What makes Auburn the best gameday experience in the country? It's the tradition. It's the passion. It's also the spirit. From Tiger Walk to Aubie to the Auburn cheerleaders and Tiger Paws to the Auburn band, the spirit at Auburn is second to none.
Now that is Auburn Being Auburn.
Your first chance to experience that spirit in 2023 will be Sept. 2 for Kickoff on the Plains. It will be Hugh Freeze's first Tiger Walk. Less than 1,500 tickets remain. Don't miss out. Secure your seat today.
'Height of emotion'
Often imitated, never duplicated.
Two hours before each Auburn home football game, the Tigers walk down Donahue Drive toward Jordan-Hare Stadium as thousands of cheering fans line the street to shout encouragement.
Rivals have flattered Auburn by copying the Tigers' tradition, but there's a difference between a scripted celebration and one that's organic. A difference Auburn fans can feel.
Tiger Walk traces its roots to 1962 and the opening of Sewell Hall, then the residence of Auburn's football student-athletes.
As the players walked down Donahue on their way to the stadium, groups of kids would greet the team and ask for autographs.
From those humble beginnings, the Tiger Walk of today developed.
When the team started staying off campus on Fridays before home games to eliminate distractions, buses began dropping off players and coaches on the corner of Samford and Donahue, a format that continues to this day.
One of college football's greatest scenes, Tiger Walk came of age on Dec. 2, 1989, when Auburn welcomed Alabama to campus for the first time ever. Since the resumption of the series in 1948 to that point, the game had been played only at Legion Field in Birmingham.
Auburn officials estimate that 20,000 fans lined Donahue Drive that day for Tiger Walk. Famed college football writer Ivan Maisel, who was there, wrote that "the height of emotion [Tiger Walk] reached in 1989 will be a watermark for years to come."
Time has proven Maisel correct. Thirty-four years later, Tiger Walk still captivates Auburn fans of all ages and offers an adrenaline jolt to the team that fortifies players and coaches for the battle to come.
For the past 30 years, fans Ron and Cindy Terry have waved the banner for Auburn, literally.
Since 1993, their Tiger Walk banner has been at every game, home and away.
"We just want them to know the fans are there," Cindy said. "If you go to a game, and see the banner, this is how the true Auburn fans feel about you. That's why we don't quit. It takes one parent of a player or one player to say, 'This means the world to us,' and we'll keep doing it."
To Auburn fans the world over, Tiger Walk signifies tradition, togetherness and passion.
To put it another way, Tiger Walk is Auburn being Auburn.