2018-19 Auburn Season Review

After Auburn’s successes last year, many thought the 2017-18 athletic season was one of the best in Auburn history. The 2018-19 season might have something to say about that. While the lead horse in football struggled compared to the previous year, many other sports upped their game. Baseball makes it to the World Series. Men’s Basketball appears in the Final Four. Equestrian claims another national title. Many other teams earned NCAA Tournament teams. This is easily the best period for Auburn Athletics, and it’s incredibly enjoyable as a fan.

This also might be the best aesthetic period for Auburn athletic teams. Nearly every program is sporting fantastic uniforms across the board. Naturally, some tweaks would make it all the better, but it’s hard to be dissatisfied with how Auburn teams look aesthetically when they’re competing.

As we officially close the year here on the Auburn Uniform Database, let’s take a look at each of the Auburn programs’ uniforms and anything newsworthy that happened during the season.

Baseball

The Auburn Tigers Baseball program experienced the best season in decades in 2019. After a 22 year drought failing to make the College World Series, Auburn fought for their first Super Regional title and return trip to Omaha. Uniform-wise, this was also one of the busier years for the baseball team. Multiple new additions to the wardrobe helped create new combinations and a record total number of mix-and-matches.

(image via Wade Rackley, Auburn Athletics)

Auburn sprinkled in multiple new hat designs this season. The Tigers wore five different hats, just shy of the six caps worn in 2013. The 2019 schedule began with the return of an old cap – the tri-color design. The three-colored hat was last worn six years ago and hasn’t sniffed returning to the field. In recognition of St. Patrick’s Day, the Tigers wore all-green caps with blue AU logos for the entire weekend series against Tennessee. Interestingly enough, Auburn wore alternate uniforms for the Tennessee series a few years ago also. The field at Plainsman Park was also decorated to join the St. Paddy’s Day party.

The most controversial addition to the uniform in 2019 was the return of the blue digi-camo hats. After a two-year hiatus, the camo hats returned for the Capital City Classic against Alabama and the Ole Miss weekend series, in which the Tigers celebrated Military Appreciation. After keeping the caps on the shelf the rest of the season, Auburn broke them back out for the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers rode the camouflage caps through their Regional and Super Regional victories and into the College World Series.

During the College World Series games, head coach Butch Thompson was spotted wearing a slightly different style of camo hat, one with a blue-outlined logo rather than the white.

Butch Thompson was seen last night wearing the older blue-outline cap while the rest of the team wore the white version.

Turns out he’s done that for a while at least. Butch wore the old style in the Regionals at GT and Super Regional round at UNC. pic.twitter.com/OCXAwfv8qg

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) June 17, 2019

2019 has been a rough year for the Auburn community. In March, tornadoes ripped through Lee County and struck just miles from Auburn’s campus. Beginning with the March 8 game versus UTSA through the remainder of the season, Auburn wore Lee County Strong decals on their helmets. The decals even made their way onto the uniforms with third base coach Gabe Gross wearing it on his chest. On May 25, Voice of the Auburn Tigers and longtime baseball broadcaster Rod Bramblett and his wife Paula were killed in a car wreck. The baseball team would play their first NCAA Tournament game just five days later, without their beloved broadcaster. In Rod’s honor, the team added memorial decals to their hats and batting helmets.

Auburn set a record for number of uniform combinations in 2019, sporting 20 different looks. The 2013 season previously held the record, which featured 16 combinations. Three new hats on the year plus the addition of the College World Series patch for two games helped surpass the old record. Auburn wore the orange jerseys with five combinations, the white tops with five, and the blue jerseys were used for four combos. The pinstripe uniforms were worn with three different caps, whereas Auburn traditionally pairs them with the same hat.

Basketball (Men’s)

The men’s basketball program at Auburn also saw amazing success in the 2018-19 athletic calendar. Much like baseball, Bruce Pearl’s team struggled through conference play but showed no mercy come tournament time. After winning four games in four days in Nashville, the Tigers took home the SEC Tournament title. Then magic happened in the big dance. Auburn defeated four teams – including three blue blood basketball programs in Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky – to make the program’s first appearance in the Final Four. Even though mere seconds separated Auburn from the final game in Minneapolis, the Tigers’ season was nothing short of spectacular.

auburn basketball uniform final four 2018 2019

(image via Wade Rackley, Auburn Athletics)

Since Bruce Pearl took over as head coach, the AUTLIVE Cancer initiative has continued to raise money to support families going through cancer treatment. Each of the previous four seasons have featured an AUTLIVE game with the team, coaches, students, and fans wearing specially made t-shirts. For the first three games, Auburn mixed the t-shirt colors, going orange in year one, white the next, and then blue. The team uniforms have matched the color of the shirts. Auburn once again went with orange shirts (this time with a different design altogether) and the team also wore their orange uniforms at home.

Auburn’s NCAA Tournament run was played on three different court designs (two of which changed the “Round” text on the baselines). You can view all those, plus the Final Four court design, on the Basketball Courts page.

During Auburn’s Sweet 16 game versus North Carolina, a few Tigers were seen without their NCAA patches. They started the game with them, but at some point they disappeared during the game.

