computer science and software engineering; Jay M. Affairs and a strong working board of directors led Khodadadi, mechanical engineering; Tin-Man Lau, to an outstanding fiscal year. Our mission remains industrial design; and Kenneth W. Noe, history. to foster and strengthen the relationship between Auburn University and its alumni and friends; to • The Golden Eagles Scholarship was introduced at preserve and promote the university’s traditions, the 2009 Golden Eagles Reunion. Since its purposes, growth and alumni; and to keep alive the inception, the scholarship has raised $16,000. spirit of affection and reverence for our alma mater.

Eleven students were awarded $1,000 each for the We strive to do this every single day. War Eagle!

2009-10 academic year.

SCHOLARSHIPS & ACADEMIC SUPPORT

• Seventy-seven student scholarships were awarded this year from the $3.3 million Alumni Scholars Endowment. Alumni contributions support the endowment.

• The association launched the Toomer’s Bricks project to sell pavers excavated from Toomer’s Corner in 2008. A total of $128,400 was raised for scholarships over the course of the project, which began in April 2009. Of that total, $70,150 was raised in 2009-10.

• The Alumni Professors Endowment, with almost $2 million invested, provides financial supplements to 26 faculty members each year

• Three faculty members received $1,000 each as recipients of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence

AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION REVENUE

AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXPENSES

WHAT DO MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION THINK?

MEMBERS BY GENDER

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C E N T E R

Awards. They were: Wheeler Foshee, horticulture; Theresa McCormick, curriculum and teaching; and Stuart Wentworth, electrical and computer engineering.

• Malcolm Crocker, mechanical engineering, received $2,000 from the Auburn Alumni Association as the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lectureship Award hosted by the Graduate School.

• Carla Jackson Bell, College of Architecture, Design and Construction, received $1,000 from the Auburn Alumni Association as the recipient of the Alumni Minority Achievement Award.

• Life members contributed more than $44,000 to the Circle of Excellence Society, supporting the Alumni Scholars Endowment.

STUDENT ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

2009–2010

Matthew Cox served as president of the Student Alumni Association, overseeing 26 student ambassadors.

AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Student members: 3,615, the largest student organization on campus Auburn Magazine was mailed in November, February, May and August to an average 38,588 households.

The magazine also received a national gold award, a national silver award and three regional awards for writing, design and overall excellence from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in 2010.

The association expanded its outreach to members and potential members through social media networks.

The association maintains an active website, which received more than 16,000 visits per month.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Four individuals were recognized for their extraordinary career accomplishments: Gerald W. Smith ’61, Kathryn C. Thornton ’74, J. Smith Lanier II ’49 and R. Kenneth Johns ’57.

An annual banquet recognized the contributions recipients have made to their professions and communities.

WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS

(international and domestic travel)

Tours offered: 36 Travelers: 188

AWAY-GAME TRAVEL (football 2009)

Trips offered: 5 Travelers: 465

AUBURN CLUBS

Clubs in Alabama: 37 Out-of-State Clubs: 61 Total: 98

2009-2010 AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MEMBER VS NONMEMBER Based on number of living alumni with accurate addresses

VICE PRESIDENT

Mike Watson ’69 TREASURER

Steven A. Boucher ’77 Vernell E. Barnes ’75 Burt Cloud ’66 Walt Conn ’85 Marcus F. Conner ’99 William Jackson “Jack” Fite ’85 Michael R. Griffin ’96 Randy Joe Ham ’73 Charles R. Horton ’65 Janet Mertz ’91 Howard B. Nelson ’69 Bobby Poundstone ’95 Ben Tom “B.T.” Roberts ’72 Arthur “Skip” Ryan ’69 Kathleen M. Saal ’83 Cynthia A. Sahlie ’85 Bill Stone ’85 EX-OFFICIO

Standing, left to right: Vernell Barnes, Burt Cloud, Steve Boucher, Howard Nelson, Bobby Poundstone, Jack Fite, Ralph Jordan, Mike Watson, Mike Griffin, Skip Ryan, Charlie Horton, Randy Ham, Bill Stone, Matthew Cox, Debbie Shaw, Marcus Conner.

Sitting: Walt Conn, Cynthia Sahlie, Kathleen Saal, Nancy Fortner, Janet Mertz, Jennifer Stephens, B.T. Roberts.

CATEGORIES OF ASSOCIATION MEMBERS

PRESIDENT

Nancy Young Fortner ’71

COMMUNICATIONS

TRAVEL PROGRAMS

• Forty-three area Auburn clubs awarded 82 student scholarships.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Deborah L. Shaw ’84 Executive Director Jay Gogue ’69 James Ralph Jordan Jr. ’70 Donald L. Large Jr. ’75 Joe T. McMillan ’58 Matthew Cox Jennifer L. Stephens Mission Statement The mission of the Auburn Alumni Association is to foster and strengthen the relationship between Auburn University and its alumni and friends; to preserve and promote the university’s traditions, purposes, growth and development; and to keep alive the spirit of affection and reverence for our alma mater.

Vision Statement The Auburn Alumni Association cultivates lifelong relationships between Auburn and its alumni and friends to support the advancement of our university.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes GOT NEWS? Auburn Magazine 317 S. College Street Auburn University, AL

president of the University of Alabama law school foundation for a two-year term.

36849-5149, or aubmag@auburn.edu Life Member Annual Member

’20–’59 William Mack Burris ’43 of Anderson, S.C.,

All tied up in D.C. The Auburn Tigers may have won their battle against the Oregon Ducks in Glendale, Ariz., but it was a draw in the nation’s capital, where a hurt player forced the final score.

The METRO WASHINGTON AUBURN CLUB played its University of Oregon counterpart to a 14-14 tie in a flag football game on the National Mall a week before the BCS National Championship game. Oregon won the toss, elected to defer to the second half and led Auburn for most of the game.

“We scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion on the second-to-last play to tie it,” Jeff Cline ’00 told a writer for the online publication thewareaglereader.com. “It wasn’t much, but it was enough.”

