Tiger Tale: The Golden Band from Tigerland

The Winner for Best Story: The Tigerland Band by Kristin Tassin 1993 & 1996 (Law)

 

All I ever wanted to do was go to LSU and march in Tiger Band. I had dreams of sitting in Tiger Stadium, playing “Pre-game” and “Geaux Tigers”, cheering my Tigers to victory. When I was growing up, I spent every Fall in front of the TV or on campus tailgating and watching Tiger football. I was born to be a Tiger. In fact, I bleed purple and gold. So, when I graduated from high school in 1989, there was only one place I was going, only one school I even applied to…LSU.

 

I was one of the fortunate few to make it into Tiger Band that year. I started band practice 2 weeks before classes started and watched fellow band members drop like flies…literally. The heat index was somewhere over 100 degrees, but I marched on, panting and sweating, working towards my dream. When that day finally arrived in late August of 1989, I was so nervous and excited, I could hardly march in a straight line! There is NOTHING more exciting than when Tiger Band marches onto the field in Tiger stadium, with 90,000+ fans screaming, waiting for those 4 notes that send Tiger fans into a state of pandemonium. As I waited for my turn to be part of history, I closed my eyes and savored every moment. I burned the images and sounds and smells into my mind so I would never forget it. The whistles and shouts of the crowd mixed with the roar of Mike V and cheers of “Hot boudin, cold coush coush…”; the smell of gumbo and jambalaya mixed with bourbon floating in the air from tailgaters who had been out since the early morning; and the sight of 90,000+ fans wearing the most beautiful colors…purple and gold.

 

As I waited for the Drum Major to count us off, my heart fluttered and I realized I was about to do something that few people will ever get to do.  I was about to experience a thrill in a way that most others will never experience it. I was about to be the reason that over 90,000 people would rise to their feet and cheer loud enough to register on the richter scale. Then I heard the count from the whistle and the drums started beating in time. When my turn came to step off onto the field, I kept my eyes up looking around at the faces full of excitement for what we were about to do. When I reached my spot on the field, a cheer went up, then silent anticipation. The drums started, the cymbals crashed, my horn flew up just at the right moment, then….baaaah, bah, bah, nah!! There it was, the 4 notes I had waited to play my entire life!  The crowd went wild, and I did not play another note. I spent the remainder of the drill just savoring the experience, feeling the rush, the excitement, until we came to an abrupt halt, forming the traditional “L-S-U” in the center of the field.  The rest is a blur…playing the National Anthem, the Alma Mater, and standing in the tunnel when the team ran out onto the field. All I could think was, that was an experience I will never have again.

 

Although I continued to march my entire 4 years of undergraduate study, there is only one “first”, and I had just had it. I will treasure my time in Tiger Band forever, but my first Pre-game ranks up there as one of the best experiences of my life. Some people, especially from other schools, think I’m weird, they don’t get it. They don’t understand what it is like to be born with a passion for something that runs as deep as family. A passion that is ingrained in Louisiana families and handed down for generations. A passion that is…forever LSU!

Tiger Tales: TOP SECRET…ish

In my first semester at LSU, I was living in the Tiger Stadium North dorms on the fifth floor. At the time there was no air conditioning. Needless to say, it got pretty hot. My room mate and I decided we would haul a window air conditioning unit up to our room under cover of darkness. Our intention was to use it only at night, as the water it leaked would draw attention from students and others walking below to class. We found out why air conditioning units were prohibited that first night when we cranked that baby up.  The draw of electricity was too much for the circuits to handle, and when the AC was on, all of the lights on the fifth floor became very dim.

 

One night a huge jock knocked on our door and asked if our lights were dim. We cracked the door slightly, so as not to let him feel any of the cool air and just agreed with him and shooed him away. This was TOP SECRET and we did not want to be evicted. The following night, we apparently blew the circuits and all of the electricity in our wing went out. We scrambled to haul that massive air conditioning unit to our car before we were found out. Maybe we should have tried a smaller unit!

