LITTLE ROCK — IT HAPPENED at a conference for college journalists years ago. All across the southeast, inky wretches-in-training gathered in Louisiana to hear the pros describe the biz. The big schools were all represented. Florida’s table was over there. South Carolina’s a few tables over. There was LSU. There was Ole Miss. (They had to be separated.) Call it the SEC tournament of college J-schools.
At the end of the conference, the professors handed out awards. Some of us old-timers had been asked to look at the schools’ newspapers beforehand and pick the winners for headlines, features, editorials and the such. One by one the first-place winners were announced, and their schools’ mascots and logo were featured on a giant screen as the winners collected the trophies.
The kids from Auburn won in one category. We forget which one. What we won’t forget is this: As the kids from Auburn were walking to the stage to pick up the award, and the giant U and A in orange and blue appeared on the screen, one young lady-maybe 20, at most 21-stood up in the back and interrupted with this:
ROOLLLLLLLL TI-I-I-I-DDDE!
Of course. How could the young lady from Alabama look mama in the face back home if she didn’t interrupt an Auburn celebration with an Alabama cheer? And, of course, the place erupted with laughter.
That’s why college sports are fun.
Want an example of what’s not fun about college rivalries? Well, take the recent news about the rivalry between Alabama and Auburn again.
In case you haven’t opened up the sports section in the last week, or turned on a radio, or peeked out your front door, or your back, this is going to be a shock: Some damfool poisoned the trees at Toomer’s Corner.
Rolling the trees at Toomer’s Corner is a tradition for Auburn fans when their school wins. It’s a tradition that goes back to at least the 1950s. The two oak trees at the entrance to the campus were covered with toilet paper after Auburn won the national championship in football last season. Officials at the college don’t object when that happens. It’s all a part of being an Auburn fan.
Or it was.
The trees have been poisoned. Most likely, they’re going to die.
The accused?
A fan of Alabama.
Those who know about these things say the 130-year-old trees were poisoned with a large amount of herbicide specifically used to kill big trees. They say it’s only a matter of when, not if. The big oaks are coming down. Sooner rather than later.
The person charged with the crime? A 62-year-old man. He apparently called a sports radio show to brag about the deed, and as soon as the police discovered that, yes, somebody had dumped a bunch of herbicide at Toomer’s Corner, they tracked him down.
Fan may be short for fanatic, but good lands. So much herbicide was used that the feds are said to be looking into the local water supply. One report said that when the trees are replaced, as Auburn officials say is likely, they’ll have to remove all the dirt around them, too, because that particular herbicide stays in the ground for up to five years.
Most sane folks would say this doesn’t just cross a line, but stomp on it, grind it underfoot, and set it afire. It may be the strangest act of a deranged fan since a follower of Steffi Graf stabbed Monica Seles on a tennis court back in 1993. Certainly it’s the most publicized.
IF THERE’S any bright spot in this story, it may be found in the reactions of other, more rational fans, from Alabama and Auburn alike, to the poisoning. After the initial shock, fans of both schools have become tree huggers. Or at least huggers of each other. Coaches and presidents of both universities have noted that one man is charged in the tree killings, not all Alabama fans. Alabama fans themselves have expressed outrage. After all, it’s Alabama, which is still in the Deep South. Where most of us were raised right.
There’s even a Facebook page (of course) called Tide for Toomer’s, which is raising money to help replace the trees. It’s got 60,000 friends and it has reportedly raised almost $45,000.
And student leaders from both schools said they would plant “sister” trees on both campuses as an expression of unity. One report from the Heart of Dixie quoted an Alabama fan as saying, get this: “War Eagle!”
Wouldn’t it be something if the accused fanatic in this case helped bring Auburn and Alabama fans closer together?
In this case, that might be an actual punishment that fits the crime.
Editorial, Pages 10 on 02/28/2011