This was Shug Jordan's last season as head coach of the Tigers.

And, unlike these days, the players knew it from the coach himself, rather than taking their cues from the endless media and fan speculation. He came out in the spring and said this was his last season. He was looking forward to buying a Coke and peanuts and sitting in the stands watching the games.

An Auburn man through and through, he played for the Tigers and graduated from Auburn in 1932. He coached an undefeated team to a national championship in 1957. Before World War II he was the basketball coach on the Plains. After his service -- more on that in a moment -- he coached hoops again at Auburn and then Georgia before finally getting the call to come home.

Jordan applied for the job in 1948, but didn't get his wish. When he heard the news he said, "If they don't think an Auburn man can do the job they ought to close the joint down." Three years later old API would come calling and Jordan would go on to be the longest-serving Auburn football coach (25 years) and the man with the most wins (176).

Audio: No one has probably heard this in several years, but here's a radio tag Jordan made for one of the local stations, a place where I would a few decades later.

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