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How Auburn’s loss at LSU spawned a winner-take-all Iron Bowl — Inside

Small Business Saturday Merchants encourage you to shop local today

BY KARA COLEMAN [email protected]

After the hustle and bus- PHOTOS BY EMILY ENFINGER/[email protected] tle of Black Friday at retail Fans take photos of The Home Depot screen, part of the ESPN College GameDay setup, outside Hargis Hall in Auburn on Friday. chains, mom-and-pop stores get the chance to shine to- BY JOSH VITALE a glimpse of ESPN personali- day. [email protected] ties David Pollack, Desmond Small Business Saturday Howard and Rece Davis. Hundreds of people, most was launched in 2010 by When Davis descended down of them clad in blue and or- American Express as a cam- the steps, someone from the ange, milled around Samford paign encouraging shoppers crowd shouted “Bammer!” at Lawn late Friday afternoon. to spend their money at local the Alabama alum. A small group cheered businesses. By 2012, officials It was the calm before the when Pittsburgh’s victory from all 50 states recognized Iron Bowl, but it was already over Miami displayed on the the initiative, according to pretty hectic. College Game- video boards set up on scaf- the American Express web- Day was getting ready to fi lm folding just steps away from site. on Auburn’s campus for the Toomer’s Corner, celebrating fi rst time since the 2013 Iron the fact that it could give Au- See SHOP, Page 2A Bowl — which ended with burn even more of a chance Chris Davis’ “Kick Six” — and to move higher up the Col- it’s easy to see why. lege Football Playoff Rank- Legendary area ings with a win over Alabama As big as it gets today. ESPN’s fl agship college children provide A bigger group gathered behind reporters assembled Thanksgiving ESPN College GameDay personality Rece Davis speaks during a news conference. outside Hargis Hall to catch See ESPN, Page 3A meal for families

BY EMILY ENFINGER Stadium support facility construction on schedule eenfi[email protected] For the second year, BY KARA COLEMAN “It’s very rewarding, to see it be- Auburn about 1,200 children in the [email protected] ing built up in front of your face,” University Lee County area were able said project manager Ben Sims. Athletics to provide their families a Auburn officials this week cel- “At the end of the day, you can Director Thanksgiving meal. ebrated the continued construc- look at what you’ve built, at all Jay Jacobs And they were able to do tion of a support facility at Jor- the hard work that you put into signs his so simply for being a legend. dan-Hare Stadium. it, from the design and manage- name on Leading up to Thanksgiv- Bailey-Harris Construction Co. ment to the guys in the fi eld who the fi nal ing, teachers and faculty held a topping-out ceremony this are actually building the build- structural across 22 schools in the area beam for week, officially setting the last ing.” selected children for the the support structural beam in place for the The $28 million facility is slated Hudson Family Foundation’s facility to frame of the building. Members to open summer 2018. The proj- be used Legend Award, which is a of the construction crew, as well ect includes 16,000 square feet of on game program designed to help as Aubie the tiger and Athletics renovations to the existing locker days at uplift children who may be Director Jay Jacobs, signed their rooms, as well as 44,000 square Jordan-Hare facing a variety of hardships names on the beam Wednesday Stadium. before it was added. See FACILITY, Page 3A SUBMITTED PHOTO See CHILDREN, Page 2A

Index CROSSWORD...... 8A NATION ...... 6A Weather Times FAITH...... 1C OPINION...... 4A of clouds CLASSIFIEDS ...... 1D LOCAL ...... 2A SCOREBOARD ...... 4B High: 65 Low: 44 and sunshine COMICS...... 7A LOTTERIES...... 4B SPORTS...... 1B Page 2A

January14, 2018 |1pm to 4pm|visit oanow.com/weddingsfor more info. OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS ◆ www.oanow.com FROM THE FRONT SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2017 ◆ 3A

