Spirit of Auburn football nearing 'bittersweet' last flight
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — The bird drools over Auburn’s dazzling tradition as much the humans do.
On the last Wednesday morning of August, Spirit is awakened in her Southeastern Raptor Center enclosure at 8 a.m. by Amanda Sweeney. The bald eagle flies to meet her handler at the door, initiating the day’s training session. If she doesn’t want to get up, there’s nothing Sweeney can do to force her. But Spirit has never once declined. She has her daily weight taken, like a wrestler preparing for competition, then is placed in her crate for the familiar ride to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Spirit has been following a version of this routine every weekday from July through November for the last 19 years — at least 2,200 practice flights over Jordan-Hare Stadium — but she still starts drooling every time she sees the field.
On this morning, the yard numbers are unpainted as fresh grass grows. The 2021 season is 10 days away. Once Spirit is removed from her crate, saliva drips from the permanently-damaged beak that made her non-releasable when she was discovered in Florida in 1995. The field means freedom and food.
“She’s excited,” says Andrew Hopkins, one of Spirit’s trainers since 2013. “They’re trained that the only place they’re getting their food is here. So she starts getting talkative.”
Read more: https://www.itemonline.com/texas/spirit-of-auburn-football-nearing-bittersweet-last-flight/article_284d7ac8-20ee-59de-ac51-cd5e00fa1988.html
(Huntsville Item)