Gameday On The Plains Of Auburn: An Experience All Its Own

This is part three of four in a series of articles leading up to Auburn's season opener against Louisiana Tech.  Today is an article on the real reason we as fans enjoy College Football.

Less than 24 hours away from kickoff, and I'm chomping at the bit to enter Jordan-Hare Stadium.  As much as the anticipation is killing me, there are several events that must happen before hand.

This is where gameday takes shape in so many forms for fans. On Friday, you see people riding around, blaring band and other music as cars roll on.  You see all the different colored tape and string marking off tailgates for the coming day.  Some already start as soon as that last class is over, grilling and staring the festivities early for the rest of us.

You wake up that morning, taking a whiff of the grills that are starting up.  You make sure that your special gameday outfit is ready for wear.  You take that first walk in the morning, looking at the cars coming into town, the people in all their orange and blue, passing all the tailgates on campus.  It's a feeling of normalcy that overwhelms the soul.

As you pass those tailgates walking towards the center of campus, where Haley Center towers over all the other buildings, you run into all those familiar faces.  You greet, ask how things have been, share in a brewski or food, recall old stories from the past, and whatever else may come up. 

As you move on, you hear more band and various music coming from different places.  As that time approaches, many make their way here in Auburn, as what has been called "The most copied tradition in all of college football." 

Tiger Walk takes a life on its own.  People line up from Sewell Hall, down Donahue Drive, and up to the stadium gates.  Long before the team walks that famous walk, the fans chant cheers, like "Bodda Getta" and "Track 'Em," sing along with the band when they arrive, only to have their voices half gone before the football team takes that historic stroll.

Last minute strolling near the stadium, usually has my dad, brother and I walking towards the alumni hospitality tent, before we enter those familiar grounds of Jordan-Hare. 

Even before kickoff, you see the same people around your seats, chew the fat a little, see how the kids that were sitting around you grow another year older, or the newborns that have been brought. 

And before you know it, the band is taking the field, the stadium erupts singing "War Eagle" and "Glory, Glory to Ole Auburn," and the football team takes the field. 

No matter where you are, no matter how old you get, or what new additions are seated around you, it always feels the same.  Those special moments you spend with your family and friends, creating new memories with each passing game. 

This is the moment we all have been waiting so eagerly to start. 

Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the 2009 college football season.