AUBURN | If Auburn Arena could speak it would have undoubtedly been yelling ‘War Eagle’ all last week.
It was the most monumental seven days in its 12-year history starting with last Saturday’s win over Kentucky, which saw the men’s basketball team elevated to No. 1 in the AP Poll two days later for the first time in school history.
The day and night before the UK game saw the rise of Jungle City as AU’s students camped out to secure the best seats available. After a long and cold night, those students had enough energy to create an electric homecourt advantage during the game and make it over to Toomer’s Corner afterwards for even more celebrating.
Thursday it was the women’s basketball team pulling off a shocking upset of No. 4 Tennessee. It was Auburn’s first SEC win in nearly two years and first win over a top-5 opponent in nearly 25 years. The women’s program appears to be on its way back under first-year coach Johnnie Harris, who will add a large top-20 class to the fold for next season.
One day later, No. 8 Auburn gymnastics, led by olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee, earned the second-highest score in program history beating No. 9 Alabama 197.525 - 197.125. It was AU’s third win over the Tide in the last four meets at Auburn Arena.
Auburn closed out the week with Saturday’s 18-point win over Oklahoma, a nation’s-best 17th consecutive victory. It also included the unveiling of a Sonny Smith banner, honoring one of Auburn’s all-time great coaches and broadcasters.
Auburn sports are fun again, and daggum good too. Auburn Arena was the epicenter as the Everything School stood proud as a peacock during an unforgettable week.
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Things weren’t quite as bright just down the road at the athletic complex where the football program continued through a rough patch that included the loss of defensive coordinator Derek Mason to Oklahoma State, a lateral move at best, and what appears to be the imminent departure of offensive coordinator Austin Davis, who was hired barely over a month ago.
If Davis does indeed leave, Bryan Harsin will be tasked with hiring his fifth coordinator in just over 13 months on the job. That's not an indicator of a stable program at the moment.
There should be a lot of optimism during the offseason for a second-year coach. The growing pains for the first season should be behind Harsin and there should be a lot of positive recruiting momentum as he sells the future of Auburn’s program to potential recruits.
Harsin and his staff did have a very nice finish to the early signing period in December. That shouldn't be forgotten. Wednesday’s late signing period looms, however, and could end on a quite different note. AU’s first Junior Day included just two of the top 20 prospects in a loaded 2023 in-state class.
Harsin needs to move quickly to hire a new offensive coordinator and bring stability back to the program, and it is time to redouble his efforts on the recruiting trail. Those elite players need to get back on campus as soon as possible before they fly away to other programs for good.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back to the day a lawsuit revealed that two of the top-selling songs from the 1980’s weren’t actually recorded by the band they were released under. On Jan. 30, 1988, a lawsuit involving Holly Johnson and ZTT records revealed that set musicians were used to record both Relax and Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Relax, released in October of 1983, was the group’s first hit song. It reached No. 1 on the UK charts early the next year and peaked at No. 10 in the U.S. in March of 1985. The band’s second release, Two Tribes, hit No. 1 in the UK in 1984, moving ahead of Relax in No. 2. At the time, the group joined the Beatles and John Lennon as the only two musical acts to occupy both positions at the same time on the UK charts. Frankie Goes to Hollywood won a Brit Awards for breakthrough act and for Relax has Best New Single in 1985. They were also nominated for Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards for Best New Artist.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood formed in Liverpool, UK in 1980 and was part of the synth-pop movement. The band members came together out of the UK punk movement of the 1970’s with Johnson on vocals, Paul Rutherford on backing vocals, Peter Gill on drums, Mark O’Toole on bass and Brian Nash on guitar. They chose their name from a pop art poster of Frank Sinatra titled Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The group signed with ZTT Records in 1983. Their third single, The Power of Love, was a minor hit but the band was never able to match the popularity of Relax and Two Tribes. The band produced two albums, 1984’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome and 1986’s Liverpool before breaking up in 1987.
ZZT Records sued Johnson after he left the band insisting that any of his solo material had to be released through ZTT. The two-year trial was covered extensively in the UK with many details coming out including that ZTT producer and co-founder Trevor Horn, unhappy with the band’s performance, brought in session musicians to record Relax with Johnson’s vocals the only contribution from the band. Johnson eventually won the lawsuit, which freed him and the other members of the band form ZZT. Relax was banned by BBC Radio for a portion of 1984 due to its suggestive lyrics but that didn’t affect its popularity and ended up being an embarrassment for the BBC. It’s been featured in several movies including 1984’s Body Double, 2001’s Zoolander and 2017’s T2 Trainspotting.
