Alabama-Auburn: The Iron Bowl, Dividing People and a State

This is what Auburn and Alabama fans live for. There is nothing more important to the state of Alabama, Auburn fans, and Alabama fans than the next edition of the Iron Bowl.

Becoming a fan of one of these teams can start much earlier than one realizes. As we approach this year's game, I am reminded on how my father became an Auburn fan and alum which would shape my life as an Auburn fan and alum.

My father was born in Michigan, and moved to Prattville, Alabama early on in his life. This was during the 1960s, and as he grew, he faced the task of listening to the glory days of Alabama football.

He absolutely despised hearing about the Crimson Tide and anything that had to deal with it. So when it came to choose a school for becoming a mechanical engineer, he of course chose that "cow college" on the other side of the state.

He suffered greatly as a student, dealing with the start nine-loss streak to Alabama. It took five more years before he knew what it felt like again to beat Alabama.

Fast forward several years to the birth of the next generation, namely yours truly. For those that do not believe something can be instilled at birth, I submit this.

There are still mementos of my early years with Auburn clothes, toys, booties, etc. Living in Dothan for only eight months after I was born, I was moved to South Carolina.

But that feeling never left my family. That hatred toward Alabama.

Now being a young child, I didn't really understand the whole deal. Living outside the state of Alabama with no opposition to Auburn, it was hard to completely understand the rivalry as it was and still is today. 

I researched the history of the rivalry at a young age, also inquiring my father about the history of Auburn University. "Punt, Bama, Punt," "Bo Over the Top," and the Iron Bowl's first time in Jordan-Hare were as important to me as how to add and subtract fractions.

After my father lost his job, we moved back to Alabama, outside of Dothan. I first got that taste of the rivalry when I was in elementary school.

I was simply asked what my father did by my classmates, and answered, "My father is a mechanical engineer who graduated from Auburn University."

Half of the class nodded in acceptance to what I said, the other half had a scowl on their face. Though I was friends with everyone, that week in November seemingly pitted everyone against each other.

My fandom and allegiance to Auburn only got deeper (or worse in the view of my Bama friends) when my father started purchasing season tickets after the 1994 season.

My first Iron Bowl in attendance was in 1995. That experience will never leave me, as Tiger Walk, at the time, was the biggest I had ever seen it. Looking at the players walking to the stadium, you knew this game was completely different.

Auburn would win that game, 31-27, in what would continue the unbeaten streak at Jordan-Hare against the Crimson Tide.

That next week in school, all the kids that were Bama fans were in the dumps, while the Tiger kids were jubilant. It lasted for the entire year. It was a great feeling.

After Auburn lost the following year at Legion Field, 24-23, it was the reverse. The remainder of my time in the state of Alabama was dreadful, while the Tide kids and adults never missed an opportunity to jab at me.

That made me despise the Tide even more. 

I moved to Mississippi at the end of 1996, thinking I would leave the taunting in Alabama. 

One of the first people I met at my new school was an Alabama fan. It started all over again.

I completed middle school in Mississippi, having to deal with other SEC fans, then moved to Georgia, where the Bulldogs were in force.

But during all that, my father and I continued our treks to Auburn for football games and Iron Bowls. My heart was ripped out after Auburn's first loss to the Tide in 1999. Hardly anyone else in my classes, besides those fans, realized what it meant to lose to the Tide. 

One of my best friends in high school was a Alabama fan and son of Crimson Tide alum. We would constantly talk about both programs and jab at each other as the year's football season went on. 

My friend and I would laugh at the kids that were Georgia fans. They never could understand how fans of such bitter rivals could be such close of friends. We would always gang up on the Bulldog faithful when the team was not doing so hot.

But when that week came around again, all bets were off. One of us would have right to brag for 364 days, while the other had to deal with the talk. 

In my senior year of high school, it was easy to determine what university I wanted to go to. I was sent all sorts of postcards, letters, and applications from schools across the Eastern part of the U.S.

One such postcard was from the University of Alabama, inviting me to come to Tuscaloosa to view their campus. 

I was so appalled that postcard arrived in the mail, I promptly took the postcard outside, placed it on a large rock rock in our back yard, and set it on fire. 

After I was accepted to Auburn University, the school I always dreamed of going to since I was 10 years old, it only made my passion for the small college town rise even more. And with that passion, so did the passion for rivalry against Alabama.

Auburn started its streak over the Tide in 2002, I started attending in 2003. During my time at Auburn, I never tasted defeat to the Tide. It was a bit of personal revenge for me against Alabama since my father never knew an Auburn victory over Alabama when he was a student.

Though I am only in my second year as an Auburn alum, it feels much, much longer. As this year's game draws ever closer, I get to taste a bit more of what it was like in years past with the game only a day after Thanksgiving. 

In my view, that is what this game is about. It is about the history of each program and their tussle against each other. As I have told in my story, no matter where you lived, there was always an Alabama fan waiting there to befriend you, only to become your worst enemy when Auburn lost. 

I hope this enlightens those outside this fierce rivalry and reminds both Alabama and Auburn fans why it is the greatest in college football. 

Feel free to post your favorite moments in Iron Bowl history or talk about your memories as a fan of the Tide or the Tigers.

For a Tide fan's view, visit Franklin's article here .