87 days and counting till the Auburn Tigers kick off the 2025 football season against the Baylor Bears on August 29. The game will kick at 7:00 p.m. CT in Waco, Texas. And as the offseason continues its sweat-soaked dawdle, let AuburnOnSI take you right up to kickoff as we count down the days by former Auburn players’ jersey numbers. 

Coming in at number 87 is tight end and baseball legend, Frank Thomas. 

Frank Thomas as a freshman tight end at University of Auburn. pic.twitter.com/e9uHTjA45P

— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) February 17, 2025

There are probably some options at 87 that had a bigger impact on the football field than Thomas; tight end Robert Johnson’s two-touchdown performance in the victory over Alabama in the 2002 Iron Bowl comes to mind. 

Thomas only played one season of football for the Tigers, recording three receptions for 46 yards. But when one has the opportunity to discuss a school’s Mt. Rushmore athlete, then one takes said opportunity. 

And that’s exactly who Thomas is. 

“The Big Hurt” joined Auburn in 1986, on the heels of fellow Rushmore-level legends, running back Bo Jackson and basketball legend Charles Barkley. He signed with head coach Pat Dye’s Tigers on a scholarship to play tight end, but played in only 11 games before deciding to turn his attention to baseball at the emboldenment of Dye. 

Some could say the shift in focus worked out well for Thomas, as his impact on Auburn baseball rivals that of his football and basketball counterparts’ impact on their respective sports.

In 1987, his first season on the baseball team, he hit 21 home runs with a .349 batting average. He led the Southeastern Conference in batting in his final two seasons at Auburn, hitting 49 home runs and 205 RBIs on a .382 average. Thomas was a three-time All-SEC selection as a Tiger and was a consensus All-American in 1989. 

His domination at Auburn led to the Chicago White Sox selecting Thomas seventh overall in the 1989 Major League Baseball Draft. Thomas would go on to play 19 seasons in the majors, spending time with the White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Toronto Blue Jays.

He finished his illustrious MLB career with 2,468 hits, 521 homers, and 1,704 RBIs on a .301 batting average. The list of achievements is extensive, and Thomas was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014. 

So, yeah, picking baseball over football was a solid choice.