Pat Dye served as Auburn University’s Head Football Coach from 1981-1992. During Dye’s tenure, the Tigers were 99-39-4 and won four Southeastern Conference Championships (1983, 1987-1989). Coach Dye became only the fourth coach in SEC history to win three straight SEC titles. He received SEC Coach of the Year honors in 1983, 1987, and 1988. Coach Dye also served as Auburn’s Director of Athletics from 1981 to 1991.

Coach Dye played high school football at Richmond Academy where he was selected All-American and All-State while leading his team to the 1956 3A Georgia state championship. Coach Dye then went on to play at the University of Georgia under head coach Wally Butts. Dye was a first-team All-SEC lineman and a two-time All-American (1959 and 1960). After graduation from Georgia, Dye played three years of professional football with the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League.

Dye became an assistant at the University of Alabama in 1965 under Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Dye remained as a defensive assistant through 1973. In 1974, he was named head coach at East Carolina. In six seasons, he compiled a 48-18-1 record. He guided to Pirates to the Southern Conference Championship in 1976. Coach Dye served as head coach at Wyoming for the 1980 season.

Dye coached Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson from 1982-1985 as well as Tracey Rocker from 1985-1988 who won both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award. Coach Dye’s 1983 team went 11-1 and played one of the toughest schedules in SEC history, including seven wins over bowl teams.

Coach Dye was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005. In November, 2005, the playing service at Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn was named Pat Dye Field. Coach Dye is a native of Blythe, Georgia.