An Old Timer Reminisces about a game half a Century Ago

There was talk in another thread about how this game might be reminiscent of the 79 USCw vs LSU game – to us real old timers there is much more similarity between this game and the 1961 LSU Ole Miss game in Tiger Stadium, my sophomore year at LSU. LSU came into that game 5-1 ranked #6 against the #2 Rebels coached by the legendary Johnny Vaught. Ole Miss was 6-0 and had given up only 13 points. They were heavily favored in this matchup.

Although Ole Miss was ranked #2, the #1 Michigan State Spartans had lost an early afternoon game so a victory over #6 LSU that Saturday night would assure them of the #1 ranking (which LSU had deprived them of the previous year at Oxford).

Tiger Stadium only held 65,000, but the noise was unbelievable. Although the Rebels outplayed the Tigers most of the night, Wendell Harris scored all 10 LSU points for the 10-7 victory. Interestingly, LSU completed only one pass for six yards in the game (a fourth down completion which kept the winning drive alive).

LSU rose to #4 with this victory dropping the Webels to #7.