Last year I led you on an insightful and information packed tour of the Cougs road destinations (example, another example, remember this one? I think you get the idea) and damn did we have fun. For those of you making the trips these served as an indispensable travel guide, and for the rest of you it was your chance to live vicariously through our crimson road warriors’ adventures. So lets do it again starting with our Labor Day weekend visit to “The Plains” to take on Auburn. Since I have made this trip before its possible I may even know a thing or two about it, so you better read on…
In 2006 I had one of the greatest college football adventures of my life; my first and, so far, only trip to SEC country. With a band of my best friends we flew into Atlanta, rented a crimson mini-van, decked it out in Coug flags and Coug magnets, picked up a hitchhiking Coug fan, and rolled on down the I-85 about 90 miles to the little town of Auburn Alabama. I think it is fair to say that everything we encountered that weekend was as-advertised, including:
Southern Hospitality – Everyone we met welcomed us and went out of their way to ask if we were enjoying our stay and compliment us on traveling so far to support our team. Our hotel manager did make a crack about a bunch of Yankees that had visited once and decided to stay for good, referring us to the dozens of Union Soldiers buried in the adjacent cemetery. Ha, good one.
SEC gameday atmosphere – Literally the entire campus was turned into a gigantic tailgate with tents and BBQs covering every square inch of grass as far as we could tell. Just imagine a Cougar game day where every lawn and parking lot from the Rec Center to Bryan Tower are packed with people grilling, drinking, tossing footballs, etc. Then there was the Tiger Walk. the Auburn players, led by their cheer squad and serenaded by the marching band, enter the stadium through a huge mob of fans all in their orange and blue. The Cougar Prowl has a ways to go.
War Eagle.
Traditions – We got blown out in that first trip to Auburn, but that meant we got to witness the victory tradition of “Rolling Toomer’s Corner”. Toomers is a famous lemonade stand on a corner near campus and after every victory the home fans decorate the large oaks across the street in what looks like a few hundred miles of toilet paper. As you’ve probably heard an Alabama fan recently poisoned the famous old oak trees and they’ve been removed, so we may have witnessed this tradition just in time. Besides the aforementioned Tiger Walk, the other great tradition is the entrance of the live eagle mascot to the “War Eagle” cheer before kickoff. I maintain that Ralphie the buffalo is unrivaled as the greatest live mascot entrance in all of sports, but the huge Eagle (they have both a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle) that soars over the crowd and lands at mid-field is definitely a sight to see.
Tiger Walk.
The Sky Bar: As we made our way around downtown Auburn the night before the game there was one bar that was conspicuously raging… Sky Bar. From what I can actually remember this bar had a retractable roof so we were literally drinking under the stars. It also had a large stage and concert area. In our Coug gear we were almost treated like visiting royalty. Hordes of strangers stopped to welcome us, buy us shots and just make sure we were having a good time. We were.
Skybar.
Hydrate. In the Southern heat and humidity tailgating can become an act of endurance. When it is that hot out and the beers are that cold, it is so easy to end up face down in the grass by kickoff. Just ask our own P-town Coug who had to complete one of the more miraculous rallies of all time just to be upright in his seat by kickoff.
Most of all, for those making the trip, I would advise you to make sure that win or lose, you soak it all in. Even with a lopsided loss on our last visit we still had the time of our lives. I also hope that Coug fans who visit places like Auburn bring a little bit of that same gameday spirit back to Pullman with them. Just know that come Labor Day weekend, I will be living vicariously through you, so don’t let me down.
Stay tuned next week for a look at our trip to USC. Until then, Go Cougs!
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