Buddy Davidson will be recognized as the 2025 Mel Allen Media Award recipient at the 57th Annual Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Ceremony, the ASHOF Board of Directors recently announced. Davidson served in various capacities within the Auburn athletic department for a half century, most notably as sports information director (SID) and assistant athletic director.
Davidson worked as a football student manager and an assistant in the sports information department at Auburn before receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1964. He also served as sports editor and managing editor of the student newspaper, The Plainsman.
As sports information director at Auburn, Davidson worked with all members of the media covering Auburn athletics. During that time, he promoted and publicized Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan, who became the program’s first Heisman Trophy recipient in 1971.
Davidson was named Auburn’s assistant athletic director in 1981. In addition to aiding the athletics director on special projects and fulfilling other administrative duties, Davidson was responsible for coordinating the football team’s travel schedule.
He retired from Auburn in 2006 but continued to attend every football game—a streak that began in 1957 when Auburn won the school’s first national title. Davidson’s streak of attended games lasted 61 years and was capped off by his 700th consecutive game in 2017.
He passed away in 2022.
“Nobody ever loved Auburn more than Buddy,” said David Housel, who succeeded Davidson as Auburn’s sports information director in 1981, in a press release from the Auburn Athletic Department from Davidson’s passing in 2022.
Davidson joins a distinguished list of Mel Allen Media Award recipients from the ASHOF. They are: John Pruett (2014), George Smith (2014), Tom Roberts (2015), Ron Ingram (2017), Cecil Hurt (2019), Paul Finebaum (2020), Rubin Grant (2021), Mark McCarter (2022), Rick Karle (2023), and Randy Kennedy (2024).
The Mel Allen Media Award was created to honor media members in the state of Alabama who have made a lifetime contribution to sports through their work as a media member. The award is named after the 1974 ASHOF Inductee Mel Allen, who was known as the “Voice of the New York Yankees” for two decades.
“Buddy gave his life to Auburn, and in a certain sense, Auburn gave him his life. It gave him meaning,” Housel added in the 2022 press release. “We all want to be part of something bigger than we are. For Buddy, that something was Auburn.” TG
The 57th ASHOF Induction Banquet and Ceremony will be held in the Birmingham Ballroom, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, on Saturday, May 3, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Museum at (205) 323-6665.
Photos courtesy Auburn Athletics