About 30 members of the Auburn club participated; the Oregon group had half that number, said Cline.

“Some of the Auburn guys actually made a trophy, and we had a guy there who dressed up as the Heisman trophy with spray paint and everything. It was a big deal.”

But sadly, not all fun and games: David Bules ’04, who traveled from Cincinnati to play in the game, suffered an injury while defending a receiver on the game’s last play and was taken by ambulance to George Washington Hospital.

“It was such a blast, at least until the end when the guy got hurt,” said Caroline Wren ’10, who works for GOPAC, a Republican political-training organization. “I think he just snapped his neck wrong.”

Bules gave a thumbs up as he left the field but, under the circumstances, the two teams decided to forego overtime.

In other club news:

• About 750 Auburn fans attended the ATLANTA AUBURN CLUB celebration at Stats restaurant prior to the Southeastern Conference championship game against South Carolina in December at the Georgia Dome.

• The COLUMBUS-PHENIX CITY AUBURN CLUB volunteered to help a family move into its new home as part of an “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” episode taped in Pine Mountain, Ga.

• Brandon Chockley ’00, president of the Portland, Ore.-based PACIFIC NORTHWEST AUBURN CLUB, appeared in a local TV news segment on couples whose fan loyalty is divided between the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

received the United Way of Anderson County’s Communitarian Award for contributions to his community. He practiced veterinary medicine for 36 years and served 35 years as a member and chair of the local school board.

Walter Albritton ’54 of Wetumpka has

self-published several books, including Life is Short: So Laugh Often, Live Fully and Love Deeply, Don’t Let Go of the Rope, Just Get Over It and Move On!, Leaning Over the Banisters of Heaven and a pair of commentaries on the New Testament. He is a Methodist pastor.

J. Ray Warren ’58, a Montgomery attorney, received a certificate of appreciation for his service on the Alabama Department of Senior Services board of directors from 2007-11. He also has served as president of AARP Alabama for the last six years.

’60–’69 William “Billy” D. Melton ’64, an Evergreen

attorney, was named

Henry Miller ’64

was selected as an artist-in-residence for the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, N.M.; Hubbell Trading Post National Historical Site in Ganado, Ariz.; and Ghost Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M. Jim Vickrey ’64

was elected to the downtown Montgomery boards of the Capital City Club and the YMCA. He has been a speech communication professor at Troy University for 20 years and hosts a weekly commentary program on WTSU-FM. Thomas J. Bohannon ’66 was promoted to

chief financial officer for Boca Raton, Fla.based Vicor Technologies Inc., a biotechnology company.

Larry D. Morgan ’67

of Trussville retired as president of Birmingham-based APCO Employees Credit Union after 38 years.

Under his direction the credit union grew from $3 million to $2 billion in assets, making it the second-largest credit union in Alabama.

Spencer Bachus ’69, who represents

Alabama’s sixth district in the U.S. House of Representatives, was selected to serve as

chairman of the House Financial Services Committee for the 112th Congress. Bachus has served on the committee since 1993.

Nancy Amanda Branscombe ’69, an associate

professor of education at Athens State University, co-wrote a textbook, Beyond Early Literacy: A Balanced Approach to Developing the Whole Child (Routledge, 2010), with retired Auburn University professor Janet B. Taylor, Jan Gunnels Burcham ’84, Lilli Land ’80, Sandy Hollingsworth Armstrong ’90, Angela Henderson Carr ’91 and Allyson Knight Martin ’86.

’70–’79 Paul Fontenot ’76

retired from ExxonMobil Corp. after 31 years. He lives in Sugar Land, Texas.

LaBella Stewart Alvis ’77, a Birmingham attor-

ney, was inducted into the Alabama chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

John Rochester ’77

of Ashland was elected vice chairman of the board of the Alabama Humanities Foundation. He retired as the presiding circuit judge for the state’s 40th Judicial Circuit.

Eric Ludgood ’78

was named news director for WNCNTV, an NBC affiliate in Raleigh, N.C. He previously served as

Congratulations to our SEC and National Champions!

Burt Cloud Class of ‘66 Associate Broker (404) 252-4908 OFFICE (404) 626-3114 CELL Burt.Cloud@ColdwellBankerAtlanta.com

5252 Roswell Road, Suite 202 Atlanta, GA 30342 www.ColdwellBankerAtlanta.com Owned and Operated By NRT LLC.

The Realtor for Our Auburn Family In Atlanta!

Preferred BBQ of Auburn Fans.

Celebrate Our National Championship With Your Favorite Hometown BBQ. Dine In, Take Out, Catering Andy McDaniel Owner Class of ‘90 5865 Gateway Drive Alpharetta, GA 30004 678-393-1913

200 Johnson Ferry Rd. Sandy Springs, GA 30328 404-252-3220

www.slopesbbq.com

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes an assistant news director at WGCL-TV in Atlanta.

Lauren K. Robel ’78 is

dean of the Indiana University School of Law. She recently was elected to serve as president of the American Association of Law Schools for a one-year term beginning in January 2012.

SNAPSHOT

Sole ‘Survivor’?

Boston Rob vs. Russell. Outwit-outplay-outlast.

If the names and phrase sound familiar, then you know how Krista Klumpp ’08 has spent the past few months.

The second-generation former Auburn University head cheerleader starved, sweated, ran mazes and even threw a few elbows to make it as far as possible through the 22nd season of CBS-TV’s hit show “Survivor,” which began airing Feb. 16.

As in previous seasons, contestants on “Survivor: Redemption Island” forego the staples of civilized living—including regular meals, clean clothing and a bed—and compete for fame, fortune and, ultimately, a $1 million grand prize. One of this season’s plot twists is the presence of two previous competitors: polarizing spitfire Russell Hantz and villain-turned-family-man “Boston Rob” Mariano. Hantz’s dirty play on the Samoan Islands earned him the dubious honor of becoming one of the most-hated contestants ever, while Mariano is a frequent ‘Survivor’ cast member who prides himself on strategic play yet has never won the game.

