Access Auburn's Top Ten Stories of 2019

The Auburn community continues to reel from the senseless loss of Auburn play-by-play man Rod Bramblett and his wife, Paula in a car wreck. Read our Top Ten Stories of 2019.

Top Ten Stories for 2019   1. Bramblett Tragedy   2. Kidnapping and Murder   3. Beauregard Storms   4. Shots Fired   5. Felon Hubbard Still Free   6. Final Four   7. Gogue!   8. Private Dorms   9. Parks and Rec 10. K-Korner Killed

1. Auburn was shocked when Rod and Paula Bramblett were killed in a traffic accident. The pair were fixtures on the Auburn campus where Rod broadcast Auburn sports and Paula was an IT professional.

2. Big city crime hit Auburn when a coed was abducted from the street in downtown Auburn. The body of Aniah Blanchard was found in rural Macon County.

3. Scores of homes were damaged or destroyed and 23 died when tornadoes devastated the Beauregard community March 3.

4. A shootout on Wire Road left a suspect dead and a scorched, bullet-ridden apartment in February. In May, a manhunt followed the killing of Auburn police veteran, William Buechner.

5. Almost a decade later, convicted felon Mike Hubbard remained free on bond pending his appeal of a four-year sentence for 2010 ethics violations. The GOP-controlled Alabama Supreme Court has refused to rule on the 2016 conviction allowing Hubbard to remain at-large.

6. Bruce Pearl rocked the college basketball world by leading the unheralded Auburn Tiger to the NCAA Final Four before falling to Virginia when referees failed to call a double-dribble against the Cavaliers with seconds remaining.

7. Auburn Trustees begged William Gogue to return as president after the University parted company with Steven Leath and $4.5 million. In August, the Gogue Performing Arts Center opened to great fanfare. It's good to be Gogue.

8. For the second time in five years Auburn considered a moratorium on "private dorms" as the student beds exceed enrollment. Meanwhile Auburn University has moved to cap undergraduate enrollment at current levels.

9. Recreational opportunities will improve considerably as Auburn Parks and Recreation announced the development of Dinius Park, a passive park on East Glenn, a community center at Lake Wilmore and the reopening of the Moore's Mill pocket park that was closed due the widening of the interstate bridge.

10. For more than 20 years, Auburn baseball fans have partied and hung Ks in right field when Auburn pitchers struck our opposing batters. The K-Korner will be no more as construction of player development facilities will claim the space.