Loading ...I haven’t touched on religion on this blog, but here goes…
I had a perfect illustration today of why I am and always will be a fan of the Auburn Tigers. I posted a link to this essay with the title “Something Every True Auburn fan needs to read!!” on Twitter. Within minutes more than one Alabama Crimson Tide fan replied…one to say Auburn fans don’t get to talk today and another suggesting that Auburn fans should have nothing to say because they couldn’t beat Bama on their worst day. To that I would respond:
1) The post wasn’t intended for you
2) Don’t you have better things to do than worry about Auburn the day before a #1-#2 match-up in the SEC Championship?
Prior to these interactions I was planning on enjoying the game tomorrow with no real rooting interest, just watching two of the best teams in the country square off. But once again the Bama fans had to go and make me root for the other team (not for the first time).
Let me give you a little of my history so you know where I am coming from on this. I grew up and went to college in Indiana, which has the biggest college basketball rivalry in the country between Purdue University and Indiana University. Two schools with striking similarities to Alabama and Auburn…Auburn and Purdue are both land grant schools that specialize in agriculture, engineering and tourism management. UA and IU are both state universities that have prestigious law and business schools. You also have the similarity that UA and IU have both won significantly more national championships in the sports that matter in each state than their rivals, but nevertheless their head-to-head records are awfully close.
From the time I was very young, I was a Purdue Boilermaker. I was fortunate enough later in life to attend and receive a degree from that fine institution. But even in the worst rivalry battles, when fans’ anxiety was at it’s highest, even when Coach Bob Knight was one of the most reviled people on the planet, even when it was all on the line…I never felt like I couldn’t bear to be in the same room with my friends who happened to root for the other team (Coach Knight is another story).
Flashforward to present day. I have lived in Alabama over nine years now, and have been an Auburn Tiger fan almost from the beginning of that time, though only vocal about it over the last three, since I attended my first AU football game on the Plains. I fell in love with the atmosphere and the people. Now, I am just as passionate about the Tigers.
So I’ve had to transition from the biggest basketball state in the land to the biggest college football state in the country over the last decade. In that transition, I find I have very few friends who root for the Tide, and none of them can I stand to be in the same room with on gameday, plain and simple. It has nothing to do with team spirit or allegiance or the passion they feel for the team. It’s the way they choose to express that passion and allegiance, and I see it time and time again.
Auburn fans are known as some of the most welcoming in the SEC, perhaps even the country. You stroll the Auburn campus on gameday and you will be invited to partake in any number of tailgates, no matter which team’s colors you wear. In Tuscaloosa, if you’re not wearing Crimson and White you are not welcome and you will be made to understand that.
On Twitter I likened the difference to that between a family and a cult. Auburn fans say they are a family, and I have seen it firsthand. I saw the heartache from most in the Auburn nation when Coach Tommy Tubberville was let go, while I’ve watched the Alabama cult kick coach after coach to the curb without so much as a second thought (until Saint Nick arrived, but just wait a few years). I’ve seen the Auburn fans band together to lift up the players and the program when they are down (i.e. losing three in a row this season), instead of ganging up and dragging them down further (i.e. anytime Bama loses).
This may be all in my head, but I have seen enough in my time here to know that I made the right choice from the beginning and the Auburn Tiger family is and will be my family for as long as I’m around.
Oh…and Go Gators!! Chomp Chomp!
P.S. I get to watch my past and present worlds collide next Saturday when the #4 Purdue Boilermakers men’s basketball team comes to Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide…ought to be a whole lot of fun.
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