Klumpp competed against Mariano and Hantz as well as 15 other would-be survivors. A lithe 25-year-old with a beauty pageant-circuit background—she competed for Miss Alabama twice and Miss Alabama USA once—Klumpp knew she’d have to overcome stereotypes that might peg her as less than intelligent.

“I was a little worried about the perception that people have of me,” she said. “I think people might see me as that little blonde girl who may not have much to offer to the game.”

Prior to the show’s filming, Klumpp, who took a leave of absence from her job as a Columbia, S.C., pharmaceutical sales rep, said she planned to quickly make allies and surprise the other cast members with her game-playing skills. “I wanted to come in and prove to myself that this was something I could do,” she said. “I like to prove people wrong. I don’t like to fit molds. To be able to come in and not be predictable will be rewarding.”

Filmed in Nicaragua, the show’s outcome will be made public during a live finale show later this spring. Klumpp, meanwhile, is legally bound to keep the results of each elimination round a secret. How far does she go? Tune in at 7 p.m. CST each Wednesday to find out.—Suzanne Johnson

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Ellen E. Haulman

Clarke. He formerly served as vice president of business and industry retention for the Birmingham Business Alliance.

David Kay ’82 was appointed to serve on the State Medical Education Board of Georgia. He is an obstetrician and gynecologist at Pinnacle Women’s Health Center in Adel, Ga.

’79 was named direc-

tor of instruction and special services for the Montgomery-based Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

’80–’89 Mark H. Holloway ’81

was elected president of the National Board for the Certification of Ophthalmic Executives and serves as its representative on the board of the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators. He is the administrator of West Georgia Eye Care Center in Columbus, Ga.

Georgia Carter Turner

Tim A. Haskew ’87 was

named interim head of the electrical- and computer-engineering department in the University of Alabama’s College of Engineering.

He is a professor and director of the college’s electromechanical systems lab as well as the electrical-andcomputer-engineering graduate program.

’82 joined the Daytona

Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau as director of specialized markets. She formerly ran her own tourismpromotion agency in Ormond Beach, Fla.

Lisbeth Daniell Pierce ’89 is chair of

the language arts department at Dadeville High School and is a doctoral degree candidate in reading education at Auburn.

D. Wesley “Wes” Smith ’83 was named

MARRIED

chief executive officer of AQAF, which provides quality-improvement services on behalf of Alabama’s Medicare patients. He formerly was a partner with Northeast Alabama Surgical Associates in Anniston.

Laura Bennett Rockwell

Ricky Llewellyn ’81

received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in May.

Council, a Birmingham nonprofit organization.

Harry W. Yeatman ’83

was promoted to vice president of sales and strategy for Kansas City, Mo.-based Butler Manufacturing Co.

James M. “Jim” Searcy ’81 was named

Mark Senter ’85 joined

executive director of the Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance, which seeks to market and promote the Alabama counties of Escambia, Conecuh, Monroe, Choctaw and

Cowles & Thompson law firm in Dallas as a commercial and construction litigation attorney.

Beth Wilder ’86 was

named executive director of The Literacy

’88 to Harvey Howell Casey Jr. ’87 on May

27. They live in Panama City, Fla.

’90–’99 Kathy Lee Sumner ’91 wrote a novel, Cap-

tiva Island (BookSurge Publishing, 2009). She lives in Naples, Fla. Douglas J. Watson ’92 co-edited More than

Mayor or Manager: Campaigns to Change Form of Government in America’s Large Cities (Georgetown University Press, 2010). He is a public-affairs professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.

William “Trey” Whitt III ’93, a partner in the

Birmingham financial

All we did was

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For details or to apply, visit www.auburn.edu/spiritcard.

The Spirit of Auburn credit card is made possible by the Auburn Spirit Foundation for Scholarships (ASFS), which is affiliated with Auburn University. This advertisement was paid for by the ASFS. For information about the rates, fees, other costs, and benefits associated with the use of these cards or to apply, visit www.auburn.edu/spiritcard and refer to the disclosures accompanying the online credit card application. This credit card program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services, N.A. Bank of America and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association and is used by the issuer pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license. Platinum Plus and WorldPoints are registered trademarks of FIA Card Services, N.A. © 2011 Bank of America Corporation.

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes management firm Dent, Baker & Co., accepted a seat on the board of directors of the Children’s Dance Foundation.

Rudolph “Rud” Blumentritt ’94 was named a

partner with Horne accounting and business advisory firm.

He works in the company’s Hattiesburg, Miss., office, where his primary focus is the valuation of health care entities and health care transactions.

Jerlando F.L. Jack-

David DeWitt Jones ’98

son ’97, an associate

to Jenna Hilary Cramer on Oct. 16. They live in Chicago, where David is an employee of Exelon Corp.

professor of higher and postsecondary education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-wrote Introduction to American Higher Education (Routledge, 2010).

Kathryn Yarbrough

Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik was recognized as Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year for the Football Bowl Subdivision during ceremonies on Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz. The award honors college football coaches in four athletic divisions for their sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility and excellence, both on and off the field.

Liberty Mutual Insurance will make a $50,000 charitable donation to a pair of organizations, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Lee County and Team Ministries, on Chizik’s behalf, plus a $20,000 scholarship award in his name to the Auburn Alumni Association, which coordinated the fan voting. Coaches were chosen for the award based on a combination of fan votes cast in December at www.coachoftheyear.com as well as ballots cast by selection committees of national media and College Football Hall of Fame players. Chizik received more fan votes than any other finalist, garnering an extra $10,000 donation to the Auburn Alumni Association’s scholarship endowment.

