Congrats to the Ragin Cajuns.....Lookin good so far

Discussion in 'The Tiger's Den' started by SaintSlidell, Dec 17, 2011.

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  1. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    University of Lafayette Louisiana.
     
    red55, Dec 20, 2011
    #61
  2. asignupe99

    asignupe99 Founding Member

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    Off topic with the thread, but this is an interesting statement. I know LSU had a hard time recruiting New Orleans, but I don't believe it had anything to do with Tulane. I knew almost everyone on that '98 team. My best friend was a starting receiver on that squad. Since I was in school in Baton Rouge, my friends and I went to practically every home game, and spent most weekends in N.O. with him and the team in their dorm. That team was a product of great coaching and cohesiveness (not to mention the early days of the spread). Maybe a few of those kids were quality enough athletes to receive an LSU offer. My buddy didn't, but the #1 receiver did. Shaun King got middling interest but no real offer, and they had a stout O-lineman who could've gone anywhere but came from a Tulane family, so he went to Tulane.

    The inability to recruit New Orleans was more about the fact that black kids from our generation didn't grow up dying to play at LSU. That has changed and rightfully so. In today's climate, Reggie Wayne, Ed Reed, Warrick Dunn, Travis Minor, etc. line up to play for the hometeam instead of jumping on the first thing smoking to a Florida school. In the mid-90's, not so much. It wasn't a racist thing...just that LSU was still transitioning racially in football and campus wide. Ironically, LSU's ascent in the minds of black athletes coincided with the lower quality product seen nowadays at Southern and Grambling. Those programs used to be good for an annual draft pick or two. Not so much today. Kind of sad when I wax nostalgic, but great for today's athlete that they're getting that kind of love at bigger programs.
     
    asignupe99, Dec 20, 2011
    #62
  3. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Contradictory statement, amigo. Of course it was a racial thing. LSU was a "white" school with a long Confederate-American tradition. But you are right about the transition.

    I have been on campus for 38 years when the first black LSU athletes came on board, and the black student population on campus was less than 5%. Black students at LSU have only risen to 11% since then, but LSU first elected a black SGA President in the 70's and has done so since then with minority numbers. There is broad minority participation around the campus. So LSU isn't perceived so much as a white school . . . even though it essentially is.

    But the football team gradually transitioned through the 70's and 80's until around 1987 when numbers were about equal. Since then the team has become predominantly black. I am sure that some black recruits were uncomfortable with a majority white teams of the McClendon/Stoval/Arnsparger era, but by 1998 it was in fact a majority black team with black assistant coaches.

    Perhaps you meant that there was still lingering suspicion among black recruits. But I always supposed that the period in the 90's when some prime New Orleans athletes were going elsewhere was mostly because of the horrible losing records of the Archer/Hallman/Dinardo period at LSU.
     
    red55, Dec 20, 2011
    #63
  4. locoguano

    locoguano Founding Member

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    I'm sure there are a few influential grandfathers still around who have no love whatsoever for LSU. UL actually does pretty well recruiting New Orleans (relatively speaking). I think part of it is that UL actually went the opposite direction from LSU. They were the first school in the Deep South to voluntarily integrate and were the first in the Deep South to integrate athletics (for which they were rewarded with the Death Penalty in basketball).
     
    locoguano, Dec 20, 2011
    #64
  5. SabanFan

    SabanFan The voice of reason

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    Because they were bought, not because they were black.
     
    SabanFan, Dec 20, 2011
    #65
  6. LSUTiga

    LSUTiga TF Pubic Relations

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    Would the real Andy Roberts please stand up.


    today's Advocate
    University of Louisiana at Lafayette | Opinion | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA
     
    LSUTiga, Dec 21, 2011
    #66
  7. Cajun Ken

    Cajun Ken Freshman

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    I never saw the UL thing as being a slight to LSU. I've always thought it was a way to shorten a long winded university name. If the official name of LSU was "Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge" I'm willing to bet most people would call it "Louisiana State". I think after this Bowl win things will get better, now that alot of people are identifying ULL as simply the Ragin Cajuns which is not nearly as offensive to all the LSU fans out there.

    Good Job Cajuns !!!

    Geaux Tigers !!!
     
    Cajun Ken, Dec 21, 2011
    #67
    1 person likes this.
  8. LSUTiga

    LSUTiga TF Pubic Relations

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    People call LSU-E "LSU-E". If it's short you want, ULL is shorter than Ragin Cajuns. The problem is a lack of identity.

    And do note that it's not LSU fans who are offended. Not in the least.

    And welcome to the forum.
     
    LSUTiga, Dec 21, 2011
    #68
  9. locoguano

    locoguano Founding Member

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    A bit more complicated than that. More of a bending of the rules than a breaking of the rules due to the LSU controlled legislature and BESE blocking SLI from giving black athletes state funded scholarship. The didn't do anything that most other schools weren't doing as well.
     
    locoguano, Dec 21, 2011
    #69
  10. stevescookin

    stevescookin Certified Who Dat

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    I went through all of this back in the early seventies when LSUNO became UNO....Lots of people out of breath over nothing.


    I have to admit that UNO just wanted their own identity and did not even begin to try and usurp the identity of the whole state of Louisiana.
     
    stevescookin, Dec 21, 2011
    #70
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