The same article goes on to say:

Offensive tackle Willie Anderson was also released by the Bengals. Anderson, 33, was the most tenured Bengal, having played 12 seasons in Cincinnati.

Willie Anderson also played at Auburn. Ouch. I’m surprised the ESPN story doesn’t mention that connection. And for it to happen today, the opening day of the season for AU? This is conspiratorial ground here.

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Bengals Divesting of Auburn

Snowboarding is one of my absolute favorite things to do (living in the deep south, though, makes it an extreme rarity). The music is groovy with a french flavor. The sound of the boards slicing through the powder is soothing. The occasional name display is a nice touch as well. And clocking in at just over a minute makes it the perfect quick pick-me-up.

Happy August Everyone!

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Your Daily Random Snowboarder Stranger

He was a star on the one stage our mutual home state of Alabama continues to care about above all others, but at a time when the spotlight of that humid autumn sun really brought out the color in your skin. Thom Gossom was the second black football player at the first Division I school in Alabama to break the gridiron’s color barrier.

That school was not the University of Alabama.

It’s the story of segregation in the south viewed, at one level, through the filter of college football, but at another through the personal stories of Mr. Gossom. It’s a long article so, if you don’t have much time right now, at the very least go read the opening story.

He is writing an autobiography titled Walk-On: My Reluctant Journey to Integration at Auburn University. He talks a bit about it in this interview on YouTube, where he mentions that it’s coming out in August, but the War Eagle Reader says September 9. I’m not having any luck tracking it down though.

Oh, also, Thom Gossom has since become a pretty successful actor.

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Thom Gossom and Auburn Football Segregation

An Auburn alumn commissioned two prominent songwriters out of New York, Robert Allen and Al Stillman, to create the song. From Auburn’s school paper:

Allen began writing music in 1952. It was two years after that prominent Auburn alumnus Roy B. Sewell sought out what he considered the best of the big-city songwriters — Allen and Stillman — and commissioned them to write a song “to express the spirit which has sparked the Tigers’ amazing football comeback.”

Sewell, who called it “a peach of song,” presented it as a gift to the Auburn Alumni Association.

Of course, Sewell assumed that having paid for the song, it belonged to him. And I would guess by giving it as a gift, further assumed it would belong to the university. From the Marketplace story:

In fact, the songwriters retained the rights. They then sold the rights on to a music publisher. Fifty years later, Carlin America bought them.

Here’s the Carlin America site. For some reason, “War Eagle” doesn’t show up in their search or in their list of all songs owned. Which is odd since the collection of fight songs they purchased makes them $100,000 a year. But I don’t feel too bad for Auburn:

The school makes more than $2 million a year licensing everything from barbecues to Christmas ornaments.

And don’t forget bottle openers!

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Fight Songs

“My dad asked me if I wanted to cheer for other people or have people cheer for me,” Creamer says.

I think that’s pretty inspiring. When I asked my seven-year-old daughter if she knew what that meant, she summed it up perfectly by saying basically “Do you want to be the one who scores the points“. That’s such a great way to approach life.

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To Be Cheered For