Alabama, Auburn make Bleacher Report’s 50 Best Fan Traditions

We love our traditions here in Alabama and maybe even more so when it comes to our favorite sports teams.

Bleacher Report recently ranked the 50 best fan traditions across all sports and unsurprising to us, both Alabama and Auburn made the cut. The Tigers even had two different traditions make the list.

Keep reading to see where each tradition ranked + what Bleacher Report had to say about them.

46. Tiger Walk

Many fans will line the streets to welcome their teams to the stadium but Auburn’s Tiger Walk may stand out among the rest.

Bleacher Report points to the origin of the tradition which dates all the way back to 1962 when kids would line the street between Sewell Hall where players lived on campus to the football stadium. And how that tradition grew over time before featuring an estimated 20,000 fans before the first on-campus Iron Bowl in 1989.

“Auburn players and coaches are now taken by bus to the corner of Donahue and Samford 2.5 hours before kickoff for the Tiger Walk. It is widely regarded as the gold standard of a pregame tradition that has become a staple across college football, and Tiger Walk Plaza further highlights the longstanding tradition.”

Bleacher Report

16. Rolling Toomer’s Corner

If you were to guess which fan tradition would make the list for Auburn, this would have been the one. And 16 may be a little low for Tigers fans’ liking.

Here’s what Bleacher Report said about the start of that victory tradition:

“Former Auburn running back Sheldon Toomer founded Toomer’s Drugs in 1896, and it housed the only telegraph in town at the time. When news came through of a Tigers road win, employees would toss the telegraph’s ticker tape onto nearby power lines to signal the victory to the community.”

Bleacher Report

That tradition turned to using toilet paper in 1972 after Auburn player Terry Henley said his team would “beat the No. 2 out of Alabama.” The Tigers would win 17-16 in the famous “Punt Bama Punt” game and fans responded by throwing toilet paper over the nearby power lines at Toomer’s Corner.

4. Roll Tide

The highest-ranked college fan tradition on the list is Alabama’s “Roll Tide” saying. The phrase is used for everything from a casual hello to a stranger to a sentimental goodbye to family members.

“The ‘Crimson Tide’ origins met the ‘Roll Tide’ rallying cry in 1926 when Ethelred Epp Sykes won a contest to write Alabama’s official fight song, which ended in: ‘Crimson Tide, Roll Tide, Roll Tide!’ Now it is a universal greeting and goodbye, expression of thanks, gesture of agreement and everything in between for Alabama alumni and Crimson Tide fans alike.”

Bleacher Report

The only fan traditions ranked ahead of Alabama’s Roll Tide belong to NFL teams. Check out the full list.