AUBURN — For the first time in program history, Auburn football will have an on-field corporate sponsorship, it announced Wednesday, partnering with YellaWood in a five-year deal that “honors Pat Dye.”
The words “Pat Dye Field” will be displayed — 18 feet high and 21 feet wide — on each 25-yard line at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The on-field displays will also feature YellaWood’s yellow logo.
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“Pat Dye revolutionized Auburn Athletics,” Jimmy Rane, an Auburn alumnus and YellaWood founder and CEO, said in a release. “He left no doubt about what he was about and what he intended to do.”
Dye and Rane were friends and business associates for 40 years, according to the release, from Dye’s hiring at Auburn in 1981 until his death in 2020.
“When the opportunity arose to do it, I knew I did not want that sacred field to be just used for a commercial,” Rane said. “I didn’t want it to just be some company’s name on there. If we were going to do this, I wanted to make sure it first and foremost honored Coach Dye and that our name was smaller, lower and under his – because it’s Pat Dye Field.”
Dye’s Auburn teams were 99-39-4 from 1981-92, including SEC championships in 1983, 1987, 1988 and 1989. Auburn named its playing surface after Dye in 2005, the same year the legendary coach was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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“We are profoundly grateful to Jimmy Rane and YellaWood for honoring Coach Dye and supporting Auburn Athletics in this innovative manner,” athletic director John Cohen said in the release. “To Jimmy and to Auburn, this is so much more than a sponsorship agreement.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter. To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football makes YellaWood first on-field corporate sponsor
