AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn’s march to the 1957 national championship ended in Birmingham the same way it began in Knoxville: with Jackie Burkett and the Tigers’ defense holding their opponent scoreless.
Burkett, an All-SEC sophomore linebacker and center that season, passed away of leukemia Sept. 1 at age 80. A familiar, friendly face at reunions of the ’57 team, Burkett vividly remembered Auburn’s first championship season.
“One of the things I remember very well,” Burkett recalled during a reunion in 2015. “We go up to Tennessee. Tennessee had come down and beaten Auburn the year before.