Best LSU Stories?

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Especially back before we were a top 25 team year round

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There's part of me that honestly misses this. My first game in Tiger Stadium was Oregon St in 1982...which was the first game for Dalton Hilliard and Gary James. During those years, there were good/great players at a handful of positions...but mostly the team was not in any real hunt for national honors. Not like today. Back then, I'd wait for my week old copy of Sports Illustrated to show up and get REALLY excited just to see LSU somewhere in the Top 20. Fans were fans for reasons other than winning titles...or hell, even being on contention for them. Can you imagine that? There were a ton of reasons you loved LSU...but expecting to win 10+ games a year and a trip to a New Year's Day Bowl was not really one of them. You hoped for it, but honestly...it was unlikely. It's what made 2003 so god damned special for all of us that loved the Tigers without anything tangible to show for it for so long.

I wouldn't trade this Golden Age we're in...but I do miss the genuine excitement our fans had back before they decided it was their birthright to win titles every season.

I was on campus when I was still in diapers. My dad was a student and my mom would go jogging at Bernie Moore. When I was 5 I started swimming for the LSU Bengal swim team that practiced at the Huey P. long pool. So from an early age I loved everything LSU. Visiting the tiger cage was so awesome as a kid and it was horrible back then compared to now.

My dad brought me to a lot of basketball games and a few football games when I was very young. Maybe it was because I was a kid but the stadium truly seemed louder and more raucous. Big Red yelling "Tigah bait, Tigah bait" over and over was something I really enjoyed. The band, the tiger, the passion of the fans made me feel an incredible sense of pride.

When I was 11 or 12 a few of my friends found out we could get into the stadium for free if we sold peanuts. We would buy 10 bags of peanuts from an old man on the west side of the stadium and sell them and go back and buy more to sell. After a few games we got to know the students who would give us $10 to go buy them sprites (for their bourbon lol). We would make a few hundred a night and see the game. Best game ever was FSU orange bowl game. The students were throwing oranges after every TD but ran out bc we scored so much. We started pulling oranges through the fence and selling them back. So many great memmories. I will never forget when chief Osceola threw the flaming spear into the field...when that happened you could almost feel the entire crowd say oh hell no. I could go on and on but this is way to long now.

tl;dr

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Especially back before we were a top 25 team year round

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This is why I enjoy LSU basketball so much. Seeing the team progressing the way they are is going to be special