BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
FOR THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA-AUBURN— When looking at Auburn High School and Opelika High School, the two schools seemed destined to become rivals. Just over six miles apart, they are polar opposites in almost every single way.
One is represented by a tiger, the other by a bulldog. One wears blue on Friday nights, while the other wears red. One is located in a fast-growing town fueled by growth associated with its world-renowned university, while the other is located in a working-class town.
It’s a glaring collection of juxtapositions that are components of a truly great game that transcends time, place and all the players who have participated in the series up until now.
And when the Tigers travel to Opelika to play at Bulldog Stadium on Sept. 4 at 7 p.m., it will be the 100th time the schools have met on the gridiron, marking a historic milestone in one of Alabama’s oldest high school football rivalry games.
It is a series steeped in tradition that binds generations of Auburnites and Opelikans together no matter their age.
A historic competition
While the first game was played in 1917, the series has only continuously run since 1930 after being played sparingly in the 1920s. Since then, OHS and AHS have played every year regardless of postseason ambitions, classifications or any other difference.
Until the mid-1980s, the game was one of the highlights of the year in both cities as it was typically played in late October or early November, making it the season’s final contest. At the time, neither program officially participated in an Alabama High School Athletic Association region, which rendered them ineligible for postseason play and made the matchup that much more significant.
For Joe Wilson, who played for the Bulldogs from 1953 to 1955 and served as OHS’ head coach and athletic director from 1982 to 1989, the rivalry between the schools has always held a special significance. As the only person to have both played and served as head coach for the Bulldogs, his perspective spans decades and encompasses a range of experiences, from the field to the sidelines.
However, there have been significant changes made to both teams’ schedules in the decades since he first strapped on a helmet for his alma mater. That was a time before Auburn and Opelika both swelled with new residents, and most schools in the surrounding area could field comparable football teams.
“That was back in the day when Opelika, Auburn, Lanett, Valley, Alex City and those folks, we were all pretty much the same size. In fact, Tallassee was also one of our main opponents. And here’s something I do not understand, and Coach Etheredge tried to explain it to me on the radio, but we always played the last game, and here they are playing next Thursday,” Wilson said. “Way back when I first came back to Opelika [to coach], the playoffs had just started. It’s a big game, it’s now a region game, there’s a lot of pride.”
Ever since the first game, the rivalry has been fiercely and evenly contested, with AHS leading the series 49-47-3 entering Thursday’s game. That dogged nature has also trickled down to virtually every conceivable metric to judge the series by.
While the Bulldogs hold the record for the longest winning streak, having won nine straight times between 1996 and 2004, the Tigers are now in the midst of an eight-game winning streak that threatens to tie OHS’ run around the turn of the millennium.
The away team has also played spoiler more often than not, as neither team has a winning record on its home field. OHS currently has a 21-28-2 record at Moore Stadium and Bulldog Stadium, while AHS is 22-25 at Felton Little Park and Duck Samford Stadium. The teams tied in the one neutral-site game they played in.
Through 99 games, the Tigers have scored 1,573 total points, while the Bulldogs have scored 1,563 total points. Forty-five games have either ended in a tie or been decided by seven or fewer points. The list goes on and on.
Over the years, that has produced numerous moments that have given the game such a rich tradition.
Moments that matter
Among the plethora of memorable moments are the upsets – wins or draws – that have defined the series.
In 1926, a 2-5 OHS team faced a 7-1 AHS squad intent on ending the season on a high note. Instead, the game ended in a scoreless tie. In 1956, OHS and AHS fought to a 6-6 tie with the team records at 1-7 and 6-3, respectively, entering the contest. And in 2005, a 5-3 AHS crew upset an 8-0 OHS group that made it to the 6A state championship semifinals by a score of 14-7.
There have been crushing victories in which one team demoralized the other. The Tigers’ biggest win in the series was in 1917 – the very first game – a 57-0 shutout drumming of the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs’ biggest win came in 2002 with a 41-3 demolition of the Tigers.
