A Painting, a Glom,
and 21 Auburn Graduates

A few weeks ago, Ken Mosley walked into the Collegiate with a framed oil painting under his arm. On the canvas was the cover of the 1971 Auburn Glomerata; Ken graduated that year. The painting was made by his brother, Jerry. And Ken wanted us to have it.

That’s the short version. The longer one is worth telling.

– 01 Getting to Auburn

Ken transferred to Auburn from Jacksonville State after his freshman year. His words on that were pretty straightforward: “I realized it was a party school, and if I wanted to get out of college, I better get out of Jacksonville.” He called Coach Umbach, Auburn’s wrestling coach, who had offered him a scholarship out of high school. Umbach said come on down. So Ken came on down.

He wrestled for Auburn, worked under athletic trainer Hub Waldrop, and helped maintain what was then the brand new Coliseum. He wasn’t in a fraternity, wasn’t deep in the social scene that tends to define Glom culture. By his own admission, the Glom wasn’t something he thought much about at the time.

That’s not an unusual story. A lot of people who passed through Auburn during those years were focused on other things. The Glom captured a version of Auburn life, and it wasn’t always everybody’s version. But it was still his senior year. And Jerry knew that.

– 02 The mosley brothers

Jerry Mosley graduated four years later, in 1974, pre-med, eventually finishing at UAB and going on to spend his career as an internal medicine doctor in Jasper. What Ken didn’t bring up during our conversation, but what makes the story even better, is that Jerry walked the sidelines as an Auburn cheerleader in 1972 and 1973. Two brothers, both at Auburn, both a part of this place in their own way.

At some point after graduation, Jerry picked up painting. The creative gene, Ken says, traces back to a great-grandmother. It took. Jerry now works in both paint and clay, and his work is currently on display at the art center in Jasper through July 2026. By his brother’s account, he’s pretty good at what he does.

The 1971 Glom painting was a gift. Jerry saw the cover, saw the eagle, and just made it. No ask, no commission. He gave it to Ken.

– 03 why it lives here now

Ken held onto it for a long time. His wife was the one who eventually said it should come here. Her reasoning was simple: the Collegiate already tells the story of those Gloms, already collects them and displays them and lets people flip through them. A painting of a cover, made by someone who was there, made for someone who was there, felt like it belonged in that same conversation.

The Mosley family has sent 21 members through Auburn. Twenty-one. That’s not a loose connection to this place. And now a small piece of that is going to hang on our wall, in one of the first-floor rooms with the blue wallpaper, where the frame suits it just right.

If you’re in, go find it. And if you graduated in ’71, we think you’re really going to like it.

War Eagle, Ken. And thank Jerry for us.

War Eagle  —  The Collegiate Hotel