WHAR'S EAGLE?! — It's time once again for the annual retelling of the Billy Eagle story.

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A while back, an Auburn old-timer shared a story with me. I hesitated to post this, yet I have decided to go ahead in the spirit of helping us to better understand their traditions.

Back in the 1950s (I assume 1957, but didn't want to bother him with details) Auburn had a senior QB named Billy Eagle. The Auburn nation loved him. But something happened before their game with the Georgia Bulldogs — Billy came down with a bad stomach virus on game day. He was in no shape to play, and the coaches decided that he would have to sit out. This was wayyy before the internet and cell phones, so none of the fans had any idea.

Well, the first half went terribly for the Auburn offense. They couldn’t move the ball without Billy Eagle behind center. Auburn fans quickly realized Billy's absence and started asking each other "Where's Eagle?" As Georgia built their lead and the Auburn offense stumbled further, the questions became louder, at this point it was almost shouts of "Where's Eagle?"....."WHAR'S EAGLE?!"

At halftime, Auburn found themselves down 20 points to the Bulldogs and the offense could hardly muster a first down without Billy Eagle at the helm. The crowd grew to a fever pitch, and the chants in the stadium sounded like a roar of "WHAR'S EAGLE!!" "WHAR’S EAGLE!"

Billy Eagle was in the locker room and managed to hear it. This moved him so much that he decided — despite the stomach virus — to suit up for the second half and take the field. Upon seeing him the Auburn family roared, and immediately he went to work, leading the Tigers on their first touchdown drive. When it was time for the Auburn offense to come back on the field again, the Auburn nation chanted "Where's Eagle?!" to assure that he would come back out.

Billy did not disappoint, coming out each and every drive, making plays all over the field, giving Auburn the win and cementing his place in history.

Now the stadium was in a frenzy! The fans were in such an uproar that the team didn’t even get to go to the locker room, instead being rushed out of the stadium to celebrate right there at Toomer's Corner. It was an unbelievable scene!

However, at this point Billy's stomach virus had not gone away, and by now he was in an awful shape. Billy had to go to the bathroom in the worst way, yet he was surrounded by a throng of people so deep in the center of town that he knew he would never make it out. At wits end, he gazed upwards, contemplating the only thing that he thought he could possibly do. Seeing a great big old tree, Billy began to climb. Higher and higher, deep into the tree. So high up, he didn’t think the crowd could even see him anymore. And it was there at the top that he was able to... relieve himself.

A few of his teammates realized his predicament and ran right over to the corner store. They came back with armfuls of toilet paper and started throwing them up at the tree to help Billy. Of course they couldn’t quite remember which tree he had climbed, so they just started throwing the toilet rolls in all the trees, in the hopes that Billy could grab just a little bit somewhere. Soon the trees were covered. It was a day that will never be forgotten, and a tradition was born.

Even later, before games they would ask each other "Where’s Eagle?" and they would sometimes yell it to each other, in the hopes that the spirit of Billy Eagle would come back and lead them to victory. (They would also yell this to opposing fan bases, to strike fear that Billy Eagle may just return for their upcoming game.) And when Auburn did manage to pull out a victory, they would all go running back to those big trees and throw toilet paper in them, just in case Billy's spirit had to climb up into one of them and take a big ol' shite.

And you know, now that I know the tradition, I have found myself trying to help them out. When Auburn fans walk up to me and ask "Where's Eagle?" I just kindly smile, shrug my shoulders, and move on. But still, lots of times I have found that this doesn’t work, and the question becomes louder: "Where's Eagle? Whar's Eagle?!! WHAR’S DAMN EAGLE??!!" For those times I usually like to respond, "I don't know, have you checked up in that tree over there?" and that usually gets them on their way.

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