–Stephen R. Davis

Tiger Tales: A True Fan

After moving to Baton Rouge in 1953, I quickly became a passionate and fanatical LSU football fan. Although I love all LSU sports, my favorite is football.  I wear purple and gold every Friday and again on Monday, regardless of the outcome of the Saturday game and, of course, always to the Bengal Belle luncheons.   From 1953 until 2005, I missed only three home games: once when my son was born, once to attend a wedding (poor planning there) and, lastly, when I attended a high school reunion in Michigan.  When I moved here, Jim Corbett was athletic director and Gus Tinsley, the football coach.  TV coverage was still in the future, the south end had not yet been completed, tickets were available at a booth outside the stadium, you could leave home at 6 p.m. and never miss the kick-off, and what fun it was to walk across the playing field when the game was over.  I was there for Billy Cannon’s run, when we beat Notre Dame and Joe Theisman, and when Bert Jones threw that last-second touchdown pass to beat Old Miss.  I was a participant at the earthquake game, was witness to the foggy/orange game in 1982, cheered when the goal posts came down in 1997, was thrilled whenever we beat Alabama, and almost had a heart attack in that overtime game with Auburn.

 

Since I do not take losing well, I have been known to seriously question an official’s parentage, a coach’s decisions, the fates, weather or even the time of day. And, of course, no one is happier than me when we win.  I have hated Notre Dame ever since they knocked us out of the Cotton Bowl, cried when Tennessee broke our 13-game winning streak in 1959, despised Ole Miss because we had so much trouble beating them in Jackson, hated Florida because they were always so good, hated Cigars, and hated Alabama and Tulane, but didn’t all LSU fans?  I was in the stadium through all those awful losing years, but I was also there for all the great and memorable moments.  I have walked down the hill with the band, have cried “Tiger Bait” and “Go To Hell Ole Miss,” have felt betrayed when a coach left but then was 100 percent behind the new coach and I have spent all day Saturday tailgating, regardless of the weather, which is considered standard procedure for a true fan.

 

I was beginning to think I would never see LSU win another National Championship, but now my two crystal footballs have the top spot among my many precious Tiger treasures.  I have a brick at the new tiger cage, I own a number of LSU prints,  my Christmas tree is decorated purple and gold, my license plate says “LSU by 6”, and I have a tiger tattoo on my leg. I have worked for the attorney who was Homecoming Queen in 1996.  An LSU flag hangs on my porch and a six-foot inflatable Tiger greets passersby on game day.  I participated in the first Bengal Belle Football 101, which was a fabulous experience. Yes, I am obsessive.  Yes, I bleed purple and gold!!  I am happy. My dreams have all come true and I am 73 years old!!!!  While I am not an alumni, I am a TRUE TIGER FAN!!!

–Anne Strahan

Tiger Tales: Proud Moment

I was never a good student.  I couldn’t motivate myself to go to class or study, but that wasn’t the only problem.  I was working for five local radio stations at one time, even before the start of my freshman year.  I just never got involved in student life.  I went to a few campus functions and even lived in Kirby-Smith for a year.  I lived for Tiger athletics.  I even produced some of the games on the local radio flagship for a while. 

But it wasn’t until late in the spring of 2001 that I walked into the LSU Catholic Center at Christ The King Church.  I don’t know why I went there that day.  I just felt compelled to go.  It changed my life completely.  Not just my spiritual life, but my LSU life.  I became involved in all aspects of the center.  I was spending more time on campus then I had when I lived there as a freshman.  I owe a great thanks to people like Brice Acosta, Candace Zeringue, Margaret Dillon, Jenny Duckworth, Father Than Vu and Father Jerry Martin.  They made me a part of not only the church and its community, but part of the LSU student body in ways I never had been before. 

This all culminated for me on September 14, 2001 – the fourth day after the tragic events of September 11.  After a beautiful prayer service on the parade grounds, a giant crowd of thousands began to slowly attempt to go about their day.  I walked toward the student union and I noticed a small crowd within the larger one.  It was a group of street preachers in Free Speech Alley.  They were destroying the hopeful, united, peaceful spirit of the day by screaming at all who walked by.

I overheard a girl near me crying and saying to herself,  “Why would you come here and do something like this?  It’s like pouring salt in our wounds.”  I was enraged, but I knew that screaming back at these people would do no good.  I went to see Father Than and asked if I could borrow a Bible.  He lent me one without hesitation and I headed back to Free Speech Alley. 

