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A spirit that is not afraid

Roaring Pride: Behind the scenes with the War Wagon’s loud and proud crew

 

For many tailgating fans, the roaring of a truck engine and the sweet tune of the Auburn fight song can only mean one thing: it’s gameday. 

For Terrell Glover and Randy Hamann, that truck is their gameday. They drive the War Wagon, a military-style truck decked out in its Auburn best. 

“When we’re in that thing I always feel like we’re tailgating with everybody,” Hamann said. 

Glover and Hamann feel the War Wagon is embedded in the culture of Auburn. Children will come barreling toward the truck with their parents in tow while students give a thumbs up and a cheer.

They try to portray a friendly environment with the truck because they want everyone to be able to enjoy the Auburn spirit. 

“We’ve done everything we can to protect that family atmosphere,” Glover said. “We have the Christian crosses on the truck; they’re on the front fenders. We do patriotic music. Mostly we play the Auburn band marching music fight songs.”

The truck didn’t always feature music. When Glover brought it to Auburn in 2012, he said many fans were apprehensive of the truck without music, Glover said. 

“The first year I brought the truck up here I was very discouraged,” Glover said. “People just didn’t seem to take to it.”

Police even pulled Glover over as he was driving the massive truck through town. So once that first football season ended, Glover was questioning if he should bring the truck back the next year. 

He decided to add music that he could blare as he drove because music has been a big part of his life and was the reason Glover and Hamann met. 

In 1976 Glover began a band in which he played the trumpet. Hamann heard about the band and ended up joining. The two became good friends, so when Glover decided to add music, Hamann was ready to help. 

“That next year music was on there, man it was a totally different thing,” Hamann said. 

Glover and Hamann credit the music for most of their success with the truck, and like to pay homage to the creators of the music they use, the Auburn University Marching Band. 

When the two men from Dothan, Alabama, come to Auburn each Friday before a home football game, they get the truck from University Station, where they store it, and drive to the J.W. and Nell Birchfield Marching Band Practice Field to watch the band practice. 

The War Wagon is back bright and early the next morning for the band’s gameday practice and even gives the band students a musical salute with the truck. Then Glover and Hamann are off to spread the Auburn spirit throughout the town as he continues to play the band’s music. 

The musical selections of the truck include typical Auburn songs such as the fight song and “Eye of the Tiger” as well as many patriotic songs. 

Glover tries to honor veterans through the music, some design aspects of the truck and now with their partnership with Gameday for Heroes, an organization that provides collegiate gameday experiences for active duty military and veterans. 

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“I like the feeling I get when I’m driving it,” Glover said. “We play some of that patriotic music and the fans are waiving, it’s a great feeling. It’s worth all the hard work and what we put into it to have people appreciate it.”

Glover, an Army Reserves veteran, has seen many older veterans stand and salute the American flag flying on the truck, and it means a lot to him to see that display of respect and pride for the country. 

The rest of their gameday consists of Glover and Hamann driving throughout Auburn and stopping at their base camp at Anders Bookstore where they allow fans to take pictures with the truck and take a look inside. 

Though the love from the fans is what keeps them coming back each football season, it was Glover’s love for his son that brought him here in the first place. 

His son attended Auburn and Glover was looking for a way to spend more time with his college student. When he saw a group of men that were showing off their trucks in Auburn he got the idea to create a truck that was larger and had more spirit. 

“They thought their trucks were pretty bad,” Glover said. “So I thought, well I’ll just go home and I’ll build something real bad and come back up here.”

He took an old truck that he and his son had used for mud bogging and repurposed it into the War Wagon, adding many custom parts. One was a flame thrower rigged to shoot 6-to-7-foot flames toward the sky. 

Glover was able to spend three of his son’s five and a half years at Auburn with him and the truck. Since then it’s been just Glover and Hamann.

Both men agree they love coming to Auburn and would love to come more because it’s fun for them. But they only attend football gamedays and occasionally events such as fan day or A day. 

“That’s about all we do because nobody else will let us be in anything,” Glover said. 

They often find themselves on the outside of gameday. They drive-by tailgates and visit fans at Anders but remain a distance from Jordan-Hare. 

Though they have done some events in the past, such as a wedding where they drove the bride and groom away, Glover said they were willing to do anything with or related to Auburn, such as a sorority or fraternity events, but have never been asked. 

He and Hamann want to do more types of gamedays, such as basketball or softball games or playoff celebrations, but they don’t know anyone they could work something out with. 

Though for many fans it’s not the men behind the wheel, but the truck that completes their gameday. Glover and Hamann plan to continue to foster the Auburn team spirit and spread patriotic cheer during home football games.

“It’s that truck,” Hamann said. “You could put anybody in it and people go ape.”


Elizabeth Hurley | Community Editor

Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman

@lizhurley37

community@theplainsman.com


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