Harvey Updyke dies at 71; Alabama fan admitted poisoning Auburn trees
xHarvey Updyke, whose act of vandalism highlighted the absurd stages to which some college or university soccer admirers consider rivalries, has died. His son Bear Updyke informed AL.com that his father died of pure causes Thursday in Louisiana, wherever he was residing.
The elder Updyke wrote a new chapter in Alabama-Auburn lore when, in January 2011, he termed Paul Finebaum’s radio application beneath an alias and took credit history for poisoning two 130-yr-aged oak trees at Auburn’s Toomer’s Corner the former November just after his beloved Crimson Tide dropped in the Iron Bowl.
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A few months just after that, he termed into Finebaum’s demonstrate again as himself just after being arrested and expressed remorse, uttering the now-well-known line about having “way too significantly ‘Bama in me.” He also spoke about how he did not want to be remembered.
“I just don’t want it to be my legacy,” Updyke mentioned, for every an Connected Press write-up at the time. “I don’t want to go to my grave stating, ‘Harvey the tree poisoner.’ I consider in my lifetime I have completed a ton of good factors, and undoubtedly that wasn’t just one of them.”
Updyke agreed in 2013 to plead guilty to a felony rely connected to the poisoning. He was sentenced to 3 a long time in jail — he finished up serving six months — and 5 years’ supervised probation. He was also purchased to pay back $796,731.38 in restitution and banned from Auburn’s campus. AL.com documented Thursday that Updyke experienced only repaid about $six,900 as of Oct 2019.
Auburn minimize down the trees in 2013. They have been changed two times since, the very first time just after a fireplace.
Updyke’s disdain for Auburn in no way subsided. Final yr, he informed CBS News’ Mo Rocca he poisoned the trees because “I required Auburn persons to despise me as significantly as I despise them.”
“When I depart this earth, I want persons to say he was a good father, he was a good stepfather, and he was a quite, quite good Alabama admirer.” Updyke informed Rocca. “I admit I, I like them way too significantly.”
