'We were like brothers': Auburn honors 1976 CWS team

AUBURN, Ala. – Dressed in powder blue, the Auburn baseball team applauded the men who wore those uniforms a half century earlier, hoping to end the 2026 season where the 1976 campaign concluded. 

Omaha, Nebraska. 

Fifty years after becoming Auburn’s second College World Series team, the ’76 Tigers reunited at Plainsman Park Saturday for a reception and on-field recognition. 

“It was wonderful,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “I know it’s a close group because all they wanted to do was hang and tell stories with one another.” 

Two dozen members of the 1976 SEC champions returned to the Plains, including ace pitcher Terry Leach. 

“Everybody’s been telling stories since I’ve been here,” Leach said. “There are things I don’t even remember but they shake your memory.”

“It’s the best thing going,” said Curt Cope, a senior on the 1976 team. 

“Fifty years later, it’s a privilege,” 1976 team member David O’Hare said. 

The 1976 Tigers marveled at how far Plainsman Park has come in the past five decades. 

“It didn’t look anything like this,” Cope said. “I’ve seen the evolution; I grew up here.”

“To come back and see the ballpark like this, that’s been a big part of the conversation,” Leach said. “We didn’t have anything like this. It didn’t look like this at all.”

Looking back on their magical season, the Auburn alums credited their bond for helping them reach the CWS.

“We had a good group of guys,” Leach recalled.” It’s just like on any team, we gelled together very well. We worked together, we knew each other, we were like brothers.”

“Seven of us had played together as freshmen,” Cope recalled. “By the time we got to be seniors, not only did we have great pitching, but we had great attitudes. We gelled, we learned how to win.”

Then as now, pitching made the difference, with future MLB World Series champions Leach and Joe Beckwith leading the way.

“Pitching is what took us to the World Series,” said Cope, noting that Robert Hudson pitched 120 innings that season. “He pitched in 35 games out of 53.”

“Any of the pitchers, it didn’t matter if they pitched yesterday or the day before,” O’Hare said. “They came through for the team.” 

After Auburn, Leach spent seven seasons in the minor leagues before finally breaking into the big leagues at age 27.

“Whether you’re in college or Major League, teams that win the World Series, they all have a special relationship with each other, and they’re tight, and that’s what we did,” Leach said. “We depended on each other.”

Thompson appreciated how connected the 1976 Tigers, now in their early seventies, remain.

“I would love a team that I coach that would hang together and come back a long time from now and do that,” Thompson said. “When I think of legacy, one of our pillars, I think that ’76 team exemplified it this weekend.”

Likewise, the seasoned Tigers admire Thompson’s stewardship of Auburn baseball. 

“Butch has done an amazing job,” Cope said. “This is the best pitching staff probably since our ’76 team. If they can gel, especially with a young team, they’ve got freshmen and sophomores, a few seniors mixed in.  This is an amazing job, Butch deserves all the credit, along with the rest of his staff. They’ve been together a long time, they know what they’re doing. They’re great individuals, not just great coaches.”

On the night Auburn honored the 1976 Tigers, 8,037 set the ballpark’s all-time attendance record on their way to a series record of 22,295, more than 3,000 more than the previous high, highlighting how much things have changed in 50 years.  

“8,000 people is a dream,” Cope said. 

“When we were playing, we were lucky to get 50 or 100 people in the stands,” O’Hare said. 

“What I’m really proud of is the number of people who are coming to these games,” Leach said. “We said this might be as many as came to all two years of ours, but it was wonderful and they were excited and into the games. It’s a great place to play baseball.”

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer

50 years after becoming the second @AuburnBaseball team to advance to CWS, the 1976 Auburn Tigers reunited at Plainsman Park.

Zoom into staff ace (along with the late Joe Beckwith) Terry Leach, who later won a WS :trophy: in ‘91 w/ @Twins. :arrow_heading_down:#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/E54orM7WPb

— Jeff Shearer (@Jeff Shearer) March 22, 2026