The three other Coach of the Year winners were: K.C. Keeler, University of Delaware, for the Football Championship Subdivision; Bob Nielson, University of Minnesota Duluth, for Division II; and Glenn Caruso, University of St. Thomas, for Division III. “These four coaches embody the spirit of college football by inspiring excellence and leadership in their players, whether in the stadium, the classroom or in their communities,” said former NFL star Archie Manning, chair of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.“Studentathletes and communities benefit from the leadership and commitment of these four men.”

corporate attorney, was promoted to partner in the Atlanta office of Burr & Forman law firm.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Joseph Csicsila ’94, an

’99 was identified

associate professor of language and literature at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., co-wrote Heretical Fictions: Religion in the Literature of Mark Twain (University of Iowa Press, 2010).

as one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “40 Under 40” young achievers in business, government, politics, education and nonprofit organizations. He is president of Gainesville, Ga.-based Carroll Daniel Construction Co.

Jacob Ridenhour ’96

of Tallahassee, Fla., is director of basketball operations for the Florida State University athletics department.

Ellen Turner ’96 co-

owns TurnerBoone Contract, a commercial interiors dealership in Atlanta. Her sister, Emily Turner ’93, is the company’s chief financial officer.

C. Heath Turner ’96

was named interim head of the department of chemical and biological engineering for the University of Alabama College of Engineering.

He joined the college’s faculty as an assistant professor in 2003.

Jr. on Sept. 24. They live in Smyrna, Ga.

Bouchillon ’98, a

Carroll Brian Daniel

Chizik tapped as Coach of the Year

Heather Marie Mack ’98 to James Jude Coyle

BORN A daughter, Sophie Kerigan, to Kelli King ’90 and husband Jason Jarvis of Daphne on Oct. 18.

She joins siblings Karley, Cayla, Tucker and Luke.

A son, Luke, to Trevor Fry ’96 and wife

Yvie of Dry Prong, La., on March 13.

A daughter, Ava Lanier, to Enrique “Henry” Gimenez ’98

and Genevra Walton Gimenez ’01 of Birmingham on June 8.

Kevin J. McDonough ’99 opened his own

law practice in Cumming, Ga. He serves as president of the South Forsyth Rotary Club and is a fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia.

Gerald Russell Wolsfelt ’99 joined Campbell

Wealth Management of Birmingham as a partner and investment adviser. He and his wife,

Twin daughters, Julia Margaret and Alice Victoria, to Jeremy Jester ’98 and Traci Watkins Jester ’99 of Birmingham on Nov. 5.

A daughter, Sage Eleanor, to Karen Hendrickson Smith ’98 and husband David of Rome, Ga., on Sept. 26. She joins brother Grady, 3.

Susannah Rotch Wolsfelt

A son, Alexander Thomas, to Laura

’99, have two children.

Leathers Bolsen ’99

MARRIED

and husband Todd of Atlanta on Sept. 19.

Matthew Todd Gaines ’96 to Virginia

’00

Leigh Morgan on June 26. They live in Brandon, Miss.

Gess received a mas-

Devon Tamara Bonds

ter’s degree in music

A L U M N I

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Cub Corner from Cleveland State University. She and husband Daniel Eugene Gess ’99 live in Bay Village, Ohio.

Brent M. James of

Douglasville, Ga., was promoted to director of World Airways’ operations control center.

recreation for the city of Bremen, Ga. Tara S. Ratz gradu-

ated from Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in December with a Scholastic Achievement Award in international law.

Make Your Own Memory Album

Supplies • card stock for interior pages

Looking for a way to memorialize your BCS experience? Grab your scissors (under parental supervision, of course) and follow the instructions below to assemble your own accordionfold scrapbook suitable for small memorabilia, photos, journaling and more. E-mail a digital photo of your finished work to aubmag@auburn.edu so we can recognize your craftiness!

• heavy card stock or cardboard for covers • fabric or wrapping paper • craft glue • scissors • ribbon

Album Interior 1. Cut a rectangle measuring 40 inches by 7 inches out of a piece of card stock.

BORN A daughter, Adeline Hart, to Josh Fields and Danielle Hart Fields ’02

of Auburn on Sept. 6.

A son, Jonah Wesley Greer, to Wesley M. Greer and Leslie Sayers Greer ’03 of Jacksonville, Fla., on July 19.

’01 MARRIED George Dozier to Ranah

Laye on Oct. 9. They live in Montgomery.

Shanna Elise Hodges

to Jason Tyra ’03 on May 22. They live in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Jennifer Lee Sartain

to Jordan Yoss on July 17. They live in Marietta, Ga. BORN A son, Logan Brian, to Brian LeCompte and Karli Zarra LeCompte of Huntsville on June 9.

A daughter, Morgan Taylor, to K-Rob Thomas and Marcia Morgan Thomas of Oxford on Oct. 22.

’02 David Martin Cheatham was promoted to

director of parks and

55

Josh Torres and

2. Fold paper every 5 inches, alternating

wife Wendy wrote a children’s book, This Little Tiger (Mascot Books, 2010). They live in Chelsea.

directions, to make the album’s interior panels, which may be decorated with photos, stickers, stencils or other embellishments.

Album Exterior

MARRIED Jennifer McLemore to Daniel Billson on Aug. 23. They live in London.

BORN A son, Jack Crider, to Bartley Andrew Graham and Julia Crider Graham ’01 of Huntsville on Sept. 12.

’03 Latoya Bell received

a master’s degree in school counseling from the University of West Alabama in December.

3. Cut two pieces of heavy cardboard or

Putting it all together

card stock to 5 ¼ inches by

7. Glue the covers to the

7 ¼ inches for covers.

end pieces of interior

4. Cut two pieces of fabric or wrapping

pages as shown.

paper into rectangles measuring

8. Fill with Auburn football

6 inches by 8 inches.

season memories!

5. Fold and glue the fabric or paper to the cover pieces.

6. Glue a 12-inch horizontal length of ribbon to the inside back card stock to tie the album closed.

BORN A daughter, Hannah Maddox, to Jack Focke and Robyn Yancey Focke ’04 on May 21. They live in Panama City, Fla., where Jack is a high school teacher and Robyn is a small-animal veterinarian.

A son, Henry Paul, to Matthew Paul Hanson and wife Allyson of Florence on Dec. 13. Paul is an account executive for Associated Insurors.

