The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
The Auburn Ice Hockey Club’s origins can be traced back to the year 1979. After students from Auburn University and the University of Alabama played one another in an exhibition game as a promotion for the World Hockey Association’s Birmingham Bulls, Auburn journalism student Emory Stapleton decided that he wanted to start a full-time club team that would compete while wearing the orange & blue. Stapleton’s dream became a reality, and the Tigers played their inaugural season with the Southern Collegiate Hockey Association in 1980-81. Lacking a local ice rink, Auburn’s newest team played all of their games on the road and finished towards the back of the standings with a still respectable 8-15-1 record, good for fifth in the seven team conference.