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Favorite players of your generation, and why.


AUBURNJAC

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I guess I have a top 6. I'm only 32, so I'm not going to claim any that I never saw play. Add your players, if you had class with them, if you were friends with them, ect...

1. Takeo Spikes, was my next door neighbor. Awesome dude and one of the best all around athletes I've ever seen. Went to visit his family in Statesborough GA once, and they were awesome too! I even went to a "black club" in Macon and while I was the only white dude there, I was treated like gold b/c of who I was with. That dude is a SUPER celebrity in middle Georgia!

2. Bo Jackson, DUH! (only #2 because I wasn't very old when he was playing). Got to spend an Auburn/Bama game walking with him and chatting with him on the sidelines. AWESOME EXPERIENCE! It sucks that I didn't have a camera with me, and camera phones were non-existant then. I would pay good money for a photo of me and Bo!

3. Tracy Rocker, oh man oh man oh man what a hell of a player. Briefly met him at a tailgate, but only got to shake his hand.

4. Carnell, Ronnie and Jason: Best backfield tandem in NCAA history in my opinion. Never met Jason, but Carnell and Ronnie came to Red Lobster where I bartended and sat at the bar with some other friends and players for a little while. I got to talk to them, but not much. Very nice though.

5. Marcus Washington: Probably the hardest working guy I have ever met. He graduated with my ex-fiance' at Auburn High. They were very close friends and he was over at our house sometimes. He was pretty quiet, but a damn funny dude.

6. Cole Cubelic: Had several classes with him for some reason. Was really good friends with his girlfriend. Not the best player in the world, but for sure a super guy. I like him on the radio as well. He is on my list due to outstanding character!





All from my college days:

Frank Sanders

Brian Brainsworth Brainsfield Brinsworth Brinsfield

James Bostic

James Willis Marcus Washington

Gary Walker

I forgot Dameyune Craig on the first go around. How could I forget Dameyune?

Tucker Frederickson - "the most complete football player I've ever seen". Coach Shug Jordan

Kenneth Bernich - A mean hard hitting LB

Mike Kolen - A great LB for AU & the Miami Dolphins

Bill Newton - He blocked a punt or two

David Langner - He picked up a blocked punt or two - He was also a pretty good DB

Pat Sullivan - He was a pretty good QB

Terry Beasley - A pretty good WR

James Brooks - A very good RB

William Andrews - Even though Barfield used him as a FB, he was a great runner when he got the ball. Led the NFL in rushing

Joe Cribbs - An exciting player to watch

Zeke Smith - As a kid I remember seeing him play

Forrest Blue - A great center

Dameyune Craig - Not my generation, but I loved watching him play in HS & at AU

Bo Jackson - Not my generation, but I loved watching him play at AU

From my college days:

1. Tucker Frederickson.

2. Jimmy Sidle.

3. Forrest Blue - had calculus class with him.

4. Buffalo Bill Cody - a wild man at LB.

5. Tom Bryan - ROTC class with Tom.

After college days:

1. Pat Sullivan - knew him when he was in HS and his family lived in West End.

2. Terry Beasley - he did a landscaping job for our family business in the 80s.

I need more time!

Bo

Aundray Bruce

Caddy

Ronnie Brown

Reggie Slack

Craig

Stephen Davis

Timmy! (sorry, the South Park thing was big around the time he played)

Lawyer Tillman

Spikes

Carlo Cheatam

Brothers Rocker

Edit later.

Bo Jackson, Damyune Craig, Frank Sanders, Thomas Bail, Otis Mounds (something about that name seemed cool to me at the time), Wayne Gandy (super-nice guy), James Bostic, Andy Fuller, Ronnie Brown, Martavious Houston (I probably spelled that wrong), Takeo Spikes. I'm sure there's more but I'll stop

I would've said Carnell Williams until I had the misfortunate of having business dealings with him.

Joe Hamilton - sorry, grew up a Tech fan

Jason Campbell

Carl Stewart

Edit:

I'll add Dansby and DT to the list too. I still have that espn the magazine cover. Also Courtney Taylor.

I've always liked our small white receivers Weygand(sp), had classes with Hix Poor.

Curt Crain- I was young but I thought his neck roll was cool.

Reggie Slack- edges out Campbell as my favorite QB

Carlos Rogers

Heath Evans

Takeo Spikes

Carnell

Frank Sanders

Rob Pate

Freddie Smith

Danny Skutak

Bill Newton

David Langner

Frank Sanders

Bob Harris

Mike Fuller

David King

Arnaldo Abru

Ace Atkins -LOVED that guy adopted me as his little sis took me in the locker room after a game to get all of the '93 teams autographs

Stephen Davis

Rudi Johnson

Junior Rosegreen- his brothers tailgated with us at almost all the games side note they were about 2 ft taller than him

Stan White

Ronnie Brown

to many others to name

Travis Williams

Karlos Dansby

Jay Ratliff

Courtney Taylor

Caddy

Monreko Crittendon (just because his name is awesome)

Roshard Gilyard (for the hit in the wyoming game)

Carlos Rogers

Cooper Wallace

Alex Lincoln (cause he went to my high school)

Rob Pate (will herring before will herring was cool)

just a few of my favorites, but really i've been blessed to be at auburn during a great time. My freshman year was 2000 and it took til 2008 to have a truly bad year (although 03 was pretty depressing!)

Dansby

Ben Leard - Hell of a heart

Caddy

Ronnie

Anthony Mix

Ronnie Daniels - Did so much for us during his last run for Auburn

Heath Evans

Dontarrious Thomas

Rudi

Jason

Carlos Rogers

Tim Carter - One of the fastest people I've seen in person

I guess I have a top 6. I'm only 32, so I'm not going to claim any that I never saw play. Add your players, if you had class with them, if you were friends with them, ect...

1. Takeo Spikes, was my next door neighbor. Awesome dude and one of the best all around athletes I've ever seen. Went to visit his family in Statesborough GA once, and they were awesome too! I even went to a "black club" in Macon and while I was the only white dude there, I was treated like gold b/c of who I was with. That dude is a SUPER celebrity in middle Georgia!

2. Bo Jackson, DUH! (only #2 because I wasn't very old when he was playing). Got to spend an Auburn/Bama game walking with him and chatting with him on the sidelines. AWESOME EXPERIENCE! It sucks that I didn't have a camera with me, and camera phones were non-existant then. I would pay good money for a photo of me and Bo!

3. Tracy Rocker, oh man oh man oh man what a hell of a player. Briefly met him at a tailgate, but only got to shake his hand.

4. Carnell, Ronnie and Jason: Best backfield tandem in NCAA history in my opinion. Never met Jason, but Carnell and Ronnie came to Red Lobster where I bartended and sat at the bar with some other friends and players for a little while. I got to talk to them, but not much. Very nice though.

5. Marcus Washington: Probably the hardest working guy I have ever met. He graduated with my ex-fiance' at Auburn High. They were very close friends and he was over at our house sometimes. He was pretty quiet, but a damn funny dude.

6. Cole Cubelic: Had several classes with him for some reason. Was really good friends with his girlfriend. Not the best player in the world, but for sure a super guy. I like him on the radio as well. He is on my list due to outstanding character!

who is your ex fiance'? My wife and brother graduated with and went to auburn high with marcus. Marcus and I have been friends a long time. I used to shoot baskets with him when he was smaller than me. Very nice and humble young man.

Pat Sullivan & Terry Beasley... Pat was a senior when I was a frosh in '71. Sullivan to Beasley was magical during that time. I went to Church (Blessed Sacrament in West End), grammar school (Blessed Sacrament) and high school (John Carroll) with Pat. His Dad and Mom (Jerry (R.I.P) & Lorraine) were friends of the family. They had a place in Panama City off the beach where our family and theirs would spend a week some summers partying. Really great, down to earth folks.

Neat story (I think I related this story here before)... I was on campus as a frosh before classes in '71. I managed to get a date with a hot co-ed... we went to the Holiday Inn bar. As we were coming in, Pat (fresh off of a Heisman trophy the year before) was coming out with what had to be the starting offensive line. I didn't say anything because he was BMOC, and I was, after all, a worm Freshman. He spotted me and came over to chat. He was really genuine about how I was getting settled in, and we talked about old times for a bit. He didn't have to do that, but, that is who he is. MAJOR points with my date. :rolleyes:

I'm nearly 65 and I've never seen an athlete ANYWHERE like Bo Jackson. When you consider he played three sports (football, baseball and track) and was perfectly capable of playing four (basketball), had he chosen to, it can't be equaled. Yes, Hershell Walker was great too, but he only played football and ran track. Speed, moves, power, catching the football, blocking, he had it ALL. I saw Bo play his first game at Auburn and knew immediately how special he was. So did many others.

Some of you guys are just showing off ;)

Ronnie Daniels... man his highlights that last year were incredible. We used to say no mortal man could tackle him. What he did to LSU and Georgia, we'll always owe him for that. He needs a Youtube video.

From when I was at Auburn; Bo of course, by a long shot; but Lionel 'Little Train' James and Greg Carr. Those were about the only players I saw very much, since Carr was in engineering (like me) and Lionel was majoring in mathematics. Lionel had a pretty nice NFL career too with the Chargers...

Lionel

Some of you guys are just showing off ;)

Ronnie Daniels... man his highlights that last year were incredible. We used to say no mortal man could tackle him. What he did to LSU and Georgia, we'll always owe him for that. He needs a Youtube video.

That UGA game where Ronnie Daniels looked like superman and it took all four UGA DB's & a LB or two to tackle him, was amazing. I was in Biloxi, MS playing poker at the Grand and there were two UGA guys at the table. All afternoon they had been giving me grief about how bad UGA was going to beat AU. Just before kickoff the cards started to turn and they were having as hard a time beating me as UGA was tackling Ronnie Daniels. That was a great night, AU WON & I won a boat load.

Sorry, great memories.

Now back to the thread topic.

Pat Sullivan, Terry Beasley, Danny Sandspree, Tom Banks and Hank Hall, all from when I was on campus and knew them personally. Those were some great days at Auburn. Freddie Hyatt too, later, after we both were through school and he was with the Cardinals.

Basketball player John Mengelt was a classmate, and IMHO still the best that's ever played that sport at Auburn. I was there the night he tossed in 60 against UAT. I also knew basketball player Henry Harris, Auburn's first Black athlete, and a super nice guy.

Bo Jackson was the most incredible football player to watch, but I never knew him to speak to.

Good Thread.

My last quarter at AU was Fall 1979. I got to see Joe Cribbs & James Brooks solidify the 'Running Back U' label. That year both of them rushed for +1,000 yds that season. Cribbs finished his career with back-to-back +1,000 yd seasons. Brooks would duplicate that feat the following year. These were seasons only 11 games long and no bowl games (AU was on probation in '79-80.) Sports Illustrated did a column on them that year lauding Brooks & Cribbs for their dual +1,000 yds rushing effort and noting also that it was a shame AU couldn't be on TV to showcase their talents (my sig picture is the one that was in SI.) It seemed like every week one or both of them would break off really long runs. I looked in the record books and all the longest runs (over 60 yds) were listed. Brooks had 4 of them in 1979 alone: 79 vs Vandy (10/13), 68 vs Ga Tech (10/20), 66 vs MSU (11/10) and 67 vs UGA (11/17.) He had plenty of long runs below 60 yds runs as well. It was amazing to see him race to the corner and then turn on the afterburners to the end zone. His nicknams was "Bye-Bye" Brooks, because if he made it to the corner, it was usually Bye-Bye defense! The '79 IB was a memorable game. The bammies had to drive the length of the field late in the 4Q to score the go-ahead TD with 25 seconds left because AU had been knocking snot-bubbles out of them all game long. And even then, Brooks took the ensuing KO and nearly went coast-to-coast with it. A desperation shoe-string tackle tripped up Brooks and he tried to recover his balance before falling forward at the bammie 25. The AU offense couldn't get another play off before the clock expired. It was the loudest noise I've ever heard in a stadium. Bear Bryant would say later, "my heart skipped a beat whenever either of those two touched the ball." Dayyum. Memories.

Pat Sullivan & Terry Beasley... Pat was a senior when I was a frosh in '71. Sullivan to Beasley was magical during that time. I went to Church (Blessed Sacrament in West End), grammar school (Blessed Sacrament) and high school (John Carroll) with Pat. His Dad and Mom (Jerry (R.I.P) & Lorraine) were friends of the family. They had a place in Panama City off the beach where our family and theirs would spend a week some summers partying. Really great, down to earth folks.

Neat story (I think I related this story here before)... I was on campus as a frosh before classes in '71. I managed to get a date with a hot co-ed... we went to the Holiday Inn bar. As we were coming in, Pat (fresh off of a Heisman trophy the year before) was coming out with what had to be the starting offensive line. I didn't say anything because he was BMOC, and I was, after all, a worm Freshman. He spotted me and came over to chat. He was really genuine about how I was getting settled in, and we talked about old times for a bit. He didn't have to do that, but, that is who he is. MAJOR points with my date. :rolleyes:

Wasn't Pat a nice guy? I was also a freshman in 1971, and with the bravery(stupidity) of a freshman took a bet that I couldn't meet Pat Sullivan. My suitemate and I went over to Pat's house (he and his wife had just had a baby, who was crying, I remember that). Anyway, Pat was so nice and genuine, and didn't try at all to chase me out of there (he should have). Well, that just MADE my freshman year, getting to meet Pat Sullivan.

I have always thought that Terry Beasley's pass-catching style was a thing of beauty. It still thrills me when anyone catches the ball over their shoulder the way Terry did. It doesn't happen much, but I enjoy it when it does. One of the brilliant pasttimes we came up with was dam-sliding at Chewacla. You would sit on the top of one of the dams, slide on your butt down it, and then bend your legs to jump you over this huge piece of wood at the bottom. It was fun, but later I found out that it was very unsafe, that people had been crippled by doing that. Anyway, there was a bridge over the dams at Chewacla. Terry Beasley used to walk across the bridge on his hands. Another tale about Terry (I don't know if this is true, or not) - to increase his running speed, he would tie himself to the bumper of a car, get the car to take off and go a little bit faster each time.

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