I'm the guy that blew the whistle in 1995

Some of y'all may remember the Auburn game in 1995, and you may even remember Pat Nix giving up in the middle of a play out of the endzone and getting sacked for a safety. You may even remember the buzz about him having heard a whistle and thinking the play was over. He did hear a whistle. And that whistle was me.

Tiger Stadium used to have Boy Scouts from area troops usher the football games. They may still do this, but I haven't been to a home game since I was in college, except for 2015 in the nosebleeds, so I don't actually know. I was in Troop 5 and we ushered the best section in the whole place, right at the fifty yard line and up a few sections, nestled just under the press box. This spot was in demand, and a lot of the other kids in the troop wanted to go, so I only got 1-2 games a year with them.

I stuck around as a Boy Scout probably longer than I should have, but wanted to earn my Eagle rank. Eventualy, I doubled down on my nerd cred and joined the Civil Air Patrol. My CAP squadron was also an Explorer troop, so we could be co-ed but have access things like popcorn sales fundraising and Avondale for camping. My CAP squadron also ushered the football games, serving the accessible seating area that was in the corner of the north endzone. This section was a nightmare to usher, because fans in the seats behind would always put their drinks and nachos on the wall and then their food would fall off the wall and all over the folks sitting in their wheelchairs below; and ushering the section only got worse during that spate of rushing the field that started with the 1997 upset of Florida. Between these two organizations, though, I probably attended every home game from 1995 until 2005 when I finished two victory laps, finally graduated and moved away from Baton Rouge.

Ushers had to get to Tiger Stadium well before the game started. Concession was closed, so everyone packed a sack dinner for the three or some hours spent waiting for people to start arriving and, eventually, kickoff. It was hot, of course so we all had some off-brand flavored water we bought at a gas station on the way in. These bottles had little pull-out nipples so you could close them when you weren't drinking, like modern sports drink bottles but much less robust.

At some point, 14 year old me chewed the center plug bit out of the water bottle cap. I then discovered that if you pulled the nipple out, and blew through the damaged cap, it made quite a noise, a high-pitched whistle. I put that cap in my pocket, and helped people to their sections.

During the game, we were all cheering and yelling and clapping and stomping our feet and doing all the things you do when you're rooting for the Tigers. Imagine our excitement, how loud we wanted to get when Auburn was stuck back deep and trying to throw out of their endzone right in front of us. It was rare we'd be able to see much of the action from so low to the field and rarer still to be so close to it. I was yelling my little head off, clapping until my palms stung, until I reached into my pocket and found my makeshift whistle. The more noise the better, right?

Then came the snap - how loud could we get? Pat Nix dropped back to make his reads - everyone was clapping and hollering. He saw a short slant to his right - I was blowing that little cap whistle as hard as I could. Pat Nix dropped his throwing arm and looked around - Gillyard picked him up and drove him into the dirt for a safety. Two points for LSU.

If you go on YouTube and look up the game, you can see it. Pat Nix starts pointing toward the the accessible section and arguing with the refs. You can see a glimpse of us, white t-shirts behind the fence at field level. A reporter came over and talked about it on camera, showing the cap and pointing at us behind her. I don't remember if the game was nationally televised or if she was from an affiliate near Auburn, what I wouldn't give for that tape. The adults with us told us to put those caps away, but not before the marshalls came and took them. One of the girls with us was livid, she hadn't finished her water and now she didn't have a cap for it.

Did I score two points for the Tigers without ever dressing out? Yes. Was I responsible for winning the football game? Also yes. Was Gerry Dinardo's Bring Back the Magic effort bouyed by that win, that I'm responsible for, setting the stage for LSU to become one of the most successful college football programs for two or three decades because I blew through a water bottle cap that sounded a lot like a whistle? Yes. It was me. It was all me and I did it. You're welcome. *





*I only blew a whistle, everything else was all the players' and coaches' massive and incredible efforts, obviously.