And with that story, on February 20, 1892, the legend of the "War Eagle" battle cry began at Auburn.

The legend continues today with a group of eagles that fly over Jordan-Hare Stadium shortly before kickoffs of Tiger football games. The eagles: a bald eagle named Spirit, and two golden eagles known as Tiger and Nova, take turns, with only one flying at each Auburn home game.

Early this morning, the eagles took off from the top of Jordan-Hare Stadium in preparation for the game.

"The birds have to be hungry in order to do this right," said Roy Crowe, who runs Auburn's Southeast Raptor Center, and takes care of the eagles. "We have a lure on the field that they aim for and land on each time, but they have to be hungry enough to want the lure."

The eagles eat enormous amounts of food usually, but not when game time nears.

"Today, Spirit got about 80 grams of raw chicken," said Crowe. "We don't feed him much before the game time, and you have to really schedule the meals according to game times. It's very much like a track athlete preparing his meals before a race. When they're finished, they will eat the equivalent of a 12-pound turkey. Their metabolism is so fast, by the next day, they're ready to eat another 12-pound turkey."

The other key factors with the eagle takeoffs are the weather conditions at game time.

"Definitely, the wind plays a factor," Crowe said. "On a very calm day, we'll go to the very top of the stadium, but on days with a lot of wind, we want them to have a downward slip wind-wise. If we release them in the wrong place, the win can push them out of the stadium, and if they can't see us, or the lure, they'll land in a tree and we have to go find them. It's happened a couple of times before."

However, from the confines of Jordan-Hare, the eagles waste little time finding the lure and going after it. Spirit, one released, took two steps with his powerful (and huge) talons, and then took off into the open gray sky. He circled the stadium as if he was hang-gliding, and not flying. Seconds later, the lure was brought out for all to see, and Spirit wasted no time. Swooping low, like a plane on a heroic nosedive, he lunged and made a perfect landing on top of the lure.

"Show off," said Chris, a volunteer of the center, laughing.

Though Spirit will be the eagle used against LSU, all the birds get their practice.

"It takes a lot of practice, and a lot of months of training, to get it right," Crowe said.

But when they do, what an amazing site to see for Auburn fans each fall, as their war eagles take the field.