shot bus at war eagle supper club.jpg

Jim Walker of OK Bicycle Shop in downtown Mobile has bought the legendary "shot bus" made famous at Auburn's War Eagle Supper Club, which closed on New Year's Eve after operating for 78 years. (Courtesy Jim Walker)

Jim Walker, owner of the OK Bicycle Shop bar in downtown Mobile, confirmed Monday that the "shot bus" that drove many an Auburn University student home from the War Eagle Supper Club over the years before becoming a bar itself will soon be parked near his other businesses along Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile. The bus will become a permanent fixture as a bar that Walker expects to retain the War Eagle Supper Club name.

Walker, whose other establishments include Liquid sushi bar, Dauphin Street Taqueria and Union restaurant, all in the same block of Dauphin Street, was one of the last customers to exit the bus on New Year's Day, he said. He and a friend "drank all night" at the bus-turned-bar at the War Eagle Supper Club to celebrate its last hurrah on New Year's Eve. "We had the last beers on it," he said.

The Supper Club was a fixture in Auburn for 78 years.

The "shot bus" leaves the War Eagle Supper Club in Auburn, destined for new tires before making its way to downtown Mobile, where it will become a new bar on Dauphin Street. (Courtesy Jim Walker)

Walker and his brother, Woody Walker, opened one of the first bars on Dauphin Street, G.T. Henry's, in 1989, helping to kick-start the revitalization of downtown Mobile. He first met John Brandt, a co-owner of the War Eagle Supper Club, in the early 1990s, when Brandt was also managing a band, Zig and the Zigtones.

When the band played at Trinity's in Mobile, Jim Walker contacted Brandt to get them to play at his bar - and a friendship was born between the two. "I drove up there, he gave me some help and we became great friends," said Walker.

Around that time, the former school bus that Brandt had used to drive students home from the bar - which had already had the engine and brakes replaced - had worn out. Walker thought the bus itself would make a great bar, and he offered to buy it and move it to Mobile then. But Brandt tore up Walker's check and decided to make the bus into a bar at the Supper Club. He coasted it into a big oak tree, he said, and there it sat.

By then, the bus was "not convenient to drive around student housing," such as apartment complexes and trailer parks, Brandt said. The Supper Club used smaller vehicles to continue to transport students home.

The bus became known as "the shot bus" because patrons would buy a shot and sign their name on its walls and roof. "It's probably got everybody's signature in the state in it," said Walker. Eventually, the bus became a fully operational bar, said Brandt.

When he heard that the Supper Club would be closing on Dec. 31, Walker called Brandt and said, "Hey, can I get the bus?"

Brandt, who hopes to reopen the Supper Club with another name in another location in Auburn, is thrilled that the Walker brothers will continue to use the bus in downtown Mobile. "I know everything they do is first-class," he said. "Jim and Woody know the bus from when it took people home. They rode on it and had shots on it when it was serving shots."

On Monday, Walker was planning to get an estimate for building a deck around the bus, which he plans to put by a pecan tree in the Union parking lot, he said. He also plans to "clean up the exterior" and cover it with a roof to protect it.

"I'm going to put it on metal jack stands and have it as a focal point," he said. "I'm leaving it in its original state."

Walker's management team is meeting Wednesday to discuss plans for the new bar, which will continue to be called War Eagle Supper Club, he said. He also has the original sign, which he will "stick out on Dauphin Street," he said.

For now, the bus remains in Auburn, where it's getting new tires before it makes its final journey to Mobile.

Walker told Brandt that he plans to have a ribbon cutting ceremony, and Brandt and his business partner, Mark Cadenhead, hope to attend, he said.