BATON ROUGE — Back in the day — roughly 65 or so years ago — there were few or no rules in college football recruiting.
Hey, what goes round, comes round, right?
For instance, it seems as if schools could sign as many players as they desired.
There were 52 players in LSU head football coach Paul Dietzel’s 1959 recruiting class coming off the Tigers’ first national championship season in 1958.
The last prospect signed by LSU in that massive collection of talent was the first All-State back in West Monroe High history. He wasn’t really known past in his hometown’s city limits.
“I was,” Jerry Stovall always said, “the runt of the litter.”
Stovall, who died Monday in Baton Rouge at age 85, was way more than that.
He was the most versatile player in LSU’s storied football history, a first-round NFL draft choice. He was a magnificent human being, always greeting friends and strangers alike with a smile and a kind word. He was a devout Christian, a proud man of God, a doting husband to his frequently mentioned wife Judy and a tremendous father.
He was also probably one of the best college football players in history who never won the Heisman Trophy.
Remember when Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson came out of nowhere to swipe the 1997 Heisman Trophy from Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning?
ESPN basically won the trophy for Woodson, promoting his “amazing” versatility because he also got some offensive snaps as a receiver and was occasionally a kick returner.
In 1962, Stovall’s senior season, he was the Heisman runner-up to Terry Baker, quarterback for 9-2 Oregon State, which played as an independent.
That year as unanimous first-team All-American and the SEC Player of the Year for the 9-1-1 Tigers, Stovall the offensive halfback led LSU in rushing (368 yards on 89 carries) and pass receiving (9 catches for 213 yards).
Stovall the defensive back tied for the team lead in interceptions with 2. Tackling stats weren’t recorded, but he was a fierce enough hitter for the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals to draft him as a safety (he played 9 years and was a three-time Pro Bowler).
Stovall the punter averaged a team-best 37 yards per kick.
Stovall the kickoff returner topped LSU in kickoff returns with 6 for a 41.6 yards per return average including a 100-yard game-winning TD return vs. Georgia Tech.
Stovall the punt returner was second on the team averaging 9.6 yards on 9 returns.
Finally, the multi-faced Stovall scored a team-high 11 touchdowns (9 rushing, 1 receiving, 1 kickoff return).
In his three seasons (30 games), he carried the ball 218 times for 1,081 yards (13 touchdowns), a 4.96 average. He caught 30 passes for 462 yards.
He also gained nearly 700 return yards on special teams, recorded seven interceptions as a defensive standout and owned the school single-season record for punting, averaging 42.1 yards per kick.
Throughout his life, Stovall always credited the late Red Swanson, a former LSU player, assistant coach and future Board of Supervisors member, for convincing Dietzel to sign him. Only LSU, Tulane and Louisiana Tech had contacted Stovall and he thought about enrolling at then-Northeast Louisiana in Monroe because he could also take a part-time job at the school.
“I can never thank Mr. Swanson enough,” said Stovall, recalling a mentor who often drove young Jerry from West Monroe to watch LSU play home games in person. “He first saw me play football as a ninth grader and followed my high school career.”
After his 97-game NFL career in which he had 18 interceptions with two scores and six fumble recoveries, he continued his versatility, bouncing between coaching and college administrative work for most of the rest of his life.
Though he worked as an assistant coach under Dietzel for South Carolina for two seasons in 1972 and 1973 following his retirement from the Cardinals, Stovall’s love for LSU ran deep.
In 1974, he returned to Baton Rouge to work for his alma mater for the next 10 years.
Stovall was an assistant coach under Charles McClendon for five seasons (1974-78), then transitioned to become head of the school’s Varsity Club (its fund-raising arm).
Then, he was unexpectedly thrust into the role as LSU’s head coach for four seasons (1980-83, posting a 22-21-2 record) He was an emergency hire replacing Bo Rein who died in a plane crash after less than a month on the job following Rein’s hiring to fill the vacancy of McClendon.
Stovall, forced by then-LSU athletic director Dietzel to initially keep the staff that Rein hired, struggled in the untenable situation.
Stovall’s best season was his third in 1982 when he hired play-calling whiz Mack Brown as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator. Spurred by quarterback Alan Risher and freshmen running backs Dalton Hillard and Garry James, the Tigers went 8-3-1, ending with a loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Stovall was named Walter Camp National Coach of the Year.
However, Stovall was fired after the next season. His team went 4-7 overall and 0-6 in the SEC, making it easy for Dietzel’s AD successor Bob Brodhead to fire him.
He never returned to coaching. After working briefly in banking, Stovall served as Louisiana Tech’s athletic director (1990-94) and then became the president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation for more than two decades.
He was responsible for attracting hundreds of sporting events to Baton Rouge, bringing millions of dollars in economic impact to the city.
His legacy stretches far beyond his membership in three Hall of Fames — the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame (1977), the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (1981) and the College Football Hall of Fame (2010).
Though Stovall’s No. 21 LSU jersey was retired in Tiger Stadium on Oct. 13, 2018, his presence was felt again last September when former Tigers’ All-America running back Charles Alexander had his No . 4 jersey retired at the halftime of the Florida game in Tiger Stadium.
Alexander will tell you that moment and his LSU career would have never happened if then-Tigers’ assistant coach Stovall hadn’t stumbled on to then-Galveston (Texas) Ball High fullback Alexander winning state titles at a track meet.
“Coach Stovall saw I was a big kid who could run,” Alexander said. “On National Signing Day, he was parked in front of my house before daybreak. If he hadn’t been there, I don’t think I would have gone to LSU. I would have signed with Houston.”
Stovall coached Alexander for three seasons but gave him lessons that lasted a lifetime.
“Coach Stovall was a strong Christian man who taught us life lessons,” Alexander said. “He made us sit down when I was a freshman and write 10-15 things we wanted to do at LSU, both on and off the field, as well as life after football. He told me, ‘You’re not out there by yourself. Always give your offensive line credit.’ And I always did.”
That runt of the litter always knew what he was talking about.
Godspeed , No. 21
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com