Auburn Athletics and Yellawood enter expanded five-year partnership to honor Coach Pat Dye

AUBURN, Ala. – In an Auburn first, the words “Pat Dye Field” will be displayed on the 25-yard lines at Jordan-Hare Stadium, thanks to an innovative partnership with YellaWood, Auburn Athletics announced Wednesday.

The on-field displays, 18 feet high and 21 feet wide on each 25-yard line, will also feature YellaWood’s yellow logo and its signature product, pressure treated pine.  

“Pat Dye revolutionized Auburn Athletics,” said YellaWood founder and CEO Jimmy Rane, recalling Dye’s 1981 introductory news conference. “He left no doubt about what he was about and what he intended to do. The reporter asked him, ‘Coach, how long is it going to take you to beat Alabama?’

“With a cold-eyed, steel look, he looked at him and said, ‘Sixty minutes.’ You knew damn well he meant business. From that day forward until he stopped coaching, that’s the attitude and grit he brought to Auburn’s program.”

In addition to paying tribute to Dye, the partnership will elevate Auburn’s student-athlete brand exposure at the onset of college athletics’ revenue sharing era.

“We are profoundly grateful to Jimmy Rane and YellaWood for honoring Coach Dye and supporting Auburn Athletics in this innovative manner,” athletics director John Cohen said. “To Jimmy and to Auburn, this is so much more than a sponsorship agreement.”

“The things that Auburn gave to me laid the foundation for the success you see today,” said Rane, an Auburn alumnus and longtime member of Auburn University’s Board of Trustees, who founded Great Southern Wood in 1970 in Abbeville, Alabama. “How do you ever repay a debt like that?”

Dye and Rane were close friends and business associates for 40 years, from Dye’s hiring at Auburn in 1981 until his passing in 2020. 

“When the opportunity arose to do it, I knew I did not want that sacred field to be just used for a commercial,” Rane said. “I didn’t want it to just be some company’s name on there. If we were going to do this, I wanted to make sure it first and foremost honored Coach Dye and that our name was smaller, lower and under his – because it’s Pat Dye Field.”

The five-year partnership, facilitated by Auburn Sports Properties, a division of Playfly Sports, honors the coach who led the Tigers to four Southeastern Conference championships and the 1983 national championship during his 12-season tenure.

Auburn named its playing surface after Dye in 2005, the same year the legendary coach was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

“His players loved him and the fans loved him because you knew he was tough, but you knew he also loved you and he loved Auburn,” Rane said.

Dye’s Auburn teams were 99-39-4 from 1981-92, including SEC championships in 1983, 1987, 1988 and 1989. 

 “For my people my age, Coach Dye put this program on the map of what it could become,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said. “The way he led men and the stories you hear from his players, he developed Auburn men. He’s simply a legend.

“It’s quite fitting that you get YellaWood and Pat Dye Field to be synonymous together in this way. It’s proper for everything they’ve both done for this program.”

Auburn fans will have their first opportunity to view the Pat Dye Field displays when the Tigers host Ball State Sept. 6 at 6:30 p.m. CT for Kickoff on The Plains.

ABOUT PLAYFLY SPORTS

Playfly Sports, the sports industry’s leading revenue maximization company, drives growth for its partners across the sports ecosystem – including 2,000+ brands, 100+ professional teams, 65+ college athletic departments, all U.S. local sports networks and associated streaming platforms, and other marquee properties. Its fan engagement platform allows its partners to reach and engage over 85% of all U.S sports fans. Playfly builds and implements custom strategies across media, sponsorship, premium experiences, ticketing and fan engagement offerings through proprietary data, innovative technology and compelling storytelling. Playfly operates an expansive portfolio of services with a data-driven and fan-focused approach to maximize revenue yield in key growth areas, such as media, sponsorship, ticketing, premium experiences and fan engagement offerings. Founded in September of 2020, Playfly Sports is now home to approximately 1,000 team members located across 43 U.S. states and internationally dedicated to maximizing the impact of highly passionate local sports fans. The company has been named a Best Place to Work in Sports by Sports Business Journal, Front Office Sports, and Newsweek. To learn more, follow Playfly Sports on social media platforms or visit www.Playfly.com

ABOUT GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD PRESERVING, INCORPORATED

Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated, was founded in 1970 in Abbeville, Ala. Today, Great Southern Wood and its subsidiaries employ over 2,000 people who operate from 16 strategically located treating plants with a coverage area that encompasses all or parts of 28 states and the District of Columbia, as well as much of the Caribbean and Latin America, and part of the European Union and Mediterranean region. The company is best known to consumers as the maker of YellaWood® brand pressure treated pine. YellaWood® brand products are easily identifiable by a distinctive yellow tag and have long been recognized by consumers, professional builders, architects and specifiers for quality and dependability. Great Southern facilities service do-it-yourself retail home centers, pro dealers and other retail building-related and industrial segments. The company has also diversified into logistics, distribution of alternative building products, remanufacturing operations and sawmill. For more information, visit YellaWood.com.