On June 1, legendary Auburn coach Pat Dye passed away. This season, the Tigers will honor Dye with a special helmet decal.

The helmet decal, below, shows “PD” with the words “sixty minutes” surrounding Dye’s initials.

via AuburnTigers.com

via AuburnTigers.com

 

Sixty minutes is a call back to Dye’s introductory press conference on Jan. 4, 1981 when a reporter asked Dye how long it would take for Auburn to beat rival Alabama.

“Sixty minutes,” Dye famously replied.

Auburn in-house writer Jeff Shearer shares that Tigers coach Gus Malzahn requested Pat Dye Jr. help design the helmet sticker, which was unveiled to the team during a preseason Zoom meeting.

“I want to expressly thank Coach Malzahn for wanting to honor Dad this fall with a helmet decal,” Dye Jr. told AuburnTigers.com. “I thought it was important to incorporate a message that spoke to his legacy and his philosophy, not only about coaching, about football, but about life, but also spoke to this team in an inspirational way as he had done for 30 years in his hall of fame coaching career.”

Dye Jr. also told the teams about the meaning behind “sixty minutes.”

“It’s going to take 60 minutes of playing great Auburn football with great effort to beat a program like Alabama,” he told the team. “That’s the way he lived is life, right down to the last 20 years on that farm. Always working. Up at 5 o’clock in the morning. Playing 60 minutes, full tilt, was the way he lived.”

The helmet stickers will make their debut Saturday when Auburn hosts Kentucky. The game is set for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff, airing on the SEC Network.