Buddy Davidson

Buddy Davidson is shown at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014. The former Auburn sports information director has attended 568 Auburn games. (Mark Almond/malmond@al.com)

(MARK ALMOND)

The streak has stretched on for seven decades. It has spanned 12 Presidential administrations, eight head coaching tenures, and six U.S. wars. In rain, snow, sleet and sunshine, in tar-bubbling heat and bone-chilling cold, Buddy Davidson has achieved one of the most remarkable feats in the history of college football: He has attended 657 consecutive Auburn games--home and away--the longest such active streak in the nation.



The streak has endured through heart-wrenching sadness (his first wife died of a heart attack in 1988) and over-the-moon love (he remarried in 2001). He's shaken hands with five presidents and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Burt Reynolds, Howard Cosell, Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron, Glen Campbell, Conway Twitty, Barbara Mandrell and Kris Kristofferson.



How much of a fixture has college football's iron-man been at Auburn? Consider: Davidson, 74, has traveled over two million miles--by planes, trains, 18-wheelers, vans, sedans and even by boat--to see almost 60 percent of the games Auburn has ever played. Ever. As in since he Tigers' first football game in 1892.



The record for most consecutive games attended is believed to be held by Giles Pellerin, a USC fan who went to 797 straight Trojan games between 1925 until he died in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl of cardiac arrest in 1991 after the USC-UCLA game. Alabama fan Dick Coffee made it to 781 straight Alabama kickoffs between 1946 and his passing in 2013. Davidson is charging at the all-time mark.



"The plan is to keep going as long as I can do it health-wise and it doesn't become a burden to my family," says Davidson, who worked in the Auburn sports information department from 1964 to 2007. "The day will come when they take my car keys from me, but until then I'm going to keep going, one game at a time. It's still as exciting as ever for me. Football is a simple game; it's a game of resolve. You try to impose your will on the guy in front of you. I love that."



Davidson closes his hazel eyes. On the game film of his memory, the most memorable moments of the streak come alive, flickering in crystal clarity, as if he's there again, mesmerized by the melodrama on the field.







Buddy Davidson is shown at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014. The former Auburn sports information director has attended 568 Auburn games. (Mark Almond/malmond@al.com)

Game 0

Date: Oct. 26, 1957

Place: Student Union building, Auburn campus

Score: Auburn 48, Houston 7



A freshman student manager on the Tiger squad, Davidson, 17 and a native of Montgomery, doesn't travel with the team to the Lone Star State. In the minutes before kickoff, he scrambles around campus searching for a radio. He finally finds one in the student union, where he listens to the action with three other students.



Auburn runs deep in Davidson's blood. His uncle, Chaddie Davidson, was a single-wing quarterback and team captain for the Tigers in 1931. As a kid the Auburn games held little Buddy's eyes like nothing else. He hitchhiked to the school in the summer of '57 with a handwritten note in his back pocket from Tom Jones, his high school coach at Robert E. Lee High, recommending him to coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan to be a student manger.



At practice before the Houston game Davidson sees Jordan have his quarterback, Lloyd Nix, work diligently on his long passes. Minutes before kickoff Davidson tells the other students, as they strain to hear the rise and fall of the crowd at Rice Stadium noise crackle over the radio, that Auburn is going to throw deep on the first play of the game. And the Tigers do: Nix lofts a rainbow into the arms of a receiver for a 71-yard score.



Davidson leaps off his chair, joyously dancing around like his feet are on fire. "I told you so!" he screams. "I told you!"



It is the final game that Davidson will not see with own eyes.



Game 1

Date: Nov. 2, 1957

Place: Cliff Hare Stadium

Score: Auburn 13, Florida 0



The streak begins on Davidson's 18th birthday. He joins the biggest crowd in school history up that point--about 38,000--to see the Tigers beat the 19th ranked Gators.



After the game Davidson hustles to the players' dining hall, where he does everything from serving food to washing dishes. As darkness falls, he walks to the wood cabin that doubles as his dormitory. A second-year assistant coach named Vince Dooley lives in the cabin as well, but he's not there when Davidson slips into dreamland. Dooley, like most everyone on campus, stays out into the small hours celebrating the victory.



Game 88

Date: Dec. 18, 1965

Place: Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tenn.

Score: Ole Miss 13, Auburn 7



During pregame warm-ups Davidson walks around the frozen field. The temperature hasn't risen above 10 degrees all week in Memphis and Davidson, 25, is as cold during the game as he's ever been--except once.



The personal cold record during the streak is the 1957 Iron Bowl--Game 6--played at Legion Field in Birmingham. Davidson traveled to the city the night before with the other freshmen student managers in a truck that carried the team's equipment. But Davidson only brought a T-shirt and shorts. He didn't realize that the game-day temperature wouldn't rise above five degrees.



Shivering before kickoff, Davidson runs to a nearby store and buys a bucket, three bags of charcoal and lighter fluid. He builds a fire on the sideline. Soon the Auburn players are huddled around the red-orange glow of the flame. The Tigers win 40-0.



Game 226

Date: Oct. 6, 1979

Place: Cliff Hare Stadium

Score: Auburn 44, N.C. State 31



Davidson, 39, serves as the press box PA announcer during games. Early in the second quarter George Bush Sr., then a candidate for president, sits next to Davidson to watch the action. Between plays the future vice president and president peppers Davidson with questions about student attitudes, gauging the political atmosphere on campus. Bush is also fascinated by the passion of the fans; it's a raging inferno the likes of which he'd rarely seen.



He stays by Davidson's side until late in the fourth quarter. Davidson talks a blue steak to 41. In Davidson's universe, everyone is a friend, every game a social event.



Game 653

Date: Nov. 30, 2013

Place: Jordan-Hare Stadium

Score: Auburn 34, Alabama 28



Davidson. 74, serves as a sideline marshal during home games and after the final whistle blows he delivers a stat sheet listing the game's penalties to the head coaches. As soon as Auburn's Chris Davis dashes 109-yards to complete the Kick Six, Davidson runs onto the field and hands a penalty sheet to one of Nick Saban's assistants.



Davidson nimbly dodges the fans rushing onto the field as he makes his way to the Auburn locker room. He puts Gus Malzahn's copy of the penalty sheet in the coach's briefcase and then realizes, suddenly, he's alone in the locker room. It's as quiet as a monastery in here. For a few moments, alone in the concrete underbelly of the stadium, he closes his eyes and drinks in the triumph, reminding himself never to forget how gratifying this feels. The years of being a devoted fan--it all has been worth it just to experience this. "Best game ever," he says to himself. "Best game ever."



Game 657

Date: Sept. 6, 2014

Place: Jordan-Hare Stadium

Score: Auburn 59, San Jose State 13



Davidson rises from his bed as the first blush of sunlight ripples over the Plains. He leaves his Auburn home and goes to Byron's Smokehouse. He orders his usual pre-game meal: three eggs and three pieces of bacon washed down with a cup of coffee.



Dressed in a blue Auburn collared shirt and khakis, he drives to the stadium. He watches the Tiger Walk--just like he always does. It still gives him the full-body shiver of excitement.



He strolls through the lengthening late-afternoon shadows, entering Gate 10 in the south end zone. After all these years, the thrill of possibility still pumps in his heart. Game time is near.