| Summary: | This image is a photograph used in the book Auburn, a Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village by Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, 3rd edition, 2013, depicting the history of the city and the university. From page 231: These Auburn students were among about 200 protesting the school's second football probation. (The angry rally in 1958 turned into an aborted panty raid, the Plainsman reported.) In '57, the undefeated, untied football team had given up only 2.8 points a game under defensive coordinator Hal Harring in winning the Associated Press national championship. But Auburn had been serving its first NCAA probation and couldn't play in a bowl game. Also in '57, the electrical and mechanical engineering departments, long underfunded by the Alabama Legislature, had lost accreditation. It required prompt administrative action, alumni fund raising, "badly needed changes in organization, equipment, personnel, and research" to return engineering "to good standing." (The sign pictured--with the word "unaccredited" on it--alluded to both the football and academic woes.) Meanwhile, students took it hard when the SEC in '58 upheld the NCAA's decision that Auburn had offered illegal inducements while recruiting star high school quarterback Don Fuell of Guntersville. In the earlier case in 1956, the school had admitted guilt. Assistant Coach Herring had been accused of giving five hundred dollars each to twin-brother running backs Robert and Harry Beaube of Gadsden. An alumnus provided to cash to compete with the free furnished apartments that the Beaube boys were offered earlier to play for "another institution," according to published accounts. (The brothers reportedly said Auburn and Alabama were the only SEC schools to offer them scholarships.) Their father, a minister, either returned the money or made them return it the next day, but the NCAA prohibited Auburn from playing in bowl games after the 1956 and 1957 seasons. In the Fuell case, Auburn protested that it was falsely accused. The school "produced volumes of affadavits, receipts, and bank records in an effort to prove its innocence," David Housel wrote. But the NCAA ruled guilty and inflicted three years' probation. Photo source: Auburn University Archives.
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