Happy Graduation Day!

[WarEagle84 0]

To those who are graduating or who have family members graduating today, congratulations!

For those looking back on your own graduation, I saw this cool video of a 1968 Graduation & ROTC commissioning. Made me wonder how many of these brave young men were in 'Nam a week later.

Mods, I know this isn't football related (unless you count the shots of Cliff Hare Stadium ), but I thought more people should see it. Move if you deem appropriate.

[Slammer1 409]

To those who are graduating or who have family members graduating today, congratulations!

For those looking back on your own graduation, I saw this cool video of a 1968 Graduation & ROTC commissioning. Made me wonder how many of these brave young men were in 'Nam a week later.

Mods, I know this isn't football related (unless you count the shots of Cliff Hare Stadium ), but I thought more people should see it. Move if you deem appropriate.

AU84, I for one really appreciate you posting that video. This old War Eagle was enjoying life in Nam as a Marine Corps helo pilot when this video was shot but I really enjoyed the shots of the old Sports Arena, Cliff Hare stadium, and the construction of Haley Center going on in the background, especially the Sports Arena. I wrestled there under the watchful eye of Coach Swede Umbach, our wrestling coach and will never forget what a great person he was. Most of you probably don't even know who he was but Auburn won the SEC wrestling championship almost every year under his tuteledge back then. I was very saddened to find out they no longer have competitive wrestling in the SEC. Thanks again for posting WE84.

[telling tiger 156]

Slammer , you need to know you were likely one of my late dad's hero's, he lived for the wrestling team, loved it. They were bad to the bone back in the day....very nice memories of listening to him tell the tales. WDE.

[Slammer1 409]

TT, I go back a long way, 1957 to be exact. I am assuming yur dad wrestled. When was he at Auburn? My wrestling career was very short as I was a freshman that just finished four years in a military school and Auburn with great looking women (not that many women back then, ratio 4 to 1).and beer was just too much for me to handle. Found myself on Parris Island a year later. I did come back to finish what I started and graduated in Aug of '75. Golf and I were actually there at the same time but he had a different agenda. I was married with a child so I doubt I could have kept up with him but I definitely could have my first tenure there. Send me a PM if you want to give me any personal info on your dad. WDE!!!

[telling tiger 156]

He was working his way through school, like you, young and married, when he wasn't in school he was working, loved that sport and those teams though. They ruled the SEC at the time. A literal dynasty. He was a couple of years after you guys.

[AU64 10,122]

Happy graduation to all.

In a couple weeks it will be 50 years ago that I walked across the stage to get my diploma from Dr Draughon. Hard to believe it.

[bg5 536]

My daughter graduates tomm. at 5:00 we have already started getting the Auburn Alumni letters in the mail with her name on them. I could not be happier!!! One down two to go.

[telling tiger 156]

Congrats. A milestone, no question.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

TT, I go back a long way, 1957 to be exact. I am assuming yur dad wrestled. When was he at Auburn? My wrestling career was very short as I was a freshman that just finished four years in a military school and Auburn with great looking women (not that many women back then, ratio 4 to 1).and beer was just too much for me to handle. Found myself on Parris Island a year later. I did come back to finish what I started and graduated in Aug of '75. Golf and I were actually there at the same time but he had a different agenda. I was married with a child so I doubt I could have kept up with him but I definitely could have my first tenure there. Send me a PM if you want to give me any personal info on your dad. WDE!!!

Anyone who attended Auburn between 1891 and 1979 can claim that.

[Slammer1 409]

Good one, ICHY, I am sure we will hear from him on this,

[Mikey 16,781]

Missed it a year. I graduated in '69 but I had done my four years in the Air Force before starting college. After graduation I didn't go anywhere but up the street a little, as I stayed on the university staff until '76.

In those days, no matter how bad some other team did we could always count on the wrestling team to kick booty and get our spirits back up. Pat Dye did away with wrestling because of Title 9. He did a lot of great things for AU and a few I'll never forgive him for. Stopping the wrestling program is one of those I'll never forgive.

[augolf1716 21,646]

TT, I go back a long way, 1957 to be exact. I am assuming yur dad wrestled. When was he at Auburn? My wrestling career was very short as I was a freshman that just finished four years in a military school and Auburn with great looking women (not that many women back then, ratio 4 to 1).and beer was just too much for me to handle. Found myself on Parris Island a year later. I did come back to finish what I started and graduated in Aug of '75. Golf and I were actually there at the same time but he had a different agenda. I was married with a child so I doubt I could have kept up with him but I definitely could have my first tenure there. Send me a PM if you want to give me any personal info on your dad. WDE!!!

Different agenda well I be damn all I had on my mind was PBR's, beer for you young people, and women and maybe golf in between. As for keeping up with me I agree Slammer but a few Phi Mu's tried and ???????????????????

