Auburn legend Rex Frederick recalls 30-game win streak, telegram trail

AUBURN, Ala. – Sending well wishes to the Auburn basketball team in 2024 is only a click away.

In 1959, when the Tigers won a program-record 30 consecutive games, getting in touch with the team required a little more effort.

Before Instagram, there were telegrams.  

On Jan. 22, 1958, Auburn beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the start of a streak that endures as Auburn’s longest.

Thirteen months and 29 straight wins later, Auburn played No. 13 Kentucky on Feb. 21, 1959.

Lexington, for the visiting team, presented challenges, even a decade before the construction of Rupp Arena.

“A hard place to play,” said Rex Frederick, an All-American that season. “Still is.”

Before the game, Frederick and the Tigers received a roll of Western Union telegrams bearing the names of thousands Auburn supporters, including the majority of Auburn University’s student body, which numbered 8,519 in 1958-59.

“We were staying at the Lexington Hotel,” recalled Frederick. “We unrolled that thing and it just went forever.”

The telegrams arrived at 10:30 a.m. after the team finished having breakfast at the Piccadilly Café.

“It was all rolled together and taped,” Frederick said. “They said it had 7,000 names on it, and we only had about 9,000 students that year. I think it cost 50 cents to send a telegram.”

Frederick recalls reading the message typed on the telegrams: “We wish you the best. Beat Kentucky! Boom, boom, boom!”

As Frederick remembers, the idea for the telegrams was the brainchild of Auburn student Sonny Stein, chairman of the Spirit Committee.

“You didn’t have cell phones back in those days,” said Frederick, who also helped Auburn win an SEC baseball championship. “That was the only way they could notify us. That was big-time.”

Looking back while looking over the yellowed roll of telegrams in the basement of Ralph B. Draughon Library, Frederick is asked what he remembers about that Kentucky game played 65 years ago.

“We got beat,” he says with a laugh, of the 75-56 defeat. “It stopped our 30-game winning streak.”

Frederick credits his teammate, fellow All-American Henry Hart, with helping Auburn win 30 straight. The season after Frederick graduated, 1959-60, Hart led Auburn to its first SEC championship.

“He is probably the No. 1 guard to ever play at Auburn,” Frederick said. “And I can say that because I’ve seen ‘em all. He was a great player. We had a great coach in Joel Eaves. We had a bunch of country boys.”

Asked to describe his playing style, Frederick’s self-scouting report aligns with Bruce Pearl’s 2023-24 Auburn team.

“I hated to lose. Very competitive. Loved to play defense,” said Frederick, who was selected by his peers as the SEC’s defensive player of the year.

During his decade as Auburn’s head coach, Pearl has consistently connected with former Tigers from previous eras, including Frederick, whose No. 32 hangs from the rafters of Neville Arena.

“We’re blessed to have Coach Pearl,” Frederick said. “He’s a great coach and great person for the community. He’s raised a lot of money for a lot of things other than basketball. He’s a great man for Auburn to have. We don’t want to lose him!”

The telegram has gone the way of rotary telephones and fax machines, but 65 years later, Auburn’s spirit and passion for basketball endures, from the archives of RBD to the #AuburnTwitter army.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer