A long streak is coming to an end Saturday.

Former Auburn athletic director David Housel will miss his first Tigers home game in 53 years after undergoing double knee replacement surgery earlier this year.

Housel had attended every Auburn home game since the finale of the 1964 season. He missed that contest against Georgia in order to take the ACT test, so he could later attend Auburn.

Housel wrote about his impressive streak in a column for The Auburn Plainsman on Friday.

‘The biggest win, the best, the most exciting, the most disappointing? They all run together after a while. Almost,” Housel wrote in the column. “Except the biggest, most memorable games: 30-20, Kick Six, the Prayer in Jordan-Hare, the Interception Game against LSU in 1994 …

“There were others, too, perhaps memorable only to me, but memorable just the same.”

Housel graduated from Auburn in 1969. He served as the school’s sports information director from 1981-94 before becoming the Tigers’ 13th athletic director in 1994. Housel held that position until 2005.

Housel wrote that he is unsure how many Auburn games he’ll miss this season. But perhaps if his recovery goes well, he’ll get to start a new streak.