Auburn Athletes

[Aubie16 1]

Thinking about the sad new of Steve Gandy having to give up football got me thinking about my experiences with him.

I sat next to him in government my sophomore year (his freshman year) and I can tell you he was the nicest guy you could imagine. Always attentive in class and friendly with everyone around him. Very smart guy too. I feel awful that he is having to give up the game but I know he is going to make a great coach one day (or could easily succeed in the business world if he decides not to coach.)

Anyways, I know we like to think of all Auburn athletes as being upstanding citizens all the time but the fact is I have also had some bad experiences having some of them in core classes. But I want to hear about the guys that you have been around for an extended amount of time in professional settings that really stood out to you as genuine character guys.

DKW, I know you mentioned some good experiences with "Little Train James"...anybody else out there with similar stories?

[jdub5793 0]

Damon Duval got an "A" off of me in Anatomy. Does that count?

[aumd03 2]

I had a couple of Auburn swimmers that were olympians over to my apt to watch the superbowl one year. My roommate was 6'6 and about 330 and i'm a big guy myself, so we weren't ones to be short on food.

I never realized how much those swimmers eat until then. They put offensive lineman to shame. Those guys ate like 3 big burgers a piece, several super size bags of chips and an entire crockpot of nacho cheese dip. The three swimmers at more than the other 8-10 people there combined. I was literally searching my pantry for food because they were still eating and hungry and they had eaten everything I had served.

[autkidd 0]

I had Carnell Williams, Marcus McNeil, and Brandon Cox in rocks for jocks a couple of years ago... I gotta say it was funny watching McNeil try and sit in one of those desks... Carnell paid as much attention as anyone else in the class and I don't remember much about Cox since he was incredibly small and hid behind another big guy in the class...

[fearthetiger03 0]

I had Carnell Williams, Marcus McNeil, and Brandon Cox in rocks for jocks a couple of years ago... I gotta say it was funny watching McNeil try and sit in one of those desks... Carnell paid as much attention as anyone else in the class and I don't remember much about Cox since he was incredibly small and hid behind another big guy in the class...

I took 'rocks for jocks' because I figured it would be exactly like the nickname said, but I guess I got the wrong professor...Anyways, Gandy was in the class with me- He's a great guy, paid attention, did assignments, etc. I can only hope the best for him and whatever career he ends up in.

[mcgufcm 4,109]

oh sure. i used to be in Bible study with ben obomanu and steven ross and a couple other guys. great guys. really grounded. those two guys in particular impressed me with their maturity.

i was tight with a lot of swimmers while i was there because some of them were fine art majors. i was studying graphic design... same building, same core classes. i love those kids. totally crazy, wildest people i've ever known, but they were always friendly.

my sophomore year, a trent green (played baseball) led me and a few other guys in a Bible study. he stayed so active on campus... dunno where he found the time, but he's a Godly man, and he did a great job of pursuing me and making me feel welcome.

i got to meet and hang out with a lot of our football guys during my time at auburn just by living near campus or meeting folks at black student union (i'm white but they still let me in ) or just doing stuff on campus. almost all of my experiences were great. lee guess is a good group member. tommy jackson is loud but does his work, etc. we've got a lot to be proud of as auburn fans and alum and students. our athletes work hard on and off the field, and the vast majority of them are good dudes or ladies, grounded in the Word of God.

[AUlumni99 0]

I was with half of the football team in 'organic gardening'............it was really funny with them, especially during written exams......the last five rows all had the same grade

[saniflush 0]

Frank Sanders and myself had a couple of classes together. Ended up studying together some. Super individual who was always very humble.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

I took golf one summer with Quentin Reese. He once took one of the pro shops loaner 5-irons and hit about two feet behind the ball and snapped the steel shaft in two. T.J. Dunagan was from my neck of the woods and we met at an all-county photo shoot for the local paper when we were both seniors. We used to hang out some together.

My favorite story of an athlete off the field had to do with my intramural softball team. We were getting ready to play and this well built kid showed up and said he didn't have a team and could he join ours since we barely had enough to play. He told us his name was Kobe. We said sure. Well the guy who we thought was the fastest guy on the team was on base when Kobe got up to bat. He hit a line drive through the gap and when he crossed home plate he was only about two steps behind the guy who had been on second. We start talking and the guy is all-SEC 200 meters track and an alternate for the 2000 Olympic team. We would put him in centerfield and the other guys would play the lines. Anything in the air in the outfield he could run down. It was almost comical to watch the other teams think they had gotten a hit only to watch this kid take off like a deer and run the ball down.

[Auburn 6 101]

this girl that i've been seeing lives next door to merril johnson and tristan davis, she says they're really good guys and they party together sometimes. she says they're a lot of fun and really cool. i've never got the chance to meet them, although she did say tristan tried to hook up with her last year, and so did courtney taylor. boosted my ego a little when she said she turned them down, then i went to see her that night. take it for what it's worth i guess, i never met them.

when "brother micah" was here last year and basically condemning us all to hell, i was standing with brad lester, robert dunn, and a lineman i didn't recognize. lester is real down to earth and a funny guy, he was egging me on to make fun of micah and ask ridiculous questions. a few interesting questions came from lester, he's a funny guy. he made fun of robert dunn too. dunn was saying how painful it is to listen to to micah, and lester turned around and said almost as bad as listening to you rap. we all had a good laugh. they're both cool guys.

i was throwing a football around with a friend down in the lower quad and made a pretty nice catch on the run. i looked up after i caught it and saw montez bililngs. i said hey to him and he said nice catch. i (jokingly) said ya i'll be starting next year. we both laughed about it, he seemed like a cool guy.

my best friend had marks in his theatre class and said he was a really cool, down to earth guy and was pretty funny

i was at a lambda chi party with some friends and among others, kenny irons was extremely drunk. my buddy snapped a pic of him because he had never seen irons before. oscar gonzales was basically playing body guard that night for kenny and confronted my friend. told him not to take a pic of kenny again and made him delete it, watching while he did it. not really out of line for him to say that, we just weren't expecting it. ran into oscar a few more times on other occasions, he's a pretty normal guy.

[McWeagle 4]

Jason Miska used to work the door @ the Supper Club. He let me in one night as "over 21" b/c it was only about a week before my b'day. So he was cool in my book for a night...