11/10/95

By Bob Lowry (lowrygr@mail.auburn.edu

CHANCE ENCOUNTER ON FREEWAY LEADS CALIFORNIAN TO AUBURN

AUBURN -- Brian Williams was stuck in traffic on his way to a Cal-Berkeley football game in 1993 when a man in the car next to him stuck his head out the window and yelled "WAR EAGLE!"

Williams wasn't totally surprised since his blue Isuzu Trooper was plastered with Auburn stickers and decals. But it was the first time the native Californian and longtime Auburn football fan from afar had ever met an Auburn person.

The man in the car beside Williams was Mike LaTour, an associate professor of marketing at Auburn University, who was in California with his wife -- AU alumnus Caroline Lipscomb LaTour-- for a high school reunion.

"We were on the freeway next to the University of California at Berkeley," said LaTour. "The traffic was heavy, so we were going fairly slow. We noticed a Isuzu Trooper went by covered with Auburn stickers. Next to Cal-Berkeley, you don't expect to see that.

"I was on the passenger side, and we were going slow enough that we could pull along beside the car. I rolled down the window, leaned out and did a 'WAR EAGLE!'

"After a couple of times, Brian realized what I was doing and he rolled down his window and asked if I was from Auburn. Then he said, "Do you know Skip and Trey Johnston (owners of Johnson and Malone Book Store)."

"They (LaTours) were the first Auburn people I'd ever met in person," said Williams, who was an assistant high school football coach in Wheatland, Calif., at the time. "I said, 'Oh God, I love the football team, and I've heard so much about it back there'.

"I was taking three of my players to a recruiting game at Berkeley. I had one of my players hold onto the wheel. I took off my (Auburn) shirt and held it out the window and said 'I'll give the shirt off my back for a Bama ticket'. I grabbed a pencil and a napkin and had one of my athletes write down all the stuff as we were going down the highway."

The unusual encounter -- "we were in motion the whole time," said LaTour - - provided the impetus for Williams to fulfill a lifelong dream -- to watch an Auburn football game in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The LaTours and Johnstons later invited Williams to the 1993 Auburn-Alabama game at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

But more important that the football game, it also eventually gave Williams an opportunity to become an AU student and be part of the Auburn football team.

Williams, who had a junior college degree, took an Auburn application back to California in November 1993, applied and eventually enrolled for spring quarter 1994. Today, he's on scholarship, working in the football video office and planning to graduate next summer with a degree in education.

Williams, 26, who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Bay area, says he became an Auburn fan while watching an Auburn-Alabama game on TV in the late 1970s.

"I was just so impressed by intensity of that game -- the crowd, the players," he recalled. "All of a sudden I became drawn to football and that Auburn team stuck in my mind. As I grew up, Auburn became my team.

"I was always wearing Auburn stuff. I started ordering a bunch of stuff from J&M. The athletes on my (high school) team knew I was a big Auburn fan. Whenever they saw something with Auburn on it they'd get it for me. One players happened to find an Inside the Auburn Tigers (magazine), and subscribed to it for me. That's how I kept in touch with goings on.

"I used to call Skip and Trey (Johnston) on their 800-number and just chit- chat with them about the game. They were sort of my Auburn connection."

Williams admitted he knew little about Auburn -- other than it was located in Alabama -- when he arrived for the 1993 game.

"I started to learn abut the hospitality and friendliness of Auburn people," he said. "Everyone said that was the greatest asset of Auburn. I never understood it until I came back.

"Mike and Caroline, who I'd known from four minutes on the freeway, invited me into their home, and Skip and Trey got me the hardest ticket in Alabama to the Iron Bowl in the 11-0 season. While I was here, everyone I met -- even total strangers -- the hospitality was just so genuine. I fell in love with Auburn the day I got here."

Latour recalled discouraging Williams from wearing a coat and tie to the game. Williams' response, said LaTour, was, "Mike, you don't understand. This is a very important experience for me. I'll never forget when we walked into the stadium and Brian said, 'This is Jordan-Hare -- the shrine of football'."

"I almost couldn't speak when we got there -- when I saw that sea of orange and blue outside the stadium," said Williams. "When I got to see Jordan-Hare, it was a very emotional point for me."

nov95:AU-fan