Why is Auburn's team sometimes referred to as the Plainsmen?

Question

as well as the Tigers and the War Eagles?

Answer 1

The most popular account involves the first Auburn football game in 1892 between Auburn and the University of Georgia. According to the story, in the stands that day was an old Civil War soldier with an eagle that he had found injured on a battlefield and kept as a pet. The eagle broke free and began to soar over the field, and Auburn began to march toward the Georgia end-zone. The crowd began to chant, "War Eagle" as the eagle soared. After Auburn won the game, the eagle crashed to the field and died but, according to the legend, his spirit lives on every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry of "War Eagle" also functions as a greeting for those associated with the University. For many years, a live golden eagle has embodied the spirit of this tradition. The eagle was once housed on campus in The Eagle's Cage, but the cage was taken down and the eagle moved to a

Answer 2

Here's a summary. Auburn's mascot, and therefore the school nickname, is the "TIGERS". Auburn's battle cry is "WAR EAGLE!". A descriptive term used for Auburn students is "PLAINSMEN".

Through the years, these terms have often been used interchangeably and incorrectly. There are even hats and T-shirts with the incorrect "Auburn War Eagles" printed on them. Additionally, the news media has been known to refer to an Auburn team as the War Eagles or to an Auburn player as a War Eagle. All incorrect.

Now, here's why things are the way they are. Judge John J. Harper, who founded the city of Auburn in 1836, was inspired to name the city, "Auburn" because of a line from Oliver Goldsmith's poem, "The Deserted Village," published in May of 1770. The line, describing a fictitious town reads: "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the Plain." The nickname "Tigers" comes from another line in the poem: "where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey....

And to wrap up the mascot explanation, we must mention the term "Plainsman". Also originating in the same line of the Oliver Goldsmith poem that gave name to our city, Auburn was described as the "...loveliest village of the Plain." And because the city of Auburn is geographically located on a plain, the description seemed particularly fitting and stuck. Since Auburn athletes were, in the early days, men from the Plains, it was only natural for newspaper headline writers to shorten that to "Plainsmen." However, today as in days of old, the term "Plainsman" or "Plainswoman" always refers to Auburn students, never to a sports team or mascot. That is why you could refer to a student as a "Plainsman" or a group of students as "Plainsmen," but it would be incorrect to refer to an Auburn sports team as the "Auburn Plainsmen