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A daughter, Marin Warren, to Mark R. Carter and Kathy Gerwels Carter of Birmingham on Sept. 20.

’04 MARRIED

BORN A son, Evan Banks, to Jason Carr Templeton and Michelle of Carrollton, Ga., on Oct. 25.

’05

Zoe Ripple on May 29.

They live in Boston.

Nicholas S. Howell

Chambless ’03 on Aug.

21. They live in Auburn.

Leah Steiner to Nathan

joined Hattiesburg Clinic’s Southern Heart Center as a physician assistant. He lives in Hattiesburg, Miss.

dent of Enterprise City Schools.

Hardy ’07 on Dec. 4.

They live in Duluth.

Courtney Werner Stumb is a small-

Craft Templeton ’03

Andrew M. Burgess to

Melanie Echols to Jesse

MARRIED

BORN A daughter, Sophia Marie, to Nathan W. Tubbs and Lesley Freeman Tubbs ’04 of Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 26.

animal veterinarian in Nashville, Tenn. She and husband Paul Stumb ’08, a commercial banker, married in June.

’06

BORN A daughter, Julia-May Hoke, to Jarrod Boyd

William Aaron Milner

was named superinten-

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes Justin Saia joined BP as

director of communications and media relations for Alabama.

MARRIED Jeanne Brackin to Jason Forrester ’09 on

June 5. They live in Auburn.

MARRIED Shannon Makeith Allison

to Francesca Danielle Lewis on Aug. 22. They live in Atlanta.

Andrea Cummings

to Daniel Lowhorn on Dec. 11. They live in Orlinda, Tenn.

Nominees, please The Auburn Alumni Association is requesting nominations for four new board directors. All nominees must be association life members and be willing to serve on a volunteer basis. Successful nominees will be installed this fall; each will serve a four-year term.

Candidates should have a demonstrated history of leadership in support of the association and Auburn University. Those who have actively promoted the association and AU through involvement with local Auburn clubs will be strongly considered. Those who have previously contributed both time and resources to Auburn and the association also will be strongly considered. Board directors and officers are expected to participate in the association’s sustaining-life membership program through contributions to the “Circle of Excellence” scholarship society.

Nominations may be submitted to Debbie Shaw ’84, Office of Alumni Affairs, 317 S. College St., Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. Submissions also will be accepted by fax to (334) 844-4003 or as e-mail attachments to debbieshaw@auburn.edu. A nomination form must be submitted along with at least two letters of recommendation (but no more than four) from life members.

Résumés may also be submitted. The nomination form is available online at www.aualum.org or by calling (334) 844-1134.

The deadline for receiving nominations and supporting documentation is 4:45 p.m. CST March 28. For more information, see www.aualum.org. and Julia-May Luna Boyd ’07 of Franklin, Tenn., on Aug. 19. She joins sister Henley James.

’07

Kelly Oravet Riley

joined Spalding Group, a division of Russell Corp., as a sales-andmarketing coordinator in Bowling Green, Ky.

Laura C. Edwards joined

Cunningham Bounds law firm in Mobile as an associate.

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MARRIED Katherine Jahera to Peter Fisher ’06 on

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

June 5. They live in Birmingham.

’08 Ashleigh DeMoll is pursuing a medical degree at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Lawrenceville, Ga., campus.

Stephanie Young to Joshua Graham on

Dec. 11. They live in Largo, Fla.

’09 Brooke Bloom was

promoted to associate account executive for McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations in Nashville, Tenn.

MARRIED Hannah Lawson to Michael Peters ’08 on July

24. They live in Auburn.

’10 Yolanda McMillian, Philicity Williams, Caio Soares and Kimberly Johnson were among

74 minority doctoral scholars honored at the 17th annual Compact for Faculty Diversity’s Institute on Teaching and Mentoring in October in Tampa, Fla. David Welesko is

employed by Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Concepts Inc., which operates several restaurant chains. He is in training to be a general manager for Longhorn Steakhouse.

and the Korean War, he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Lucinda Laseter Adams ’43 of Slocomb

In Memoriam Mayme Miller Horn ’29

of Columbiana died Oct. 24. She was one of the first members of Kappa Delta social sorority and Delta Kappa Gamma teacher’s sorority. A church organist and pianist, she taught elementary school and music in Marengo and Shelby counties for 25 years.

died Sept. 23. She helped establish Adams Trading Center and, as a student at Auburn, served as president of Delta Zeta sorority.

Sara Connell Booker ’45 of Pinson died

Sept. 27. She was a Sunday school teacher and a past president of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary.

Walter Joseph Mc-

Joseph L. Whiteside ’36 of Columbia,

Tenn., died Sept. 22.

A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he received three Battle Stars, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

He worked for Monsanto Chemical Co. for 38 years.

Corkle ’48 of Mont-

gomery died Dec. 26.

He was a salesman for Stanley Furniture Co. Floyd Murphy Armor ’49 of Auburn died

Sept. 21. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he owned Auburn Oil Co. for more than 30 years.

Thomas C. Casaday Jr. ’41 of Birmingham

died Aug. 16. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, he received the Distinguished Service Medal and was inducted to the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame. He served as president of ElCasa Enterprises and later as vice president of V.J. Elmore Stores, and also developed Pine Harbor Marina on Logan Martin Lake.

Simeon Grady Daniels ’49 of Leroy died Dec.

21. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he was employed by Olin Chemical Co. for 34 years.

John M. McKenzie ’49 of Duluth, Ga., died

Sept. 5. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he worked for General Motors for 37 years, during which he missed only one day of work.

William W. Bradford

Donald Luquer Kelley ’42 of Southside died

Sept. 20. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II

’49 of Scottsboro died

Sept. 17. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he managed the Locker

A L U M N I

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C E N T E R

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

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Auburn Magazine Auburn Magazine

For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University

Auburn Magazine Auburn Magazine

For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University

59 59

59 59

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine 59 a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine 59 7/11/08 5:34:32 PM 7/11/08 5:34:32 PM

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S P E C I A L

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Congratulations, Tigers! “What is the use of books without pictures or conversations?�

The arts and humanities hold an abiding value to us as citizens and human beings. They help us understand ourselves as individuals and as people who see the world differently. Join us in celebrating the arts and humanities year round.