Auburn’s Chuma Okeke (#5), Bryce Brown (#2), and Malik Dunbar (#4) all lost their NCAA patches during Friday’s Sweet Sixteen game versus North Carolina.@PhilHecken @UniWatch pic.twitter.com/1QESqFnfQB

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) March 30, 2019

Auburn’s Chuma Okeke tore his ACL late in the UNC game and missed the rest of the tournament. Malik Dunbar showed support for Okeke during the final two games by wearing Chuma’s #5 jersey in pre-game warmups.

Malik Dunbar (@malik_ihoop) wore injured Chuma Okeke’s jersey in pregame warmups prior to Sunday’s game versus Kentucky.

(📸 via Wade Rackley) pic.twitter.com/aIIbVyHD94

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) April 1, 2019

Basketball (Women’s)

After a whole season of being AWOL, the orange uniforms returned! Auburn went 46 games, dating from January 27, 2017 to November 28, 2018, without wearing the alternate orange unis. They were only worn twice this year, but the Tigers did go 2-0 in orange.

It’s not often we see changes to the Auburn Arena court, especially after the new design was put down a few years back. But, for the first game of the year, the Women’s NIT logo was placed on the court for their preseason tournament.

The pink uniforms from last season were carried over into the 2018-19 season and worn for another two games. Auburn first wore them on the road at Arkansas and again two games later hosting Alabama.

Football

(image via Todd Van Emst, Auburn AThletics)

The football season was the biggest rollercoaster for Auburn fans,having big wins over Washington and a late come-from-behind victory over Texas A&M, but also with bad loses to Tennessee and LSU.

Not much changed on the uniforms, as Auburn added 3D rear bumpers for the UCF bowl game last year. The Tigers did add a pink ribbon decal to the helmets for the Tennessee game, which was also the AUTLIVE game in which Bruce Pearl teamed up with the Auburn University Marching Band. The band broke out pink capes during the halftime performance.

Speaking of the marching band, the AUMB wore new uniforms for the season. Many minor changes, but a few larger tweaks that many weren’t too fond of. More details here.

Gus Malzahn has recently shelved his signature sweater vest. After 22 games without wearing one, Malzahn returned to his vest style on the sideline for the Music City Bowl in Nashville.

Gus Malzahn is wearing a vest for the first time since the September 17, 2017 victory over Mercer.

The 22-game no-vest streak is over.

(image via @ByJustinLee ) pic.twitter.com/jxivTq1hR8

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) December 28, 2018

Soccer

After starting the season 9-0, Auburn struggled to end the season, finishing 12-6-2 overall. For the season, the Tigers sported new kits that changed the ever popular sash design. Previously extending the entire length of the front jersey, the stripes now truncate to just below the number. While the template design might be to blame, it’s a shame the stripes had to suffer. Once a wonderful aspect of the uniform is now more awkward than anything.

(image via Cat Wofford, Auburn Athletics)

Over the past handful of seasons, Auburn has supported multiple sclerosis through awareness and fundraising. Auburn’s goalkeeper Sarah Le Beau has been effected by MS personally, as her father battles the condition. Le Beau and Taylor Troutman both sported orange ribbons on their jerseys for the MS Awareness game versus Georgia.

Softball

Unlike their baseball counterparts, the Auburn Softball program didn’t change a whole lot with their uniforms. The second season of the current uni set did see a drop in combinations worn throughout the year – from 14 last season to 11 this year.

The number of combinations wouldn’t have been as high if it weren’t for a new pair of beautiful Northwestern Striped socks, which were worn with three different combos. The new socks added a great splash of color to the lower leg, something that has been missing since stirrups were removed in 2014.

Auburn has now worn the striped socks with three different sets of uniforms.

The new socks continue to improve the look for each uniform and has been one of the best aesthetic additions in recent years.

(images via @catwoffordphoto & Ryan Greenwood) pic.twitter.com/Blo9YDv8rk

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) April 1, 2019

New batting helmets have been an interesting choice for Auburn the last two or so seasons. This year, the Tigers changed from DeMarini to Under Armour brand batting helmets. A white and navy, both matte finished, shell were worn. The white helmet was paired with a white mask and a 3D blue/white AU logo. The navy helmet had a silver mask and an orange/white helmet. Unfortunately, the superior blue helmets were only worn nine times, finishing with an 8-1 record.

(image via Cat Wofford, Auburn Athletics)

The Softball program also added Lee County Strong decals to their batting helmets following the March tornadoes that struck just miles from Auburn’s campus.

Volleyball

A disappointing season on the court record wise and uniform wise for the Auburn Volleyball team. The Tigers finished 12-16 and only wore the superior Northwestern striped jerseys for six games.

Auburn did reveal a new pink jersey that features similar sleeve stripes that were worn for three games, amassing a 1-2 record. The new version is a massive upgrade over the previous style.

And that will wrap up the Fifth Anniversary for the Auburn Uniform Database. Year five was pretty good. The AUD Instagram and Facebook accounts have become more of a priority in order to publish more content. The growth on both pages has been encouraging and hoping to continue with that.

This also marks the first full year on the new website. I like how everything looks and works, I’m but still working on growing this site and creating more content.

Thank you as always for continuing to support the Auburn Uniform Database! The summer tends to be the busiest season for the AUD, with the season recaps, the always fun and challenging CFB Uniform Roundups, the upcoming concept uniform series, and more. Keep an eye out for all of those and be sure to following the AUD on all of our social media accounts.

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