AUBURN, Ala. – In 49 seasons working on the chain crew at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Curtis Prince never missed an Auburn football home game, not even when his wife had ovarian cancer during Bo Jackson's Heisman year.
Cindy Prince received monthly chemotherapy treatments in Birmingham on Fridays in the fall of 1985. She and Curtis would stay overnight and return to Lee County on Saturdays, but that season her appointments coincided with Auburn away games.
"I was fortunate that I never missed a game," Curtis said.
"He never missed a doctor's appointment with me or a treatment," Cindy recalled. "We were very lucky that way."
Year after year, from Shug Jordan to Doug Barfield to Pat Dye to Terry Bowden to Tommy Tuberville to Gene Chizik to Gus Malzahn, Curtis remained the "Prince of the sidelines."
A high school football official in the early 1970s, Prince joined Auburn's chain crew in 1971, Pat Sullivan's Heisman season.
"Through the years, we just managed to hang in there and enjoy and have a good time," he said. "It's been a good experience."
It became, for Prince, a hobby.
"This is fun," he said. "Kind of like fishing I guess."
Strictly a volunteer gig, Prince's compensation consisted of pre and postgame meals. That and witnessing a half-century of Auburn football history as it played out right in front of him.
"We had something to do," he said. "We were doing something that was fun."
In the early years, Prince's crew consisted of only three people, two on the chains and one on the down marker, eventually expanding to seven.
Toward the end of his half-century run on the sidelines, Prince traded his down marker for a clipboard, assisting game officials with their penalties report.
"I didn't have to run too much that way," he said with a chuckle.
Despite being so close to the action, Prince avoided injury, except for once when a crew member held on to the down marker instead of dropping it as a player barreled toward him.
"He came home with a pretty long scratch," Cindy said. "It caught him on the hip."
He remembered a Saturday when Auburn hosted Florida State and the Tigers' defense was shutting down the Seminoles.
Bobby Bowden recommended a play to FSU's offensive coordinator.
"Coach, we haven't got that play," Prince remembers hearing the assistant yell, to which Bowden replied, "Go ahead and run it anyway because nothing else is working."
Watching on television at home, Cindy often saw her sideline Prince.
"He held the downs marker," she said. "And then, he did the other with the clipboard, so I knew where to look for him and I did get to see him quite often on TV.
"Being on the visitors' side, he had a lot to tell about the coaches and how they acted."
The 2020 season would have been No. 50 for Prince.
"It was just time, probably, to walk away," he said.
Curtis' commitment to Auburn lasted five decades. His commitment to Cindy endures even longer. They've been married 54 years.
Prince worked for Southern Natural Gas for more than 20 years, then enjoyed a second career with Opelika Parks and Recreation.
"We kept a pretty good crew together all the time," he said. "That made our job a lot better.
"It's been a good ride. I've enjoyed the whole time that I've done it. It worked out good."
Curtis and Cindy Prince at Jordan-Hare Stadium, where he worked for 49 seasons
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer