| Ralph Jordan was a steady center as a junior in 1930, when
this picture was taken. The next year he played sixty minutes in
Auburn's first football victory over Georgia Tech in twelve seasons.
He also led the basketball team that reached the semifinals of the conference
tournament, then hit a home run and pitched in the baseball championship
victory over Florida. Neil O. Davis was a freshman in 1931 when Jordan
was a senior. Nearly fifty years later, after Jordan's death, Davis
recalled in the Auburn Bulletin: "My freshman view of the campus
'wheel' saw him as a football-basketball-baseball hero who, despite his
'star' status, had the common touch. He was a warm, friendly fellow
who hadn't let prominence in athletics and election to major campus honor
societies go to his head." Davis ended: "Shug Jordan was Auburn through
and through. He loved the place. He never lost that touch of
friendliness that attracted to him so many died-in-the-wool, loyal friends.
He hated to lose. But he was a gracious winner. In victory
and defeat he maintained his equilibrium. That is hard to do in these
days of pressure-packed, big-time football. Auburn will miss him."
-- Photo: AU Special Collections |
