War Eagle: The Legend

I came across a very friendly seeming individual who (I think) owns a local corner drug store. I asked him if he could tell me why Auburn has both a tiger and an eagle as mascots. He told me the (what I have discovered to be) somewhat variable legend (it depends on who you ask) of the Auburn War Eagle. What follows is our (and now yours if you choose to accept it) first lesson in the Auburn Football Cannon.

Auburn has but one mascot and that is Albie, the tiger. "War Eagle" is the Auburn University battle cry. I like the first version of the story I heard best so that is the one I will relay to you now. Back during the civil war a man from Auburn was fighting in a battle. When the battle was over he found a wounded eagle on the battlefield, and he took it home and nursed it back to health. The eagle came with him everywhere, perched on his shoulder and the whole town came to know the eagle as the War Eagle, due to where it was found. The man brought the eagle to an Auburn v. Georgia football game. The rivalry between these two teams is the biggest football rivalry in the south, so this was an important game. During the game Auburn was doing terribly, they were getting creamed by Georgia. At some point the eagle got away from the man (or the man let him go...I can't remember) and started to fly around the stadium. The Auburn fans, bored of the crappy game started to get excited about the eagle. They began to chant the eagle's name, "War Eagle! War Eagle!" The football team could not understand the crowd, but could hear that the fans were getting excited. This in turn pumped up the football team who came back with a vengeance to defeat Georgia! At the end of the game, the referee shot his pistol into the air to signify that the game was finished and accidentally killed the War Eagle.

Auburn flies one of its eagles at the start of each football game. It flies around the stadium and lands on the center of the field. This year, apparently, Auburn will be flying a golden eagle. One of the Auburn eagles flew during the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake Olympics. It also sounds like all of the Auburn eagles are named "Tiger". If you are interested you can type "War Eagle" into YouTube to see footage of the eagle soaring around the stadium. You can also get a feel for the energy and mass amounts of people that fill the stadium for a game.