Chinese Bandit Question

where does that come from?

In the 50's, substitutions were limited such that each player could only enter the field twice per quarter (i believe that's right). So most teams left their best players on the field to play offense and defense. LSU's best players (Cannon, Robinson, Rabb et al) made up the "White Team" and played both ways in much of the game. LSU's coach, to build morale and to keep the White Team fresh, came up with the concept of a group of offensive specialists (The "Go Team") and defensive specialists (The "Chinese Bandits"). These two teams would spend most of their time working on their specialty rather than practicing both ways. Depending on the situation, Dietzel could rest the best players but still field a team that could move the ball (the Go Team) or stop the other team (the Bandits). This gave the Chinese Bandits, who weren't as gifted offensively, an identity and a chance to contribute. I believe they only gave up one TD in 1958.

Coach Dietzel nicknamed his defensive platoon the "Chinese Bandits" after the villains in one of his favorite TV shows, "Terry and the Pirates."

Chinese Bandits Nickname

I believe the tune that the band plays after a 3rd down stop or turnover is from the 1950's TV series.

The situations varied as to when they would enter. Sometimes it would be for a goal line stand, sometimes when a 3 and out was needed (or 2 and out as was often the case back then), or sometimes just whenever the White Team needed a break and LSU was on defense. There were times when they were rewarded for a stop and were allowed to play an offensive series.

The connection is that the song was written for them so anytime the defense stops the opponent and ball will go back to the offense, they play it. Nothing more complex than that. Hope that helps.

After the link from another poster and your explanation, yes, I see. That's cool to know. BTW, you mentioned third down punts. I am not old enough 2 remember, but I do believe that the halloween punt to Cannon was on third down. It was very common. I may be wrong though. (BTW, we won the NC in that season with a 21-0 Sugar Bowl win over LSU--no one ever points that out!)

Go Rebs!

Coach Vaught was so confident in O.Miss's defense that nite that he punted the whole 4th quarter, tho not sure of exactly how many times. Also, in regards to the 3 teams: Coach Dietzel said on a radio program earlier in the yr that back then teams were only allowed to bring 33 players on road trips. So that tells you that there was not much subsitution.

Your right, '59 wasn't AP. In fact, none of ours were AP. Alabama has a bunch of those "fake ones"; I know that. I also know that the 2003 LSU NC was not AP, but I still give the Tigers credit for the NC. I don't even put the split-decision label on it; y'all won it! So in a day where split decisions were much more regular, we won it! We were beat out in '60 by an 8-2 Syracuse (AP NC) when we were undefeated. It was a weird time. We can argue over a lot of things, but let's not argue over NC's. We both have three NC's by all polls, and you guys have played unbelievable ball for the last 6 years to tie that mark. I envy the 2 NC's in 5 years. I hope we can just get back on the football map. Go Rebels and

I love the "Chinese Bandit" bow. It looks awesome to see the stadium (mainly the student section I guess) doing this in unison. Plus its a pretty cool little song too.

Swapping out the White team for the Go team or the Bandits often occurred on a change of possession late in a quarter. If we punted with two minutes left in the first quarter, the Bandits could go in to play out the quarter on defense and give the White team an extended rest through the break. Although I'm a little too young to really remember, my relatives always told me that Coach Dietzel wanted the White Team in on defense when the game was on the line. If you listen to the tape of the goal line stand in the 59 Ole Miss game after the Cannon punt return, I think it was the White Team that made that stand.