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A L U M N I

C E N T E R

In Memoriam Plant and was a member of the Lions Club for more than 60 years.

Lois Bentley McGuire ’50 of Childersburg

died Sept. 30. He was a car salesman and avid golfer.

Spencer McMaster III ’50 of Rock Hill,

Auburn mourns sciences dean

Auburn University students, faculty and administrators mourned the sudden death in November of longtime faculty member Marie Wooten, who only three months earlier had been named dean of the university’s College of Sciences and Mathematics.

Wooten was struck and killed by a car while jogging at the intersection of South College Street and Donahue Drive near campus. Her running partner, math teacher Frankie A. Bell ’02 of Opelika, also sustained serious injuries but ultimately survived.

Wooten, 53, was named to lead the College of Sciences and Mathematics on Aug. 1 after working as its associate dean for research for the last decade. The amount of external funding secured by the college doubled during that time.

“We are devastated,” Auburn provost Mary Ellen Mazey said. “Dean Wooten brought such outstanding passion, energy and leadership to the College of Sciences and Mathematics and the entire university. She was beloved by her students and widely respected for work and research that will continue to improve lives far into the future.”

Wooten joined Auburn’s biological sciences faculty in 1987.

Shortly before her death, she had discovered an important genetic link between obesity and Alzheimer’s disease, and had been awarded a four-year, $1.3 million grant by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Her research had received funding continuously from the National Institutes of Health since 1985 and had attracted funding from the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wooten co-founded the Women in Sciences and Engineering Institute at Auburn and was a member of the NSF’s ADVANCE program to increase the number of women in science and engineering.

She is survived by her husband, Auburn biology professor Michael Wooten.

Charles E. “Chuck” Savrda, chair of the Department of Geology and Geography, is serving as interim COSAM dean.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

S.C., died Aug. 21. A World War II veteran, he practiced veterinary medicine for 40 years and helped establish Rock Hill Animal Hospital. He was a former president of the South Carolina Association of Veterinarians.

Ann Harris Paulk ’50

of Saint Simons Island, Ga., died Sept. 22. She retired from the Glynn County Board of Education after 25 years.

Carrol Hunter Read ’50

of Pell City died Sept.

21.

William “Bill” Tanner ’50 of Sunnyvale,

Calif., died Aug. 10. He was a World War II veteran, an electrical engineer and a retired real estate broker. He helped organize the first Auburn alumni club in northern California in 1975 and was an active volunteer for Auburn’s capital campaign in 2006.

veteran, he taught agribusiness at Ohatchee High School for 31 years. He had served as president of the Alabama Vocational Association.

Air Force veteran, he practiced dentistry in Birmingham and had served as dental director for Cobb & Douglas Public Health in Georgia.

Vernon Lee Bell Jr. ’53

George D. Stewart Jr.

of Newport News, Va., died Feb. 9, 2010. He was a senior scientist with NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., for 23 years.

’53 of Hayden died

Thomas Hefflin Cleveland ’53 of Alexander

City died Sept. 15. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he was a real estate appraiser for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Charles Bert Hill ’53

of Amory, Miss., died Aug. 27. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he was a member of the Mississippi Board of Veterinary Medicine for 20 years; was active in several national veterinary organizations; and was named Mississippi Veterinarian of the Year in 1990.

While at Auburn, he was president of the student chapter of American Veterinary Medical Association.

James Joseph McArdle Sr. ’53 of Panama City,

N.C., died April 27.

Fla., died Sept. 28. A U.S. Navy veteran, he worked for U.S. Steel Corp. at Fairfield Works for 37 years.

James Mack Morris ’52

Julian L. Mobley Jr.

of Gadsden died Sept.

1. A U.S. Air Force

’53 of Roswell, Ga.,

Guy E. Peterson ’51 of Southern Pines,

died Sept. 29. A U.S.

Aug. 26. A U.S. Army veteran, he was retired from Alabama Power.

Raymond F. Vandiver Jr. ’53 of Huntsville died

Sept. 23. He ran his family’s farm, founded Anderson-Vandiver Realty and had served on the Huntsville Board of Education and the advisory board of Colonial Bank.

Claude V. Saia ’54 of Hoover died Jan. 3. He was an assistant football coach at Auburn under former head coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan for 22 years.

Vastine Stabler McCrory ’56 of Al-

bertville died Aug. 16.

A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he practiced veterinary medicine in Albertville for 32 years.

Glenn A. Parker ’56 of

Huntsville died Aug. 29. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he worked as an electrical engineer for NASA. Wilbur David Wright ’56

of Decatur died July 18.

He retired from Chemstrand/Monsanto as a research chemist after 30 years.

A L U M N I

He C inhales E N T E R Shortly after Auburn’s SEC championship win in December, Walt Austin ’04 splurged on a $27 hand-rolled Cuban cigar—a Cohiba Siglo VI—just in case. The National Guardsman, stationed at Kosovo’s Camp Bondsteel, rose at 2 a.m. Jan. 11 to watch the BCS Championship game alone in his office before enjoying a victory smoke. For his firsthand account, see www.thewareaglereader.com.

Sandra Sue Raper

Charles G. McAdams

Hearn ’58 of Fort Mor-

’62 of Clinton, La.,

’68 of Marion died

gan died Oct. 31. She was a retired Walker County schoolteacher and had worked as a secretary with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

died Aug. 21. He owned and operated Feliciana Veterinary Clinic for 50 years.

Sept. 26. A U.S. Army veteran, he was a tractor-trailer driver.

Frank Joseph LaRussa ’59 of Bir-

mingham died Sept. 23.

A U.S. National Guard veteran, he worked for State Farm Insurance Co. for 47 years and was a starter on Auburn’s 1957 national championship football team.

