A couple of unrelated recent headlines could combine to repair one of the more noteworthy rivalries in college football.
May 30: Southland Conference, NSU welcome back SFA’s Lumberjacks
June 1: NSU seeking new leadership after announcement of president’s departure
The timing was coincidental.
The reunion of Stephen F. Austin with Northwestern State and the rest of the Southland Conference was no surprise, in the works for many weeks after SFA realized the folly of flying around much of the western USA to play Western Athletic Conference games in all its sports.
The move of NSU’s 20th president, Dr. Marcus Jones, to take the No. 2 job in the University of Louisiana System’s office was a much bigger surprise to many. Jones will relocate to Baton Rouge at some point this summer, with that timing possibly settled during a regular ULS board meeting Thursday.
Who replaces him in Natchitoches? TBD, but lots of supporters of both NSU and SFA are hoping the Demons’ next leader will be somebody willing to revisit a decision Jones and his Nacogdoches counterpart facilitated that closeted the biggest trophy in sports, “Chief Caddo,” and the rich history it carried since 1960.
The trophy is a 7-foot-6, 320-pound statue of a mythical Native American chief, designed to honor the original settlers of the region, a tribe that helped keep peace when European explorers arrived 3-4 centuries ago.
Reaching back into the Shreveport-Bossier Journal library – actually, using the handy search button on the right side of this page – I entered “Chief Caddo” and quickly accessed the thoughts I shared in last Sept. 16’s “Searching for solutions after the demise of a treasured (by many) tradition” column.
To save you the same exertion, I’ll share the crux of what I wrote then, after NSU and SFA’s presidents finally, with a threadbare five-sentence statement, announced the halt of the Chief Caddo tradition, three days before the football teams collided.
Written when that decision had been reached months earlier, but kept quiet. When nothing was done other than summarily pulling the plug on one of the sports’ most noteworthy trophy games, 72 hours before game day, instead of making that titanic shift known way back when SFA and NSU announced their first football meeting since 2019.
When it was befuddling to try to understand why the uncomfortable truth of the shocking decision wasn’t acknowledged long before.
The core of the Sept. 16 column stands true today:
“That would have allowed months for a new trophy to be developed, one that did the same things the Chief Caddo trophy was created to do – recognize the historic relationship between the two oldest communities in their respective states, and the Native American influence that made their existence possible.
“Saturday’s game could have been a celebration of a new tradition. Now the teams don’t meet until 2025. That leaves plenty of time for deliberation – and hopefully this time, collaboration past a small circle. Build some buy-in. Develop a wonderful new tradition. Fold in service activities by both schools to involve and benefit nearby Native Americans. Add some educational components. And a nice, new prize – hopefully one that is still the biggest in all the sports world. Why change that?
“The ‘antiquated’ Chief, thought to be reasonably historically accurate when Logansport wood carver Harold Green developed him in 1960-61, was due for an upgrade. Our society has made much progress since then. There are no longer two water fountains or segregated schools. Women and minorities have greatly enhanced standing in today’s America. It’s not perfect. It never will be, but it can always be better. Maybe over the long haul, this change helps, after it understandably inflamed angry emotions from blindsided Demons and Lumberjacks this week.”
Nine months later, NSU’s leadership change offers a chance to reconsider all implications of last fall’s announcement of a decision made quite a while before we heard about it.
Today is June 11. The Demons and Lumberjacks will meet once again as Southland rivals, Oct. 5 in Nacogdoches. Plenty of time to get this mistake corrected, and revitalize a tradition if not to develop a concept for a new trophy.
History can repeat itself. There’s no reason not to renew the stakes that launched the trophy series. In 1960, it was decided the winning team would pick the artist to carve the trophy. The losing team would provide a huge log from its native forests.
Here’s to NSU-SFA 2024: Back to the Future.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com