Auburn University Libraries offers profiles from 1971 with Jordan, Sullivan and Beasley

Auburn University Libraries' Special Collections and Archives has been involved in a long-term project to digitize legacy media that has been held in its collections for decades but has been unavailable to researchers due to lack of equipment that can play antiquated media. Every now and then a true gem comes up during the digitizing process and opens a window into a special moment in Auburn history. This happened recently when a reel-to-reel audio tape of an AU Profiles program yielded the voices of three legends of Auburn football: Shug Jordan, Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley.

Fifty years ago the three were giving an interview at a sports writers’ press conference. The approximately five-minute program, originally aired on Sept. 9, 1971, excerpted parts of the men’s remarks about how they saw the 1971 team shaping up.

The Jordan, Sullivan and Beasley AU Profiles program is available for anyone to listen to here. Other digital treasures from Special Collections and Archives’ digitization project are available here.

Auburn University Libraries serves the more than 30,000 students and faculty of Auburn with a collection in excess of 4.6 million volumes. The Special Collections and Archives Department collects, preserves, and houses rare and unique items relating to the histories of Auburn University, the state of Alabama, the southeastern region, the Civil War, Native Americans and aviation. The Auburn University Digital Library develops accessible digital collections of materials that support the teaching and research of Auburn faculty and students, and that, in turn, further the mission of Auburn University. These collections are made available to researchers, educators and students in the state, nation and the world.