Tim D. Slagh ’59 of

Auburn died Aug. 30.

He was an associate professor of electrical engineering at Auburn for 25 years.

Federico Aldarondo ’60 of Lilburn, Ga.,

died Oct. 26. He retired as an architect for Foreman Steeley Fountain Architecture in Norcross, Ga. James Meriwether

Roderick Neal Eiland

John Allen Long ’68 Daniel Bruce Smith ’63 of Easley, S.C., died

Aug. 24. An agricultural economist, he retired as dean and director of the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service.

of San Francisco died Sept. 2. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he was a research-and-development engineer and pilot for 29 years.

Suzanne Pettus Thomason ’68 of

Beth Brown Matsko ’66

of Tarboro, N.C., died Aug. 24. She taught English and served as a department chair at Greenwood High School for 20 years, and was president of the Fripp Island Garden Club.

William Nelson ’66

of Norcross, Ga., died Dec. 19. He was a professor of physics and astronomy and associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Huntsville died Nov. 30. She retired as outreach coordinator for the Early Works Children’s Museum in Huntsville.

Fay M. Fleming ’69

of Tuscaloosa died Sept. 21. She was a pharmacist for Northport Pharmacy, the University of Alabama Student Health Center and Senior Care Pharmacy.

Pamela Hauer Wallace ’69 of Rockledge,

Fla., died Nov. 17.

She taught elementary school for 26 years in Simpsonville, S.C.

Patterson ’60 of Stone

Mountain, Ga., died Nov. 4. He founded Patterson Engineering; established Resource Realty Service, a commercial real estate firm; and had served as a county commissioner.

John Carson Caine Jr. ’62 of Pensacola,

Fla., died Sept. 19. He worked in pollution control at Southern Environmental Inc.

61

John P. Alkire III

Jan Kolb Hall ’70

’67 of Raleigh, N.C.,

of Hope Hull died Aug. 19. She was a teacher and guidance counselor for more than 27 years.

died July 17. He was a retired businessman and avid skier.

Robert G. Conness ’68

of Shallotte, N.C., died Aug. 18. He owned Loch Haven Veterinary Hospital in Orlando, Fla.

Sam W. Morphew ’70

of Helotes, Texas, died Oct. 25. He was a retired technical planner with Texas Utilities.

Henry C. DeBardeleben III ’68 of Marietta,

William Klindt Klinger

Ga., died Sept. 2. He was an accountant.

’73 of Fitzpatrick died

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Aug. 26. A cattle ranch-

Heisman finalist Dyas gone at 71 Former Auburn University All-American Ed Dyas ’61, a gridiron standout who chucked the chance to play pro football in favor of graduating from college and earning a medical degree, died Jan. 23 after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.

Dyas, a Mobile orthopedic surgeon, finished fourth in the 1960 Heisman trophy voting and was a scholastic All-American.

He called his 2009 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame “the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

A three-year letterman from 1958–60, Dyas was one of the most prolific field goal kickers in college football history. He set an NCAA record for most field goals in a season with 13 in 1960 and won four Southeastern Conference games that year with field goals, including three against Georgia in a 9–6 Auburn victory during the first Auburn-Georgia game played in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Dyas also was an exceptional fullback and linebacker, concluding his career as Auburn’s sixth all-time leading rusher with 1,298 yards. During his All-American senior season, Dyas led the Tigers in rushing and scoring, and was selected as the SEC’s most outstanding back.

As a senior, Dyas won the Cliff Hare Award, presented to the outstanding Auburn senior student-athlete, and the Bill Streit Award, for the football player with the highest four-year GPA. Plagued by injuries, he graduated from Auburn in 1961, bypassed a chance to play for the Baltimore Colts and chose instead to attend medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans. He practiced orthopedics in his hometown of Mobile for more than 30 years.

Dyas received Auburn’s Walter Gilbert Award for career achievement in 1994 and was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He served on the Auburn Alumni Association board of directors from 2000-04 and received its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

He is survived by his wife, Diane, and four children, Laurie Chunn, Katherine Watts ’93, Edmund Dyas V ’91 and David Dyas ’94.

A L U M N I

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Give your graduate memories that will last a lifetime.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Online Etc. er and pecan producer, he served as vice president of the Alabama Farmers Federation of Bullock County.

David R. Campbell ’77 of Alief, Texas, died

Sept. 26. He was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

of Century, Fla., died Oct. 2. He worked for the city of Atmore as a code enforcement officer and was a board member of the Northeast Pensacola Baseball & Softball Youth Association.

James Crenshaw

Bobbie Cogswell Harris

Shepard ’92 of Mont-

’78 of Opelika died

gomery died Sept. 19.

He taught French and Spanish at several colleges and universities.

Sept. 23. She volunteered as the blooddrive chairwoman for the local chapter of the American Red Cross for 10 years.

James Randolph Cates ’79 of Columbiana died

Sept. 3. He worked on his family’s farm and in the family trucking business; served as an elected supervisor and secretary of the Shelby County Soil and Water Conservation District; and served as president of the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association and the Alabama Feeder Calf Marketing Association.

He also served on the board of directors of the Alabama Mid-State Farmers Cooperative.

Janice Siersma Winston ’79 of Ellicott

City, Md., died Sept. 18.

She was a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church.

Evan Jan Mooldyk ’86 of

Rancho Murieta, Calif., died Jan. 12. He was a U.S. Army National Guard major serving in Afghanistan.

63

Join the club

Bruce Erwin Lowery ’87

Frank E. Montgomery III ’93 of Montgomery

died Sept. 2. He was the owner and president of Capital and Colonial Trailways.

Want to find out whether there’s an Auburn club in your area, or just see what your fellow alumni are up to?

Check out the Auburn clubs section of the newly redesigned Auburn Alumni Association website: www.aualum.org/clubs

#Tweet Couldn’t make it to Arizona? Lots of folks followed the BCS Championship game—and every other Tigers game last season—on Twitter. Your Auburn Alumni Association provided play-by-play and commentary from kickoff to victory.

