Remembering Paul Ellen: 'He loved Auburn'

AUBURN, Ala. –  An aspiring high school teacher when he arrived at Auburn in 1970, Paul Ellen found his calling when a fellow freshman invited him to help build a campus radio station, WEGL, in Haley Center in the spring of 1971. 

“I went down there and I never left, basically,” Ellen recalled in a 2020 Talking Tigers podcast interview with Andy Burcham. “Half of that original 12-person staff who knew literally nothing, wound up making a pretty nice career in broadcasting.” 

For the better part of the next half century, Ellen helped broadcast and set the stage for some of the greatest moments in Auburn Athletics history, first serving as the voice of the Auburn Tigers from 1979-80, calling games from a plywood booth during construction of the west upper deck of Jordan-Hare Stadium. 

“He was an outstanding broadcaster and he could do everything,” said Burcham, the voice of the Auburn Tigers since 2019. “He could do play-by-play in any sport, he could do color commentary, he was a fabulous host. He was a great source of history for us with the network because he had been around it and he had done it for such a long time.” 

Ellen passed away Thursday after an extended illness. 

After a play-by-play stint at Southern Miss in the 1980s, Ellen returned to the Plains in 1990, excelling in a variety of roles for the Auburn Sports Network for the next 35 years, including studio host. 

“It just felt right,” Ellen said in 2020. “When you’ve been someplace and left, under whatever circumstances, you don’t normally go back, but in that particular situation, it was met with open arms.”

After his 1975 Auburn University graduation, Ellen continued to call Auburn baseball games at WAUD while working for University Relations, broadcasting the program’s second College World Series appearance in 1976. 

“That was a great experience,” said Ellen, who was only a couple years older than Auburn pitchers Joe Beckwith and Terry Leach. 

Forty-three years later, in 2019, Ellen again called Auburn baseball in Omaha, joining Burcham in the booth following the death of Rod Bramblett. 

“He was on that journey to our first World Series in a long time,” Auburn baseball coach Butch Thompson said. “A good friend. I know a lot of people have followed their Auburn teams with his voice.”

“It was a much different Omaha back in ’76 than it was this year,” Ellen reminisced with Burcham in 2020. 

Not only did Ellen’s experience at WEGL launch a legendary broadcasting career, it’s also where he met his future wife, Pam, a fellow Auburn student and station volunteer. They were married soon after graduation. 

A native of Gadsden, Alabama, Ellen attended middle school in south Georgia before graduating from high school in Ocala, Florida. 

“Back then, Ocala was more a thoroughbred horse center so there were a lot of Auburn people there because Auburn had the only large animal hospital of any renown in the Southeast,” Ellen said. “There was a large Auburn contingent there and I came from an Auburn family, so we fit right in there. There was never a doubt in my parents’ mind where I would go to college.”

That first spring at WEGL, Ellen met another fellow freshman broadcaster, Bill Cameron, who would also go on to a long radio career covering Auburn. 

“One of the best professionals and a class guy, too. Always prepared, and Paul had the voice to dream for when you’re in radio,” said Cameron, who partnered with Ellen on Auburn baseball broadcasts in the mid-1970s. “We go back to the days when it was a celebration when we got aluminum stands. We went from wooden bleachers and chicken wire behind home plate to aluminum stands without a press box.

“He really did his homework, loved what he was doing and he loved Auburn. He was always right there, willing to do whatever was needed.”

Ellen developed close relationships with his Auburn Sports Network teammates, including former athletes he’d interviewed years before during their playing days.

“Paul was an amazing person with an awesome spirit,” said Ronnie Brown, Auburn’s sideline reporter and a star running back on the Tigers’ undefeated 2004 SEC and national championship team. “The ultimate professional and a joy to be around.”

“Over 30 years, it’s been genuine close friends pretty quickly among everyone who’s there,” Ellen said in 2020. “The Friday night dinners before road games are as much as a highlight of my life as I can think of. This group has always been so connected even as some of the characters have changed.”

In addition to his broadcasting career, Ellen worked for a sports marketing firm in Atlanta before launching a successful career in media relations based in Newnan, Georgia. 

“I love Auburn,” Ellen said in 2020. “Once you’re there, once you’re immersed, it’s different. It truly is a family because if someone outside the family attacks us, we’re going to defend that family honor. It goes way beyond sports. You’re always family if you run into another Auburn person. It’s just that way wherever you are."

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