The War Eagle Program.

Anvre and Auburn's first football game

The story dates to the Civil War. A Confederate soldier from Alabama, sole survivor of a bloody battle, stumbled across a wounded young eagle on the field. He nursed the bird back to health and named him Anvre. Years later, returning to Auburn as a faculty member, he brought the eagle with him — both became familiar sights on campus.

One day in 1892, during Auburn's first football game, the aged eagle broke free of his master, circled the field while the fans roared, and at the end of the game — with Auburn the victor — fell to the ground and died. Whether truth or legend, such is the story of Auburn's first War Eagle.

Ten dollars and a tangle of pea vines

A golden eagle swooped down on a flock of turkeys in Bee Hive, Alabama, near Opelika, and became entangled in pea vines. Fourteen individuals and businesses pooled $10 to buy the eagle from the farmer who owned the patch.

On Thanksgiving Day they carried the bird in a string-wire cage to the Auburn / South Carolina game in Columbus. Auburn hadn't won a game in three straight seasons. They beat the Carolinians 25–7. The student body could only conclude that the eagle had done it.

He was kept in a cage behind Alumni Hall and cared for by the “A” Club. What became of him is uncertain — some say he died, some say students of a rival school carried him off, some say upkeep got too expensive and he was given to a zoo. He is remembered today as Auburn's second War Eagle.

War Eagle III — the chapter becomes stewards

A golden eagle, winged in a cotton field at Curry Station, Alabama by a picker who saw him caught between two rows, was sent to Auburn by the Talladega County Agent with a load of turkeys. He was first taken to the ATO fraternity house, refused a cold chicken leg, and made fast work of a live one.

After a brief stay in the Wildlife Department's animal pens, the bird was moved to a cage built by Alpha Phi Omega. Brother Jon Bowden, who had worked with hawks in Colorado and Missouri, volunteered as trainer. Formally named War Eagle III, Jon nicknamed him “Tiger.”

In April 1961 Jon and Tiger made their first appearance as trainer and mascot on the baseball diamond — Georgia Tech, eighth inning, Auburn trailing 10–13. Auburn rallied for four in the ninth and won. The students were sold.

War Eagle III flies free, and a new Tiger arrives

On the morning of the Auburn–Tennessee game, trainer A. Elwyn Hamer, Jr. found War Eagle III sitting on the ground next to his perch — he had sprung the clip on his leash. Before Hamer could do anything, the bird flew. After days of searching, he was found shot to death in a wooded area near where he had escaped.

The Birmingham Downtown Action Committee located another golden eagle at the Jackson, Mississippi zoo and presented her to the Auburn student body that October. She became War Eagle IV — also called Tiger — and would live in a large aviary east of Jordan-Hare funded by Delta Chapter and named after Hamer, who was killed in a plane crash in December 1965.

War Eagle IV's final morning

The morning of the Auburn / Alabama game in Birmingham, trainers Tim Thomason, Charlie Jacks, Bob Ingram, and former trainer Bill Watts found War Eagle IV dead in her aviary. She had been Auburn's mascot for sixteen years, was twenty-two years old, and the cause was unknown.

A marble marker was placed in the aviary in her memory.

War Eagle V arrives

Through the efforts of War Eagle IV's trainers and the financial support of the Birmingham Downtown Action Committee, an immature golden eagle was located and brought to Auburn from Wyoming. The bird arrived March 3, 1981, was kept at the Veterinary School for a few weeks to recover from travel, and was then presented to the University at the A-Day game on May 9, 1981.

She was under the stewardship of the U.S. Government and on loan to the Auburn University Veterinary School. She was named War Eagle V and nicknamed Tiger. She was approximately two years old.

Coca-Cola comes calling

Tiger appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1986 — one of the rare moments the chapter's eagle stewardship reached a truly national audience.

A ruptured spleen, a futile night at the Vet School

After five years of public appearances — university functions, alumni meetings, schools, hospitals, the 1985 BSA National Jamboree, and the 1986 Order of the Arrow National Conference — War Eagle V died of a ruptured spleen at age eight and a half.

Trainer Jim McAlarney had taken her to the Vet School the night before, having noticed she didn't respond normally to his handling. He stayed with her through the night as veterinarians made a futile effort to save her life.

War Eagle VI arrives

The trainers began working soon after War Eagle V's death to find a replacement. The Auburn University Alumni Association and many alumni aided the effort, and a new golden eagle was located at the T.V.A. Raptor Rehab Facility in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky.

Trainers Bart Winkler and Gary Crawford drove to Kentucky to bring her home, funded by a donation from alumnus Thomas Chamberlain. She had been seized by federal agents in St. Louis and brought to Kentucky for rehab. Like War Eagle V, she came on loan from the U.S. Government to the College of Veterinary Medicine. She arrived in Auburn on October 8, 1986 at approximately six years old.

The first pre-game flight in Jordan-Hare

On August 31, 2000, War Eagle VI made her first pre-game flight inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. The tradition of an eagle circling the field before kickoff — the moment Auburn fans associate with the words “War Eagle!” — was born that night.

Forty years; the program passes to the Raptor Center

After forty years of caring for War Eagles III through VI — raising funds for their habitats, training the birds, walking them onto the field on Saturdays — the program transitioned from Alpha Phi Omega's Delta Chapter to Auburn's Southeastern Raptor Center.

Tiger — War Eagle VI — remained the active mascot. The chapter's role as primary stewards came to a close.

Tiger's final lap of Jordan-Hare

War Eagle VI made her last pre-game flight at Jordan-Hare on November 11, 2006. After her retirement she remained at the Southeastern Raptor Center as an ambassador.

Thirty-four years, well past wild

War Eagle VI — Tiger — passed in 2014 at the age of thirty-four. Wild golden eagles rarely see twenty. The chapter's care of her for the first stretch of her life, and the Raptor Center's care for the rest, gave her one of the longest lives ever recorded for a golden eagle in captivity.