More than 2,700 “Tweeps” follow us at: www.twitter.com/AUAlumniAssoc

Hank D. Fender Jr. ’96

of Brenham, Texas, died Aug. 21. He was a health care executive for 35 years.

On a roll in Sylacauga

Lanier Archie DiMaggio ’01 of Montgomery

died Sept. 26.

Annette Gaston, matriarch of a veritable Auburn dynasty (sons Maury Gaston ’82 and Joe Gaston ’78, and grandsons Kevin ’05 and Kyle ’08), braved freezing weather after the BCS Championship game to roll the Toomer’s oak seedling in her Sylacauga backyard. Her story and other “extras” can be found at the Auburn Magazine blog:

Paul Daniel Flournoy ’02 of Fairhope died

Aug. 27. He worked as a wildlife biologist and was a graduate student at Ohio State University, where he was researching the river otter.

Sam Haygood ’08 of

Decatur, Ga., died Jan. 14. At Auburn, he was a member of FarmHouse fraternity and the Auburn Flyers cycling team. He also enjoyed competing in triathlons, playing golf and running.

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

AuburnMagazine.auburn.edu

My Tiger valentine Orange tiger lilies and blue irises ... orange and blue mums … orange roses in a blue vase. Those are a few of the ways Auburn fans and friends suggested celebrating Valentine’s Day without resort-

ing to—ew!—the color red. Daily discussions, shared memories and funny stories are the norm on the Auburn Alumni Association’s Facebook page, where more than 9,000 fans gather each day:

www.facebook.com/AuburnAlumniAssociation

C E N T E R

JEF F ET H ERI DG E

A L U M N I

The Last Word

College football’s Pavarotti

BY RHETA GRIMSLEY JOHNSON ’77 The sins of the father may be visited upon Cameron Newton and Auburn University in the by and by, but the Saturday afternoon of the SEC Championship game was a great one, free of guilt or angst for fans like myself.

On the day Auburn played South Carolina, I wore my No. 2 jersey, the first AU jersey I’ve owned since Sullivan passed to Beasley, and cheered myself hoarse as Cameron Newton exhausted every cliché the television announcers had in their arsenal.

Cam ran, pranced, wove, threw, plowed, connected and hailed Mary. He did it all so fluidly and effortlessly that it was like watching “Dancing With the Stars” instead of a football game. I’ve wondered in this past season if my regular life has become so empty that I now live for football like so many people I’ve known and disdained. Or have I simply grown old? Or crazy? This game with the arcane rules that routinely baffle me has taken on significance beyond what’s seemly.

I think I know why.

To watch Cam Newton play ball is to watch physical perfection. He is youth and health, determination and passion, grace and generosity rolled into one human. That is, if he’s human. He looks more like Pixar animation, a computer-generated superhero whose foes cannot find any kryptonite. He is great at a job that he loves in a world that’s made in China and going to the dogs.

If you think this is hyperbole, you haven’t seen him play.

Or smile. Or rush to the student section of the stadium after the game, before the reporters find him.

I’ve been in the stands to watch Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson, and the aforementioned efficient team of Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley. I’ve seen Tim Tebow and O.J. Simpson, at least on TV. They all look like surreys with fringe on top next to Cam’s space shuttle. And none seems to have as much fun performing.

Maybe the best comparison isn’t from a football roster at all. Maybe Cameron Newton is football’s Tiger Woods, or Secretariat, or Pavarotti. Cam is rare, from a broken mold.

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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

I’ve heard all the theories, jokes and snide remarks about Cam and his dad. I think the timing of the revelations explains more about what’s going on than any of the news reports. I don’t know what Cecil Newton said or did or what Cameron did or did not know. I don’t know, and neither do you. Not yet.

I know that college football is a boiling vat of boosters, money and hypocrisy. Those schools that can afford to be bigtime are; the rest conveniently become scolds hiding in a library carrel and behind a Petri dish. The University of Alabama during the Bill Curry years.

The only way to remove corruption from all the programs is to pay the players and quit pretending that academics are the reason these young specimens choose to sign letters of intent with one school or another. Saint Joseph Paterno might not agree, but many coaches would.

Cam Newton is at Auburn to play ball. And, by God, he’s doing it.

Syndicated newspaper columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson writes about the South. A former award-winning staff writer for The Auburn Plainsman, her most recent collection of essays, Enchanted Evening Barbie & the Second Coming: A Memoir (New South Books, 2010), features Johnson’s take on foot-washing Baptists, Christmas, divorce and death, among other topics. A native of Colquitt, Ga., Johnson grew up in Montgomery and now lives in Iuka, Miss. ©2010 Rheta Grimsley Johnson/Distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Giving the Gift of the Auburn Experience

Auburn Scholarship Campaign

Scott Sprayberry ’93, zoology, Beth Sprayberry ’93, communication disorders, Mary Grace, 11, Tucker, 10, Ellie, 8, and Hutch, 6

“We love raising our children here, and Auburn is a major part of their lives. I don’t think I’ll ever forget rolling Toomer’s Corner with Beth and the children after this year’s Iron Bowl.

During the game, I told the children to get the toilet paper ready. And they did. And we won.

At the end of the game, we were hollering and hugging each other. And we rolled Toomer’s that night just like we had as students. It puts a smile on my face just thinking about it.

I learned that Auburn was beginning a campaign to increase the endowment funds available for academic scholarships so the university could be in an even better position to compete for excellent students. We like the idea that our gift could give a person the chance to experience some of the same things we did at Auburn. The College of Sciences and Mathematics taught me to think scientifically and challenged me to learn more than I had thought possible.”

As part of the scholarship campaign, the Sprayberry’s gift will be paired with a Spirit of Auburn Scholarship and awarded to students in the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

To learn more and participate in the Auburn Scholarship Campaign, visit

www.auburn.edu/scholarshipcampaign

Auburn Alumni Center 317 South College Street Auburn, AL 36849-5149 w w w.aualum.org

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