For a time, the Opelika Daily News presented the winning team with a trophy at the conclusion of the game. If a team won the game three times in a row, they got to keep that trophy.
Then there have been the antics reserved for only the truly best rivalry games, such as the game played in 1981.
It was held at Bulldog Stadium on a Thursday night instead of the Friday it was originally scheduled for. The Grammy-winning American funk and soul group The Commodores was Auburn University’s entertainment the night before Saturday’s homecoming game, and decision-makers at both schools did not want to compete with the concert.
However, nobody contacted the officials to let them know the game had been changed, and they didn’t realize their mistake until right before the game was set to kick off. The contest did not begin until after 9 p.m., as they had to contact the referees and inform them that they were needed.
AHS won that game 41-34. At the time, it was the highest-scoring game in series history until 2022 when the Tigers defeated the Bulldogs 51-29.
It was an unforgettable, brief moment of pure chaos that made both towns sit at the edge of their seats, eager to see what would come next and be the topic of discussion that Sunday at church or around the watercooler on Monday morning.
Those moments have inevitably carried a sense of influence on both communities and their view of the game.
Impact on the community
According to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society, the rivalry has an unofficial nickname: the “Hate the Other Side but Respect Them” rivalry due to how closely intertwined Auburn and Opelika are geographically, economically and socially.
People from both towns often work together, attend church together, participate in community events together, have their children or grandchildren participate in activities together and, in some cases, are related to each other.
That cross-pollination between Auburn’s and Opelika’s residents has created an air of mutual respect that trickles down into the rivalry game itself. But while that respect has dulled the nasty, unsportsmanlike edge that once defined athletic competitions between the two schools, it has not dampened the spirit and resolve to win.
From Auburn Mayor Ron Anders’ perspective, the night is one of the most significant nights of the entire year for both cities. It’s also a night steeped with nostalgia for Anders, who graduated from AHS in 1982 and played as a wide receiver and cornerback for the Tigers from 1979 until 1981.
“To me, it’s the best of both of our communities,” Anders said. “It’s the best of our young people who are there playing the game, who are performing support roles, whether that’s the cheerleaders, the band or students in the stands. It’s our communities coming together to support what’s important to us, and that’s our children and our future, and so I believe that from both of our communities, you get our very best. They are well-played and well-fought games between two communities that live right next to each other and have respect for one another. They are putting their best foot forward to win, and so I’ve always thought it was one of Auburn’s and Opelika’s best nights of the year.”
Practices that week were much livelier. Players put athletic tape on their helmets with messages like “Beat the Bulldogs” and “Beat the Tigers.” Parents attended the pep rallies to support their children. The seniors would eat a meal the night before the game by themselves since it was the final time they would gather together before a game. The cheerleaders would paint players’ cars so that they read “Beat the Bulldogs,” “Go Tigers,” “Beat the Tigers” and “Go Bulldogs” as they drove around town. That run-up included such pomp and pageantry that young football players could not wait for their turn to square off against the other team at the varsity level.
“As a child growing up in the community, and as I entered junior high and started going to most of the high school football games, the thought of playing in that Auburn-Opelika game was like a dream,” Anders said. “For everything that the Iron Bowl was on a college level, the Auburn-Opelika game was that on the high school level. It was just a huge game. The pep rallies were bigger. The excitement during the week was bigger. The write-ups in the newspapers were bigger. It was just all bigger — a really, really, really unique and great experience for a great rivalry.”
Regardless of the outcome, there is well-placed optimism on both sides that Thursday’s game will remain clean, injury-free and represent the best of athletic spirit and competition. From there, however, the desire to claim victory overrides those cordial feelings for several hours.
“I hope it’ll be a great game. Of course, I’ll be the first to tell you I hope Opelika can whip Auburn, and it has no reflection on Coach Etheredge and his folks. It’s just that Coach Moore and them, they’re Opelika folks. I played and coached here. And I hope everybody will behave and it’ll be a great atmosphere and a great football game,” Wilson said. “It will be a great football game. Everybody will be happy about it. I know the loser won’t be happy, but at least they walk off and played well and played good.”
