Post Tagged with: "Beard Eaves"

AU HOOPS: Tigers send Beard-Eaves out with a win

From Wally Tinker

From Wally Tinker

Wally Tinker, game ball in hand, strolled past the free-throw line and stopped about 7 feet from the hoop outside the paint.

With 9,927 fans cheering as loudly as they had all night in Auburn’s 89-80 upset victory Wednesday over Mississippi State, the former Tiger wasted little time before sending a high-arching shot toward the hoop, stationed right around the same place he hit the first basket in Beard-
Eaves-Memorial Coliseum more than 41 years ago.

With an old-school, off-the-glass swish, Tinker made it look just as easy as four of the Tigers’ six seniors made it look all Wednesday night, an historically fitting ending not only to the arena’s history, but for the largely overlooked Senior Night.

“We had six seniors that you want to honor and send this place out in the right way,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “There have been so many memories in this place.”

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AU HOOPS: After 42 seasons, Tigers say goodbye to Beard-Eaves

So long Bearded Eaves

As much as coaches, players and pretty much everyone else in the Auburn athletic department have talked excitedly about the new Auburn Arena, it likely doesn’t even sniff the buzz that took over the campus more than 40 years ago.

Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum certainly isn’t “The Barn.”

“You didn’t know which board to jump off of,” former Auburn forward Bill Alexander said. “In that Old Barn, you had special boards where, boy, you could really jump off them.”

The upkeep of Auburn’s 41-year-old arena maybe hasn’t been up to snuff with some of its counterparts around the league, but it’s safe to say DeWayne Reed and the rest of Auburn’s players won’t get an extra boost from a favorite patch of wood in tonight’s final game at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

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