pressed schedule-wise, Facility and we fi gured it that way,” said Allen Harris, princi- From Page 1A pal owner of Bailey-Harris feet of space for fans and Construction. “So far, we’re members of the media, ac- dead on schedule. We’re cording to the school’s fa- just praying to have a safe cilities management web- project, done on time, with site. high quality. That’s our “The fi rst level is the fi eld goal.” level, which will have some Bailey-Harris has done recruiting space,” Sims ex- multiple projects for Au- plained. “Then, you have burn University, including the main concourse lev- the recent Mell Classroom el, you have a club level, addition and new nurs- and then press levels one ing and pharmacy build- and two. So you’ve got a ings. But for Harris, an Aubie signs the fi nal structural beam. new press box that will be Auburn alumnus, there’s above the bowl.” something exciting about man Park, the baseball sta- “We have a good relation- Between 50 and 100 working on an athletic dium next to Jordan-Hare. ship with the people in the people are working on the facility. The company also de- department, and it’s just game-day support facility “We enjoy working for signed the football team’s cool to work with the ath- at any given time, he said. Auburn. We get a special indoor practice facility. letic department.” Next week, the crew will thrill out of working for begin slab pours, and add- the athletics department.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS ing the skin of the building We’ve done a number of A crane places the fi nal structural steel beam for the support will follow after that. their projects,” Harris said facility at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Wednesday. “This project is very as he motioned to Plains- ESPN From Page 1A football pregame show broadcasts from the big- gest game every week, and an Iron Bowl featuring No. 1 Alabama and No. 6 Au- burn with the SEC West ti- tle, a trip to Atlanta for the conference championship game and potential playoff implications on the line is as big as it gets. “I think Auburn has a ton of momentum going right now,” Davis said. “Obviously, they’re really skilled and talented on the defensive front. Their offense has really found EMILY ENFINGER/[email protected] a great rhythm over the ESPN College GameDay personality David Pollack speaks during a news conference outside second half of the season. Hargis Hall in Auburn on Friday. This time of year, you have teams that are either hang- fi nal four regardless. on the outside looking ably one of the four best ing on, or they’re peaking. in — Auburn because it teams.’ But you’re not go- And Auburn strikes me as a Iron Bowl could would have three losses, ing to have an avenue to team that’s peaking.” format playoff picture and Alabama because it get them into the playoff.” The hosts will have plen- They also agreed that Au- wouldn’t have the resume Alabama and Auburn ty to talk about during burn has a chance to elim- despite being 11-1. will kick off the 82nd play- their broadcast this morn- inate rival Alabama from “I will be shocked being of the Iron Bowl at ing, which will run from 8 playoff contention today, yond belief if the SEC gets 2:30 p.m. a.m. to 11 a.m. CT and also something that has never two teams. I don’t think features Maria Taylor, Kirk happened in the short his- they will, and I think that’s Herbstreit and Lee Corso. tory of the format. probably the right thing,” Auburn legend Charles The winner of today’s Davis said. “Should Ala- Barkley will join that group Iron Bowl will get a chance bama lose on Saturday, as the guest-picker during to play their way into a this will be a whole lot like the fi nal hour. spot in the four-team Ohio State 2015. Meaning Fans can start entering playoff during next week’s that, win or lose, people the “pit” to be a part of the SEC Championship game are going to look at Ala- live shot at 5 a.m. today. against Georgia in Atlanta. bama at the end of the The topic of conversa- The loser will likely be left game and say, ‘that’s prob- tion Friday was the playoff, especially given that Miami had only just suf- fered its fi rst defeat of the season at the hands of the Panthers moments before. The Hurricanes entered that game ranked No. 2 in the CFP rankings. $ aLL-in Both Pollack and Davis agreed that the loss likely 39One won’t shake up the playoff picture much. While it OiL &FiLter, tire rOtatiOn does likely eliminate the &insPeCtiOn possibility that two ACC synthetiC mOtOrOiL sLightLyhigher. teams will make the play- uP tO 5quarts OF OiL. tOyOta &sCiOn OnLy. off, the feeling is that the Cannot be applied to any other offer or winner of the conference prior purChase. installation and labor championship game be- inCluded. taxand shop supplies extra. tween Miami and No. 3 170 West Creek ParkWay,auburn, aL |334.887.1100 Clemson will make the The Lee County Sheriff’s Office presents Project Lifesaver BringingLoved onesHome Amissing person always causes fear and worry–evenmore so if the person has Alzheimer’s, Autism, Dementia or other brain disorders. Project Lifesaverhelps minimize the time it takes to locate those who wander.A personal transmitter (worn by the individual) emits a tracking signal notifying the Project Lifesaveragency of the wanderer’slocation. Atrained emergency team responds to the area. Mostwho wander are found within afew miles of home.The program has reduced search times from hours and days to minutes. Locallythe project is managed by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and sponsored by the Pilot Clubs of Opelika and Lee County. To learnmore,visit www.leecountysheriff.org or call 334.749.5651