Being a student on Auburn’s campus, I don’t have much to complain about. However, I’ve recently noticed a disturbing truth — we have no statues of our female athletes. We have many male statues to be in awe of: Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, John Heisman and Pat Dye are all well worth their weight in bronze.
As much as the lack of female statues is a question of representation, it is also a missed opportunity… Auburn is not boasting as many athletic successes as it could.
There are tons of obvious choices. Suni Lee is the most recent success, and Kirsty Coventry won a grand total of seven Olympic medals as a swimmer. It would be easy to find successful women athletes to enshrine. Alternatively, the school could give a nod to the first female athletes on campus in 1915, or trailblazing Coach Susan Nunnelly, who graduated from Auburn and went on to coach the women’s basketball team. Additionally, she advocated for more funding for allocations to women athletes at Auburn.
In fact, there should not be a question as to whether Auburn needs a female statue. Now, it’s about directing our effort to choose just one athlete from the many deserving options. Besides, the benefits of having female statues around campus could appeal to incoming students.
On tours, guides could use the statues to brag about Auburn’s opportunities for women and celebrate athletic successes. It could also benefit the athletic recruiting process. For example, a potential female recruit could envision her home at Auburn more clearly if she saw how the school honored and empowered the women of its past.
Time inevitably marches on, and though Auburn has permanently enshrined some of its athletic glory, it is losing half the story to the past. Recognizing the women who trailblazed the world of SEC athletics should nott just be a news article or a blurb on the Auburn website: it deserves an eternal spot on campus, a symbol not only of female achievement but of collective growth as a school.
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