As I drew closer to the group of angry proselytizers, I heard them shouting “sinner!” at nearly everyone they saw.  “You’re all damned to hell!  Especially you, whore!”  They used to word “whore” to refer to an 18 year-old freshman girl whose only crime was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt.  I saw dozens of saddened and angry students.  Some were engaging the group to no avail.  I jumped up onto one of the concrete benches and opened Father Than’s Bible. 

“One of them, an expert in the law, tested Jesus with this question:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I looked at the now quiet group of street preachers and said, “You are not loving these people, your neighbors.  You are kicking them while they are down.  Go home.  Let them reconcile their sadness in their own hearts.” 

Then I addressed the whole crowd.  “If you ignore these people, they will have no effect here.  Tell everyone you know to do the same.” 

The angry preachers did not leave immediately, but an hour later when I drove by they were gone.  For weeks and months, people I did not know would approach me and say they saw me that day.  It was one of my proudest moments as public speaker, as a Christian, and as an LSU student.

-Patrick Thomas Thibodeaux

Tiger Tale: An LSU Wedding

My husband-to-be attended school at the University of Alabama, and I attended LSU for my undergraduate degree and am currently pursuing my Masters here.  Both of us adore college football.  Our house, usually loving and harmonious, divides along loyalties on the one day a year when our two schools meet on the football field.  (The rivalry became more heated when a certain coach returned to SEC football to offer his service to another team.)  During the course of our relationship, we have looked forward to the BAMA- LSU game, placing a small bet, which included bragging rights for a year.  This year, however, we plan to make game day extra special by officially uniting our house on the day which it is normally divided.  We scheduled our wedding early on that Saturday morning so that we can get all of our friends and family to campus to the tailgate reception in celebration of our vows.  We want to share our love of each other, football, rivalry and LSU tailgating with everyone around us.  After we say our “I do’s”, we plan to move our party to the Parade Grounds where everyone who loves us and appreciates a good tailgate is welcome to join.  (I also want the magnificent oak trees as the backdrop for my wedding photos.)  To cap off the memories of the day, we plan to attend the game in full wedding attire, cheering and chanting with the rest of the fans.  This football game day is very important to our soon-to-be-united household, and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the happiest day of our lives than with 93,000 of our best friends. 

–Stephanie Gauthier, ’05 & ‘09

Tiger Tale: Exam Relief

I graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1972.  During one of the spring semesters, my ChE class was struggling with a major (maybe final) Exam in a ground floor classroom in the Chemical Engineering Building, between the sugar mill and the south end of Tiger Stadium.  It was not hot outside, so the classroom windows were open.  As we toiled away at the grueling exam, a student walked past the open windows of the room on the sidewalk outside, and he was whistling a happy tune.  Without looking up from his exam, one of my classmates said to himself, but loud enough for everyone to hear, “He must be a Business major . . .” It broke up everyone in the class, including the professor, and definitely took some of the tension away from the exam!

–Mike Feig                                                                                   

Tiger Tale: Clark Gable

In 1956 I was a theatre major at LSU.  It just so happened that Clark Gable and Yvonne de Carlo were making the movie Band of Angels in and around Baton Rouge.I was living in West Hall and students kept coming in telling me and my best friend, who was also a theatre major, that they saw Clark Gable at some of the local restaurants.  We were envious so we concocted a plan.  We would go out to the motel where he was staying and wait in the parking lot until he walked by.  We went out to the motel and sat. A couple of men walked out of the office and I said, “They look like they are from Hollywood.  Let’s ask them if they know where Gable’s room is.”

 

We called them over to the car and we told them we were theatre majors and we would really like Clark Gable’s autograph and we would really like to get onto the set to watch the movie being made. They laughed and as it turned out, one of the men was Gable’s stand-in. He said come with me; I will write you a note to get you onto the set. We followed him and he went into his room, while we stayed outside, and he wrote us a note. He said, “Now don’t bring all your sorority sisters with you.  This is just for three of you. The next day, it was very cold as it was in January, we hopped in the car and drove across the river to the River Boat they were using. When we got there we found out that Clark Gable was not on the set and it was iffy if they would be shooting that day. It was pretty overcast and cold. We took a tour of the river boat and ran into some other theatre majors who were extras. All of a sudden we heard people shouting, “Here comes Clark Gable!”  We ran outside and there in a big black sedan was Clark Gable and the two fellows we had met the day before. We ran up to the car and knocked on the window. Gable rolled down the window and said, “Yes?” I thrust a piece of paper at him and asked if we could have his autograph.  He smiled and said, “Of course.” Then we got an extra autograph for a friend who couldn’t come with us.

