Anyone who cheers for the underdog will be enthralled by the story of Auburn’s 1972 football team.
The Tigers were predicted to drop into the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference standings after losing quarterback Pat Sullivan, who won the 1971 Heisman Trophy, and All-American receiver Terry Beasley. Going into their opening game, they had only five offensive plays.
Auburn proved its critics wrong all year long, capping an unbelievable season with a jaw-dropping upset of Alabama, returning two blocked punts for touchdowns in the game’s closing minutes. Instead of finishing in sixth place in the SEC, the team finished fifth—in the country!
The Amazin’s, as they were nicknamed, won as a result of the bonds they formed during grueling winter workouts and August two-a-day practices under the unforgiving Alabama sun. Fifty years later, the Amazin’s still find strength in each other, facing new challenges as teammates for life.
If you cherish Auburn football, great rivalries, and want to learn how to apply lessons from the gridiron to everyday life, then you’ll love this inspiring story of the university’s most unforgettable team—then and now.
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Jeff Miller is an Auburn University graduate who has written about college football for publications in Alabama, Florida and Texas. His work has also been published by ESPN.com, and he served as an editor for The Athletic and CBSSports.com. Among his previous seven books are an oral history of the zany American Football League of the 1960s (“Going Long”), the little-known tale of racial integration of major college football in Texas (“Game Changers”) and an inside look at the eight West Point seniors from the winless 2003 football team who then went off to war (“Football Fields and Battlefields”).