It’s Alabama-LSU week and that always brings up a fond memory for me.
In this illustrious series between the two SEC powers, I think I have actually covered exactly one game. All I remember is that Alabama won that one and Bill Curry was the coach.
So it’s not as I’ve got volumes of material from the great games I have covered over the years. Rather, this memory is about the game I “covered” as a “member of the press” many years ago.
That’s Clue No. 1 that reflects a night filled with Things You Could Never Get Away With Now.
It was 1979 and I was a 20-year-old junior at Louisiana Tech. My journalism background at the time consisted of a being a summer intern at the late, great Shreveport Journal and two months on the staff of The Tech Talk.
Not exactly a resume that had Sports Illustrated beating on my door.
Up until then, I had never attended an LSU game but during the ’79, not only did I see the Tigers play one No. 1-ranked team, I saw them play two.
In September, I was in the stands when USC rolled into town and got lucky with a face mask call as the Trojans escaped with a 17-12 win. Six weeks later, a new No. 1 came to Baton Rouge – Alabama.
The circumstances of how it happened have been lost to time, but somehow I was able to secure a press pass for that game. Remember, I had no attachment to either team and was still trying to figure out what a headline font was.
It’s hard enough these days for legitimate publications to get press credentials for a big game, much less a school paper from another university.
I didn’t have a seat in the press box, but I did get a sideline pass. (I guessed I was supposed to bring a camera, so I did to make it look good.)
In order to get to the game, one of my roommates who was in the aviation program at Tech needed the flight hours and offered to fly me there for twenty bucks. Yes, I flew on a single-engine Cessna from Ruston to Baton Rouge with someone who had about as much experience in flying planes as I did conjugating verbs. Probably going to be a hard pass on that one these days.
As those who know their LSU football history can tell you, the 1979 Alabama game was remembered for one reason – horrendous weather conditions. Footwear was going to be an issue for me and I didn’t want to ruin my brand-new white Nikes, but thankfully my brother was in law school at LSU and suggested I wear a pair of his boots. Pretty sure I have never worn boots since then, but they sure came in handy that night.
The weather ended up coming to my advantage later that night; more on that in a moment.
Before the game, I remember being behind the South end zone as the teams warmed up. Standing 10 feet in front of me was Alabama’s legendary coach Bear Bryant, leaning against one of the goal posts. As any 20-year-old college student could fully understand, I wasn’t so much in awe as I was wondering about the chances of snatching the houndstooth hat off his head and making a beeline for the stadium exit. What a story that would make when I got back to Ruston!
That is, if I got to back Ruston. My brother’s four semesters of law school probably weren’t going to help me get out of the East Baton Rouge Parish lockup, so I let Bear keep his hat.
As the game played out, I moved around the sideline with my camera that had no film in it. In those days, the on-field press had an arm band that wrapped around one of your sleeves in order to identify you, but the wet conditions soon began to split the armband apart.
Meanwhile, one of my longtime friends – an LSU student – spotted me on the sideline and we hatched a plan that didn’t involve Bear Bryant’s hat. Since the photo armband was falling apart, I gave him half to attach to his sleeve and I kept the other half on mine. Instead of one bogus media member on the sideline, we now had two!
Not only did the ruse work during the rest of the game, but it also gained us entrance into the LSU locker room for the post-game interviews. We listened to LSU coach Charlie McClendon lament the 3-0 loss and other players who were interviewed in what passed for a weight room. (As it turned out, it was McClendon’s second-to-last game at Tiger Stadium.)
Never wrote a word.
Never took a picture.
Did, however, get a great memory.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com