years both were a familiar sight on campus and at events. On the day of Auburn's first football game in 1892 against the University of Georgia, the aged eagle broke away from his master during the game and began to circle the field, exciting the fans. But at the end of the game, with Auburn victorious, the eagle fell to the ground and died. In 2010, a children's book,"The War Eagle Story" by Francesca Adler-Baeder and illustrated by Tiffany Everett was published that favors this version of the story. This legend was originally published in the March 27, 1959, edition of the Auburn Plainsman and was conceived by then editorial page editor Jim Phillips. Though apocryphal, this tale is most often told as the beginning of the association of "War Eagle" with Auburn. Phillips has pressed several recent presidents of Auburn to research the true origin of the battle cry "before my fictitious story gets carved in stone." War Eagle II (1930) Auburn's first real, live-eagle confirmed mascot, War Eagle II, was mentioned in the New York Times, which noted then that "War Eagle" was already established as Auburn's battle cry. In November 1930 a golden eagle swooped down on a flock of turkeys in Bee Hive, Alabama, southwest of Auburn, Alabama, and became entangled in a mass of pea vines. Fourteen individuals and businesses scraped together $10 and purchased the eagle from the farmer who owned the pea patch. Cheerleaders DeWit Stier and Harry "Happy" Davis (who later became executive secretary of the Alumni Association) helped care for the new bird. It was put in a strong wire cage and taken to the Auburn football game against the University of South Carolina in Columbus, Georgia on Thanksgiving Day. Auburn, having not won a Southern Conference game in four seasons, was anticipated to lose. However, Auburn took a 25–7 victory over the Gamecocks. The student body concluded that the luck from the eagle's presence—which had been absent from their prior losses—was responsible for the victory that day. The eagle was kept in a cage behind Alumni Hall (renamed Ingram Hall), and cared for by members of the "A" Club. The bird's ultimate fate is unknown. Some say it died or was carried away by students of a rival school. Others say it was given to a zoo due to the high cost of upkeep; there is even a rumor that