 

He was very gracious and we were so excited. That was not the end of the story though. They were not going to film that day because of the weather so he left in his car. We decided to follow him back to the motel.  When we reached the motel they parked and we parked.  We ran out to greet him.  I shouted, “Mr. Gable!”   He turned around and smiled and again said, “Yes?”  At that point I wasn’t sure what to say so I just blurted out, “Could we shake your hand?”  He smiled that gorgeous smile and said, “Certainly.”  We stood there in a line and he gently took our hands.  When he took mine, he said, “Your hand is quite cold.”  All I could think of to say was, “I know.” Then he turned around and said, “You girls better get in out of this cold now.”  We just smiled and thanked him.

 

After that we went to several places where they were filming and watched. Gable made just one more film after that one, The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and he passed away. I will always remember that day and what a thrill it was to meet Clark Gable

Tiger Tale: Livingston Parish

The middle sofa area of the Union next to the back staircase was dubbed “Livingston Square” by students like me who hailed from Livingston Parish. We would meet there between classes to swap stories and blow off steam about classes. I even made a new friend there, too. She remains a friend to this day. Of course, many of the people who once gathered at “Livingston Square” are now scattered. However, when I visit the Union now and pass that area of sofas, I still picture the crowd of Livingston Parish students enjoying their time spent at “Livingston Square.”

–Jackie Bankston Manning, ‘84 & ‘89

Tiger Tale: Lost Tickets

Thirty years after I graduated from LSU, my sons, Matt and Adam, showed their Tiger spirit in a very unique way. While attending LSU, they rented a house near campus and late one night decided to move a desk from our home to their new home. In the top drawer of the desk was an envelope that contained Matt’s tickets to all of the LSU games that season, both home and away! They secured the desk in the back of their truck and took off down Highland Road. Somehow, the drawer flew open and when they got to their house, they realized that the tickets were gone! In desperation, they spent the rest of the night searching Highland Road, shining flashlights from the back of the truck as it travelled up and down Highland but to no avail. The next morning, they started walking south from the intersection at Lee, determined to walk every inch of Highland Road! Finally, eight miles later, they found the envelope! It had come open and the tickets were scattered over a fifty yard section on either side of Highland Road. One of them described it as the “wackiest Easter egg hunt ever”! They cheered and shouted out the name of each game as they found the ticket for it! They were joined in their celebration by motorists who honked their horns at the sight of two very happy fans shouting “Go Tigers!” and waving game tickets on the shoulders of Highland Road. In the weeks that followed, I had a number of friends tell me that “they couldn’t imagine why but they thought they had seen our sons shouting and waving game tickets on the shoulders of Highland Road.

–Ann Darphin Jennings, ‘76

Tiger Tale: Team Spirit

You would think the most memorable moment for any student athlete or “Jock” would be the very first time running through your locker-room to the Stadium or arena you play in. I’m a Tiger football Alumnus, and my most memorable moment is beating #1 ranked Florida in 1997. It was Saturday night in Tiger Stadium! If that doesn’t sent chills thru your body, close this book you Gator fan.

 

Gerry DiNardo had just given the pre-game speech of his life. As we funneled out of the locker room towards the stadium, you could feel the tension, the anxiety, just the raw emotion in the air. Every last one of us had enormously dilated pupils. I looked around and seen these big black extremely uneasy but confident eyes. I could look into my teammate’s eyes and read their minds; each and every one of them said “I’ll die on this field tonight before I let my brothers down.” My best friend from high school and still to this day Johnny Mitchell was like a cage Tiger. Tears rolling down his face, HE WAS READY! Coach D touched the “WIN” stick on top of the doorway to enter Tiger Stadium. He pushed the doors open, acute tunnel vision came over me, and couldn’t even hear the 90,000 best damn fans in the land.

