Cam Newton a surprise visitor to Auburn and to students he helped at Wright’s Mill Elementary

AUBURN, Alabama — The sightings have been reported the last few days on Twitter. Lunch here. Dinner there. Was he in that car?

Cam Newton’s return to Auburn to visit friends and coaches has indeed been a hot topic, but perhaps no single stop produced the excitement like a visit to Wright’s Mill Road Elementary School on Friday when the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback visited the kids he helped mentor in 2010.

He surprised us with a nice visit today,” said Linda Tremain, principal at Wright’s Mill Road Elementary School said in a story in The War Eagle Reader. “He came in with that great smile. He came back to check on the school and see how everyone was doing.”

Newton began visiting the school quietly after arriving in Auburn in 2010, long before he became a star. Eventually, the story got out.

Tremaine said Newton has kept an eye on four boys he especially mentored, and found them Friday.

“He told those boys, ‘I’m checking up on y’all even when you don’t know it.’”

He also made the rounds, visiting classrooms while giving a nod to Wright’s Mill.

“Is everyone in here doing the ‘Wright’ thing?” he asked.

Auburn Magazine online said when Newton visited a fourth-grade room and “the class goes berserk. For several minutes, Newton calmly and warmly receives the rushing sea of waist-high tackles, squealing hugs, and excited handshakes.”

Saturday, Newton, Bo Jackson and Pat Sullivan — Auburn’s three Heisman winners — will be at Parkway Place Mall in Huntsville beginning at noon signing autographs and posing for photos, but this time for a fee.