Tennessee and Auburn have met 54 times on the football field. Only six programs have lined up across from the Vols more often: Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia and Florida.
For most of the last century, that number went up by one every fall. From 1956 to 1991, Tennessee played Auburn every single year – 36 straight seasons. And if you ask my dad, Tennessee’s season was judged by the success you had against the Alabama teams. Beat Bama and Auburn, and it was a good year. Lose to both, and it was a long winter.
For more than two decades, a Tennessee season almost always included a trip to Legion Field in Birmingham, the “Football Capital of the South” – Alabama in the odd years, Auburn in the even years. From 1955 through 1978, the Vols played in Birmingham every season but one. Auburn eventually moved its home games to campus, but Alabama kept hosting Tennessee at Legion Field all the way through 1997. For a generation of Vol fans, Birmingham was practically a second home.
Then came 1992. The SEC added Arkansas and South Carolina, split into two divisions and created the SEC Championship Game. Tennessee landed in the East, Auburn in the West, and the annual date on the calendar disappeared. That’s where the Tennessee–Auburn rivalry died. Since then, the two schools have met just 11 times.
Without question, the most significant of those games was the 1997 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. Nothing went right early. Turnovers and miscues piled up, and Auburn ripped off 20 straight points to take a 20–7 lead. But in fitting fashion, Peyton Manning, in his senior season as Tennessee’s legendary quarterback, brought the Vols back. Manning threw for 373 yards and four touchdowns, and Tennessee escaped with a 30–29 win and the SEC title.
On Saturday, October 3, Auburn returns to Neyland Stadium for the first time since 2013. So this week, I have some homework for you. Find someone who looks like they’ve been going to Neyland for a very long time and ask them about the Auburn rivalry. Ask them about their favorite memories. I bet the Big Orange stuffing Bo Jackson and No. 1 Auburn, 38–20, in Neyland Stadium in 1985 will get a few mentions. That was the season that ended with the Sugar Vols in New Orleans.
There truly isn’t anything like SEC football, and a big part of that is the proximity of our rivals. Fans can load up the car, put on the car flags and, in most cases, be in one of our rival college towns within a half day’s drive. No other conference creates the togetherness of our league. It makes Saturdays more intense and makes Fall the best time of the year.
Auburn kicks off a stretch of eight straight SEC games for Tennessee – Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas A&M, LSU and Vanderbilt – and plenty of those names are very familiar. So let’s enjoy the games, the history and everything that makes our league so special.
Go Vols.