 

If you have seen the movie Gladiator, that could give you a since of what it’s like to walk out into uncertain battle. I was a part of the “Chinese bandits” that completely threw The Gators off balance. After four quarters of battle it was so surreal, I still feel like it was an out of body experience. I remember the Wild and Crazy student section blowing through security as if they were toy soldiers. They climbed a field goal massaged with Vaseline so that they couldn’t climb the thing, but they climbed the thing. In the mist of this dreamlike moment I was tackled by one of our fans and I watched my helmet role away. It was like I couldn’t get up to get it, all I could do was stare at this student sprint pass and grab it and run. Out of nowhere Coach Haywood ran the kid down and pried the helmet from his hands, and picked me up off of the field, because I was still laying there for some reason. As I got up off the field, here comes the goal post almost exactly where I was lying. As I stood there like a General in the middle of a war zone with out a care in the world. I noticed our Wild and Crazy students trying to carry the goal post to the top of the stadium. WHAT! “That’s dangerous isn’t it?”, I said to myself, but couldn’t move to do anything about it. The coaches had to come out a gather all the players. I think for that moment, we all knew once we went through those locker room doors, it all was going to end.

 

I coached football for a couple years after that, as Strength and conditioning GA for Coach Moffit at LSU, and the offensive GA for Gerry DiNardo at Indiana. I have traveled the world doing all types of high speed, high flying, classified, AIRBORNE, and Special Operation missions with the US Air Force. Now I’m an Aerospace Space Suit Engineer at Johnson Space Center, Houston. To this day I still have not had that feeling of TEAM I had that night.

–Theo M. Williams III, ‘00

Tiger Tale: Fan Frenzy

The one memory which stands out the most from my time at LSU comes from my Sophomore year, in the aftermath of the LSU-Tennessee game on Sept. 30, 2000. By the end of the game, it seemed pretty apparent that we were going to pull off an upset of #11 Tennessee, and that everyone was going to rush the field and the goal posts would come down. Naturally I had to be a part of this. Once the game was over, and the goal post in front of the student section was down, the crowd started to pick them up to carry them around the field. I started to help, but before I knew it, they were getting too high for me to reach. Not about to be left out of the action, I grabbed on, and found myself hanging from the goal post with my legs still in the crowd and my torso above it. Being the stubborn fool that I am, and because people were pulling on me, I picked up my feet and wrapped them around the post, which left me hanging upside down above the crowd. At some point I realized this probably wouldn’t end well, so I began to work my way on top. When I finally sat up and was able to get my balance, I was looking out over a football field covered in people, with the goal post still being passed around above the crowd. I stayed up there waving and yelling and making a general fool of myself for the scoreboard TV’s until the goal post was finally put down. I stepped off, and walked out of Tiger Stadium. There was nothing left for me to do. The best part was that my friends didn’t recognize me up there at the time, and didn’t completely believe me until they saw my picture in the Reveille that Monday.
–Wayne Walker, ‘02

Tiger Tale: Streaking

 It was just after suppertime at the sorority house on the lakes when a sister yelled out, ” The Streak is coming down the road!! Everyone to the front yard!!” Well, say no more.

 

About 50 sisters hit the front doors running full speed to watch the show of naked men streaking down the street and my, my . . . what a view!!!  There were all kinds of men.

 

I had never seen such a sight in all my days since the early 1970’s.  Big ones, little ones, and a WOMAN was there in all her glory, carried on a chair held up with 2 poles. She was like the Roman goddess with a wreath of flowers on her head and totally naked, flopping her Northern hemisphere while the men were flopping their Southern hemisphere.

 

While the sisters were standing there gawking , one of our houseboys also walked out to see the parade.  All of a sudden he let out a yell, stripped all his clothes off, and scurried off to the crowd of streakers.  Here was a man who served us supper everyday now exposed to all of us in his most private areas. To be polite we covered our eyes but spread our

 

fingers just a little for ….whatever reason. I can’t remember that part.  Anyhow, the streak lasted a disappointingly 5 to 8 minutes or so and went on down the rest of the street as we gazed at the cute little backsides of the group. It would be rude to leave early, right??  Later, I bought the record “The Streak” of Ethel Streaking. Guess who’s middle name is Ethel?  Some days, I feel the urge but remember my duty of mother, wife, and grandmother.  Oh, what the heck, hang loose and be groovy!!!

