I'm pretty sure we've discussed Ralph "Shug" Jordan before. I'm a pretty big fan, so, if you know bad stuff about him, don't tell me. Anyway, I thought his last appearance on the weekly Auburn Football Review program was just so sweet. It aired at 5 on Sunday evening, Nov. 30, 1975, in Montgomery, Alabama. My favorite part is when his wife shows up at the end, and the South Central Bell Telephone dude presents the Jordans with a built-for-two, monogrammed stadium seat.
Congratulations, Coach and Mrs. Jordan. I hope you enjoy the next four and a half years together very much.
From 1933 until 1950, Shug Jordan was a basketball coach. He went 95-77 at Auburn, with a record of 59-56 in the SEC. He went 41-28 at Georgia, with a record of 12-17 in the SEC.
ReplyDeleteIn Jordan's career as a basketball coach, he went 0-5 against Kentucky. He was 0-1 at Auburn, and 0-4 at Georgia. Interestingly, between 1926 and 1951, Auburn and UK never met in the regular season, although they did play four times in the SEC Tournament. They didn't start playing every year until 1954.
ReplyDeleteOn January 20, 1948, Kentucky went to Georgia and beat the Bulldogs 88-51. that was Jordan's closest game against the Big Blue. Of course, all five of his games with UK came between 1946 and 1949, which was pretty much the worst possible time to play Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteIn 1951, then, Jordan--a Selma native and football, basketball and baseball letter-winner at Auburn in the early 1930s--started a 25-year run as Auburn's football coach. His second team went 2-8 overall and 0-7 in the Southeastern Conference; by 1957, he had led Auburn to a 10-0/7-0 record and Associated Press national championship. Says Wikipedia, "In 1973, the university renamed Cliff Hare Stadium as Jordan–Hare Stadium in Jordan's honor, the first stadium in the United States to be named for an active coach. When Jordan retired after the 1975 season, he had amassed a record of 176–83–6 for a .675 winning percentage. His Auburn football teams had .500 or winning records in 22 of 25 seasons he coached."
ReplyDeleteThis show came the day after Alabama had beaten Auburn, 28-0, for its third-straight "Iron Bowl" victory. It was the second shutout in that span.
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