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  • Robin Anderson Photographer

My favorite Auburn football story

I love Auburn football and the rivalries of the south. If you ask someone from Auburn who their rival is they will say Alabama without hesitating. If you ask Georgia who their rival is they will say Auburn. Now, if you are in Florida, the Florida/Georgia game is the big event in November... in fact, it's called the Biggest Cocktail Party of the south... so let me chart this out for you...


​Team

REAL rival

Rival wanna be

Auburn University

University of Alabama

University of Georgia

University of Georgia

University of Florida

nobody

If you notice, Georgia is a bit confused... this leads me to my favorite Auburn story.


The story begins in Auburn, the loveliest village on the plains. AU graciously hosted the football game that year with Georgia. The year was 1986. I am sorry to say that Georgia beat Auburn in that game and I am also sorry to say it was by a terrible upset. When the game was over, the Georgia fans descended onto the field and did the strangest thing... they started to destroy the AU logo painted on the grass. They literally began to tear up OUR grass by pulling it out to take home as a souvenir!


You have to imagine all the Auburn fans in their coats and ties yelling from the sidelines while the drunken Georgia fans were destroying our field. They were warned several times to get off the field and stop. And Auburn will remain refined for only so long... AU boys began to tell their dates' "hold my beer" as they took off their coats and ties and ran onto the field to defend the precious grass of Jordan-Hare Stadium.


Finally, in order to get Georgia to cease and desist, Auburn was forced to turn the water hoses on everyone (depending on who tells the story, some may call these the "water cannons").


As you can imagine, this was a little controversial.


But Auburn cleared up any confusion by printing t-shirts which could be seen all over campus the next day. They read, "You can kick our ass, but don't pick our grass"!

An image of Georgia football fans picking the grass from on the Auburn field after the 1986 game.
Georgia fans picking Auburn's grass - Photo by Billy Downs / Atlanta Journal-Constitutional (AJC)

An image of the water hoses spraying into the stadium on the Georgia football fans in the 1986 football game.
The water hoses turned on the Georgia fans in the stadium. - Photo by Louie Favorite / AJC


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