Aubie the tiger, the mascot of Auburn University in Alabama forthe past 21 years, must go through some sensitivity training.
Auburn junior Joe Darby, who along with two other students portrayAubie at Auburn’s sporting events, agreed to participate insensitivity education classes after upset viewers complained en masseabout Aubie’s attire at a recent football game.
The group also agreed to submit all future scripts and props forapproval before using them in games.
In Auburn’s 17-10 loss at Mississippi State, television camerascaught a shot of Aubie wearing a T-shirt that read “Aubie 3:16,” aplay on World Wrestling Federation superstar “Stone Cold” SteveAustin, whose “Austin 3:16” T-shirt is one of the federation’s mostpopular pieces of merchandise.
Of course, long before Austin 3:16 was delivering sit-downpiledrivers and Stone Cold Stunners, there was John 3:16, thebiblical verse proclaiming that “whoever believes in Him should notperish, but have eternal life.”
E-mails and phone calls poured in. Viewers complained that Aubie’s”message” was a contradiction of the separation of church and state,as well as a covert promotion of Christian ideals.
“In retrospect, we can see where the shirt could be interpreted inother ways and we apologize to anyone we might have offended,” Darbysaid. “This is one of those decisions we sincerely wish we had madedifferently.”
Darby said that Aubie was also wearing denim shorts and knee padsin order to emulate Austin’s ring attire, and references to anythingother than Stone Cold were unintentional.
But Darby and his teammates told advisor Debbie Conner that thetrio would not object to sensitivity training. Darby also announcedplans to respond personally to every complaint the university hasreceived.
“What happened as a result of Saturday is as far from what Aubieis really about as anything could possibly be,” Darby said. “We haveno interest in controversy. We want to represent Auburn in a positiveand entertaining light. Hopefully, by taking these steps, we canavoid anything like this happening again.”
But an editorial in the Auburn Plainsman, the school’s studentnewspaper, says that Darby’s only offensive act is apologizing tothose who complained.
“What the hell are these people thinking?” the editorial said.”Both groups of complainers have misinterpreted a harmless attempt atcomedy for a holy war.
“It’s a cat. It’s a joke. It was a mascot imitating a nationallyrecognized and embraced performer. Get over it.”
In 1970s and 1980s, the phrase “John 3:16” become every bit assynonymous with American sporting events as American churches, thanksin part to Rollen “Rainbow Man” Stewart, whose rainbow wig and “John3:16” signs became fixtures at sporting events nationwide.
In the mid-1990s, wrestler Steve Williams adopted the phrase aspart of his new “Stone Cold” persona, and sales of his merchandiseset new records for the WWF.
After existing for 18 years as a cartoon tiger in Auburn’sfootball game programs, Aubie became the university’s official mascotin 1979 and has been on the job ever since.