[augolf1716 21,646]

TT, I go back a long way, 1957 to be exact. I am assuming yur dad wrestled. When was he at Auburn? My wrestling career was very short as I was a freshman that just finished four years in a military school and Auburn with great looking women (not that many women back then, ratio 4 to 1).and beer was just too much for me to handle. Found myself on Parris Island a year later. I did come back to finish what I started and graduated in Aug of '75. Golf and I were actually there at the same time but he had a different agenda. I was married with a child so I doubt I could have kept up with him but I definitely could have my first tenure there. Send me a PM if you want to give me any personal info on your dad. WDE!!!

Anyone who attended Auburn between 1891 and 1979 can claim that.

always a comedian

[augolf1716 21,646]

This is an article from 1978 about AU wrestling

In one sense, you could say the South is rising again. In another, you could say it's falling under a succession of duck-unders, leg sweeps and high crotches. Dixie, you see, is in the midst of a collegiate wrestling boom.

For years, the only Deep South team of merit was Arnold (Swede) Umbach's Auburn Tigers. Umbach, who grew up in Oklahoma, a wrestling hotbed, ended 30 years of coaching in 1973 with 25 Southeastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association team titles, two Southeastern Conference championships and a 249-28-5 record.

"The only wrestling many Southerners knew for a long time was the professional kind," Umbach says. "When we got the sport into the SEC in 1970, we polled the schools to see how many would have teams. I still rememberMississippi's reply: 'Never.' I wanted to build the sport throughout the South, so I put on clinics everywhere. But I 'spect people from the Midwest and the North laughed at Southern wrestling."

Well, the joke is over. During the 1960s, only seven wrestlers from Southern schools placed in the top six at NCAAtournaments. In the '70s, 16 have earned that distinction, nine in the past two years. What's more, four coaches—all from up North—have led their SEC teams into the top 20 this season: Fletcher Carr ( Erie, Pa.) at Kentucky, Gary Schneider ( Massapequa, N.Y.) at Florida, Tom Milkovich (Maple Heights, Ohio) at Auburn, and Larry Sciacchetano ( Teaneck, N.J.) at Louisiana State.

The main reason for this meteoric rise is a 2-year-old NCAA ruling that limits colleges to 11 wrestling scholarships. That has curtailed the stockpiling of talent by teams such as Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa and Iowa State, which often signed good prospects just to prevent them from going elsewhere.

Vital, too, has been the all-out effort by Southern schools to improve their wrestling programs. LSU Athletic Director Carl Maddox says. "When the SEC gets into a sport, it goes all the way. The SEC only recently got into swimming, but at last year's NCAAs, three of the five top teams were from our conference." And then there have been hordes of high school seniors from wrestling-rich New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, who have flocked South to join in the empire building.

Being given the coaching job at a Southern university used to be akin to being handed a rotten apple—"Sorry, Al, you're the wrestling coach this season"—but now it's more of a juicy plum. When the LSU position opened up two years ago, more than 50 applicants were screened before the then 33-year-old Sciacchetano (pronounced Shack-uh-tan-oh) was chosen.

Shack had a 137-31-5 record in 12 seasons at New York Maritime and Montclair ( N.J.) State. He also has a knack for recruiting, an invaluable asset in the suddenly furious skirmishing among SEC teams for the top high school prospects.

[augolf1716 21,646]

May I add

Happy Graduation Day!

TO ALL

[cptau 169]

To those who are graduating or who have family members graduating today, congratulations!

For those looking back on your own graduation, I saw this cool video of a 1968 Graduation & ROTC commissioning. Made me wonder how many of these brave young men were in 'Nam a week later.

Mods, I know this isn't football related (unless you count the shots of Cliff Hare Stadium ), but I thought more people should see it. Move if you deem appropriate.

I had a similar graduation experience to the guy in film, except I graduated 5 years later, but was commision in the us army as a 2LT in the Signal Corps just like he was. The war was pretty much over in 1973. In 1968 those guys would have then spent 12 weeks in an officer basic branch school. Some would have spent a few more weeks in MOS school. Probably in the early part of 1969 they would be assign some where. For many, a year in Vietnam, and for some 3 years in West Germany.

[wdefromtx 3,312]

Congrats to all the Graduates.

I graduated in '07, and having Auburn on my resume has opened so many doors due to the schools reputation alone, even here in TX.

My current boss is from Scotland and he told me one of the reasons he hired me was because he knew Auburn had a good engineering program.

[1auburn1 1,120]

My daughter graduated Saturday morning. That made 2 yrs in a row since my son graduated last May. When they asked for all Auburn grads to stand, it made me and my wife very proud to stand with my son and his fiancé - all AU!