TigerOne 1,152 Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 The stories she can tell would make a good book. http://www.al.com/living/huntsvilletimes/i....xml&coll=1 By MIKE MARSHALL Times Staff Writer, mmarshal@htimes.com AUBURN - Beyond the metal eagle on the front gate, beyond the magnolias and sprawling greenery, there is a frame house on Woodfield Drive. From the road, the house is hidden by the underbrush, grown thick for the sake of privacy. The house is occupied by two cats and a woman who likes football. She does not play golf, lift weights or walk several miles a week, as she did before she broke her hip. But her voice is strong, and her eyes still flicker when she talks about football and her late husband, Ralph "Shug" Jordan, the head football coach at Auburn University for 25 years. Most credit Evelyn Jordan's husband with giving the Alabama-Auburn game its nickname: The Iron Bowl. Shug said the game was such a battle that "scraps of iron were left on the field," and a nickname for the rivalry was born. Many still refer to the game as The Iron Bowl, even though it is no longer played at Legion Field in Birmingham, the former home of some of the biggest iron manufacturers in the world. Like most Auburn people, though, Evelyn Jordan never liked traveling to Birmingham to play the game. "That was the biggest mess," she says. "I thought the stadium was terrible." Love for football remains Alabama and Auburn will meet again Saturday afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, but Evelyn Jordan will not be there. At 93, she still holds Auburn football season tickets and watches college and pro football games on television. "A lot of people just like college, but I like the pros, too," she says. "I watched the game on TV Sunday night" between the Chicago Bears and New York Giants. She also receives the same parking slot at Jordan-Hare Stadium as she did in 1951, Shug's first season as Auburn's head football coach. But she has not attended a football game since she broke her hip. It has been three years since she saw a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the 87,000-seat stadium renamed in her husband's honor in 1973. Her only son, Ralph Jordan Jr., the president of the Auburn Alumni Association, will be in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. He is an environmental scientist for the Tennessee Valley Authority and lives in Norris, Tenn., near Knoxville. Susan, the eldest of her three children, lives next door. Another daughter, Darby, lives in Atlanta. ("spelled just like the young man who plays running back at Alabama," she says, referring to Alabama running back Kenneth Darby). Evelyn Jordan has lived on Woodfield Drive since 1952. She, Shug and the children spent his first season as head coach at the Pitts Hotel in downtown Auburn. Shug went 5-5 in his first season, a vast improvement from the winless season Auburn had endured in 1950. The Jordans bought the house the next year, unfazed by the record of the previous owner, Earl Brown, the Auburn head coach from 1948-50. "This was the only house available in Auburn," she says. 'Wanted to beat them bad' As a sign that the Jordans intended to remain in Auburn for a long time, Evelyn and Shug planted two pecan trees in the backyard after they moved to Woodfield Drive. Auburn's record dipped, then climbed after the Jordans moved to Woodfield Drive: 2-8 in 1952; 7-3-1 in 1953; and 7-3 in 1954. There were five straight victories over Alabama, from 1954-58. But Bear Bryant's arrival in Tuscaloosa in December 1957 turned the rivalry in Alabama's favor. The Jordans met the Bryants for the first time in April 1958 at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. "He told me about his son having rheumatic fever," Evelyn Jordan recalls. "That was the first time I laid eyes in him. He was a very attractive person and a good coach." In 18 meetings, Bryant had a 13-5 advantage over Jordan. Yet, their families were friendly. Evelyn Jordan says she and Shug were "crazy" about Bryant and his wife, Mary Harmon. "They were nice people," she says. "We'd go to the SEC meetings, and he'd spend time there talking to his stockbroker on the phone. We laughed about that." But she disliked Alabama. "We wanted to beat them so bad," she says. "They got more players than we did. They had everything sewn up." Shug Jordan retired in 1975 and died in 1980. Bryant died in January 1983, less than a month after his final game as Alabama's head coach. The rivalry became more competitive. But Evelyn Jordan viewed the rivalry the same way she always did. "It was the highlight of the season then, and it still is," she says. "You don't get over losing." Amen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCWarEagle 0 Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Nice post. I like reading about the old-time stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Tiger 4,261 Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 No one can understand what "class" really is until you spend some time with "Miss Shug" as we used to call her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerStuckatBama 0 Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 I really enjoyed this. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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