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‘I want to fertilize this tree’: Pat Dye buried Tuesday beneath Toomer’s Oak trimming

It’s easy to talk about his legacy — the stadium, the field, the expectations, Bo. But in a certain sense, even in death, Pat Dye is still actively helping Auburn grow.

Clothed in a white shroud, the Auburn icon was buried Tuesday, a day after he passed away, beneath a now 15-foot cutting from one of the original Toomer’s Corner oak trees as the sun set over his Notasulga farm. There was no casket.

“I want to fertilize this tree and for my spirit to hover around this tree,” Dye told Auburn booster and close friend and former commercial colleague Jimmy Rane, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.