Auburn’s Bowl Game History

The Auburn Tigers will participate in their 46th bowl game later this month when they face the Houston Cougars in the Birmingham Bowl. As is tradition here on the Auburn Uniform Database, it’s time to take a look back through Auburn’s history in bowl games.

Uniform History

Auburn has only made one appearance in the Birmingham Bowl before, following the 2015 season. It was a Tiger-vs-Tiger affair, as the Memphis Tigers were the opposing team. As the designated road team, Auburn sport their white jerseys while Memphis went with a black helmet, blue jersey, black pants combination.

The 2015 season was the first of the new Under Armour uniform template, finally fixing the issues on the previous version, truncated pants stripe and all. It also allowed Auburn to fix another issue – the bowl patch placement.

The two previous bowl games saw the patch placed below the Under Armour logo, making for an awkward look. With the return to the regular placement, things felt back to normal.

Auburn debuted a new Under Armour template in 2006, 2011, 2015, and 2019. The Tigers would win the first bowl game in each of the first three templates, falling in the Outback Bowl following the 2019 season.

Matchup Preview

Bowl games shine when they pit two teams against each other that have either never faced off before or haven’t done so in a long time. Auburn has yet to face 42 of the 130 current FBS teams. Crossing those teams off in a bowl game would always be preferable.

While Auburn’s 2021 bowl game opponent isn’t a new foe, it’s been a long time since they have faced off.

Auburn and the Houston Cougars faced off six times between 1956 and 1973, including a bowl game in 1969. The matchup would swap locations from Auburn and Houston. The Tigers would pull out all the on-campus games, including the final meeting in 1973 for a homecoming victory.

Auburn leads the overall series 5-1. The lone loss came in the 1969 Astro Bluebonnet Bowl played in the famed Astrodome. Effectively a home game for the Cougars, Houston would dominate to a 36-7 win.

Houston has multiple uniform combinations available to wear. With red and white helmets, pants, and jerseys, the Cougars could sport any number of looks. As they are the designated road team, we can expect Houston to wear their white tops.

That narrows it down a bit, although Houston has sported throwback white uniforms this season. While I wouldn’t expect them to be worn, the classic design and thinner UH helmet decals would match well with Auburn’s look, creating a matchup reminiscent of the classic games in this series.

The best matchup available would be for Houston to wear their red helmets and pants with the white jerseys. So far this season, that look has only been worn once in the regular-season finale at UConn. Just about every other combination has been worn on the road this season, with red and white helmets and pants swapping.

The best gift that this game could give would be a rare color-on-color matchup. Auburn’s navy versus Houston’s red.

Auburn last played a color-on-color game in 2012 when they opened the season with Clemson. That made for consecutive orange-vs-blue games, as the 2011 Chick-fil-a Bowl against Virginia followed suit. That was the first colorful matchup for Auburn since 1972 against Tennessee.

The last time Auburn played a blue-vs-red game was against Georgia in 1969. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry was a color-on-color affair for most of the 1950s and 1960s. The Iron Bowl also saw its fair share of these colorful matchups.

Field History

Possibly the most popular aspect of the Auburn Uniform Database – and a personal favorite of mine – is the collection of bowl game field designs. Every bowl game is different, and every bowl game field design is even more different. Every field has so much character and was such a joy to recreate.

Auburn’s lone appearance in the Birmingham Bowl was played at the historic Legion Field. The field design was unique with royal blue circles in the endzones with black backgrounds. The city name arched across the top in a large block font, while the stadium name was rendered in a script font.

This season will mark the first time the bowl game will be played at UAB’s new Protective Stadium. It’s unclear if they will carry over the endzone design from previous years to the new venue. While we haven’t seen anything at the time of writing this, the promotional materials and seat preview views have showcased the field with one royal blue endzone and the other red.

Other games this year are featuring the Bowl Season on the 25 yardlines. This began last season and looks to be sticking around another year. Though the Birmingham Bowl’s seat preview doesn’t feature the Bowl Season logo, I imagine the real deal will indeed.

We will have to wait and see if this is the official design to be played on.

Should more information on the field be available, updated designs will be posted on the social media accounts and the final result will end up on the Bowl Game Fields page, where you can find a historic catalog of almost every bowl field that Auburn has played on.

Bowl History

Auburn football has played in 45 bowl games to a 24-19-2 record. That began back in 1937 when Auburn met Villanova in Havana, Cuba. This was the first game between two American universities on foreign soil. Despite the riots and gunfire raining outside the stadium, the game went on. Auburn led 7-0 for most of the game, but Villanova would block a punt in the closing minutes to tie the game at 7. The Tigers would tie in their first bowl game – and they wore orange jerseys doing so.

Auburn would get their first bowl victory the following season, defeating Michigan State in the 1938 Orange Bowl. It would be 16 years later that Auburn would make another bowl game, facing Texas Tech in the 1954 Gator Bowl. Auburn would wear orange again – Texas Tech would wear red. That would also be the debut of Tech’s Masked Rider mascot.

The Tigers would play in the Gator Bowl for three straight seasons, including becoming the first team to play in the same bowl game twice in the same calendar year. Auburn and Texas Tech faced off on January 1, 1954, following the 1953 season. In an attempt to garner more attention, the Gator Bowl moved to December 31. Auburn would face Baylor on New Year’s Eve 1954. The Tigers would be paired with conference foe Vanderbilt in 1955.

Bowl patches would first appear on an Auburn football uniform for the 1982 Tangerine Bowl when the Tigers faced off against Doug Flutie’s Boston College Eagles. The patches would replace the TV numbers on the shoulders, rather than be placed on the chest as is common today.

This would be commonplace for the rest of the decade, with the 1990 Hall of Fame Bowl being the final occurrence. Twice during the 80s, Auburn would wear a single bowl patch on one shoulder and an SEC Champions patch on the other. A few times, the game patch was actually customized to include Auburn colors and logos.

For even more Auburn bowl game stories, be sure to check out the Auburn Uniform Database on Facebook and Instagram.

Bowl games are also one of the most popular projects on this site. Every single uniform and patch worn during the bowl games are available here, and a majority of the field designs are also available. You can also find uniform matchups from 2012 to today, viewing by season or by team.

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Featured image via Matthew Shannon, Auburn Athletics