–Linda Colquitt Taylor, ‘74

 

 

 

Tiger Tale: Honeymoon in Death Valley

When my wife and I were planning our honeymoon six months in advance of our September 28th wedding date, we made a huge strategic error that caused us much heartache.  We mistakenly booked our honeymoon through the biggest regular season game of the year, the October 6th game with the Florida Gators coming into Death Valley.

 

So, I approached my wife with a proposition. We could cut our honeymoon short a day, lose half of the money we purchased at an all-inclusive resort, pay fees to change our flights, and because of the lack of flight availability, fly into Houston, TX rent a car and drive overnight to make it into Baton Rouge at 4:00am on Saturday morning.  The other option was to sell our tickets, pocket the cash, sit back and enjoy another day in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

For most people, there would be no choice at all.  How many wives would even contemplate canceling their honeymoon a day and jumping through hoops to get back for a mere pigskin game?

 

Needless to say, we made an excellent decision because we witnessed one of the greatest football games of all time.  It put an exclamation point on a wonderful honeymoon and made our journey just that much more special!

 

Geaux Tigers!

Michael and Lauren Litchfield

LSU Staff Person

Tiger Tale: Forever LSU

One LSU memory stands out like no other.  In the fall of 1968, I attended my grandfather’s 50th reunion of the Cadets of the Ole War Skule.  My grandfather, Joel Lafayette Fletcher, was a 1918 graduate of LSU.  He lived in the Pentagon Barracks on the old campus near downtown Baton Rouge.

 

The former cadets were assembled in the LSU Union for a luncheon.  There was a roll call with each cadet standing and speaking briefly on their life for the past fifty years.  Many were articulate and accomplished in the fields of medicine, law, banking, agriculture, and engineering.

 

I was curious to hear what my grandfather would say since he was much honored in the field of education, but also very humble.  When his name was called, he did not speak of himself.  Suddenly and without warning he announced, “I would like to introduce my grandson, Paul Nevels, from Houston, Texas.  He is a freshman at LSU.”

 

I was in a momentary state of shock as he motioned for me to rise.  Once standing, a few of the old soldiers started cheering and then the room filled with applause.  Since then, I have been Forever LSU!

 

–Paul Nevels ‘72

Tiger Tale: A True Fan

After moving to Baton Rouge in 1953, I quickly became a passionate and fanatical LSU football fan. Although I love all LSU sports, my favorite is football. I wear purple and gold every Friday and again on Monday regardless of the outcome of the Saturday game, and of course, always to the Bengal Belle luncheons. From 1953 until 2005, I missed only three home games – once when my son was born, once to attend a wedding (poor planning there) and lastly, when I attended a high school reunion in Michigan. 

 

I was in the stadium through all those awful losing years but I was also there for all the great and memorable moments. I have walked down the hill with the band, have cried “Tiger Bait” and “Go To Hell Ole Miss,” have felt betrayed when a coach left but then was 100% behind the new coach and I have spent all day Saturday tailgating, regardless of the weather, which is considered standard procedure for a true fan. I was beginning to think I would never see LSU win another National Championship, but now my two crystal footballs have the top spot among my many precious tiger treasures.

 

I have a brick at the new tiger cage, I own a number of LSU prints, my favorite being one personally signed by Jack Jaubert, my Christmas tree is decorated purple and gold, my license plate says “LSU by 6”, and I have a tiger tattoo on my leg. I have worked for the attorney who was Homecoming Queen in 1996. An LSU flag hangs on my porch and a 6 foot inflatable Tiger greets passers by on game day. I have attended the Spring Bash where I once deliberately outbid a youngster on an item I really wanted. I participated in the first Bengal Belle Football 101, which was a fabulous experience. Yes, I am obsessive. Yes, I bleed purple and gold!! I am happy; my dreams have all come true, and I am 73 years old!!!! While I am not an alumni, I am TRUE TIGER FAN!!!

 

–Anne S. Strahan

Tiger Tale: LSU Avenue

I graduated from LSU in 1994 with a Bachelors Degree in Merchandising and a minor in Psychology.  My husband attended LSU and was accepted into medical school prior to his graduation.  He continued his education at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and received his M.D. in 1994.  He and I often joke that of the two of us, he has the most LSU education but I am the one with the LSU degree!  We do have a plan, though.  When our oldest daughter, who is now 9, graduates from LSU my husband with receive his degree alongside her.

 

We are and have always been LSU fans.  As a result, our daughters are fans too.  As a matter of fact, our daughters were season ticket holders before they were even born! On the back of my husband’s lab coat, I had monogrammed “the eye of the tiger” and our driveway is known as LSU Avenue.

 

–Shannon M. Badeaux

Tiger Tale: LSU Through-and-Through

I have been on the LSU campus my entire life. I attended LSU Lab School, home of the fighting tiger “cubs,” for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Then, I literally crossed the street to attend college. Now, I work at LSU.I think I always hoped I would marry my college sweetheart, but I certainly did not expect that he would be a transplant from Wisconsin! In what seems a typical girl-meets-boy story, my husband’s fraternity house was next door to my sorority house, and we met at a bar in Tigerland one Wednesday night when this studious girl broke her “no going out before Thursday” rule to spend time with her party-loving sorority little sister. LSU is where I petted baby Mike V as a Girl Scout; where I visited the LSU lakes as a child to feed the ducks; where I learned to play pool and bowl in high school P.E.; where I found my career path; and where I met my bridesmaids. I fell in love at LSU, and my Wisconsin-born husband is now purple and gold through and through.

So many of my memories are linked to LSU that the term “alumna” just does not cut it. LSU is where I learned who I am meant to be.

-Sara Exner Crow, ‘04

Tiger Tale: Tiger Twins

I met my spouse, Kendal Land (‘99) at LSU – he was a Lambda Chi Alpha and I was a Kappa Delta and we were set up by our best friends in our respective Greek chapters who are also now married (Mike and Amy Sawyer). Our first date was dinner at the Chimes then out to Rotolo’s in Tigerland. Today, Kendal is a presbyterian minister (his college friends still can’t believe it!) and we’ve lived in Georgia, Kentucky and now Arkansas . . . . {We} have 10-month old twins Carlisle and Jackson Camper –we are confident their first word will be “tiger!”
-Lauren Land, ‘00

Tiger Tale: You Owe Me One

In 2001 after a most pleasant family holiday, [my brother Barret and I] were returning to California the day after Christmas and had to change planes in Houston.  Barret, boarding first, saw my seat between two ladies and then his seat just ahead in the middle of a couple of gentlemen.  Turning back to me he held up his “you owe me one” finger and proceeded to his assigned seat.

 

It ended up that I owe him a million.  I met the love of my life, now my wife, after we started talking about attending LSU at different times.  We began dating, joined the Alumni Association and made it official in May of 2007 with a ceremony in New Orleans.  Meeting Sarah has allowed me to work on big art projects again like I did when I was a sculpture student and to volunteer my time in service to the the local chapter, Bay Area Tigers.  We are both proud graduates and quite grateful to the University that brought us together and keeps us close.

–Denny North, ‘93

Tiger Tale: Panty Raid

I lived in Nora Neil Power Hall my freshman year, 1974-75. We had a wild and crazy group of girls on our hall and I formed friendships that carry on to this day. I could tell MANY funny stories of our life in Power Hall but one of the funniest had to do with good old fashioned panty raids. We made a shopping trip to the T,G&Y that used to be in the A&P shopping center on Highland Road to purchase appropriate garments for the occasion. Of course we went for the largest size we could find to reward the boys who were sure to come calling. As usual, you could hear them before you could see them and we were all armed with huge ladies undergarments to toss down to the boys. We were upstairs in a second floor room that night and as the boys swarmed below the window chanting for panties, we tossed out our offerings. They did not take kindly to this and one actually climbed up to the second story. Of course we ran out of the room and slammed the door on our way out, frantic and laughing. It was a real hoot for me as I had heard about these traditions long before I arrived at LSU.

-Donna Rafferty Ruggles, ‘78