re: Off season topic- 1970's LSU football let's hear about it

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Uuhhh, that would be John Ferguson

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I like listening to calls from John Ferguson. I wish I’d have been alive when he called games. “Jones drops back, shoots it up to Andy Hamilton”. He was really good

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Someone correct me on the specifics but TS's capacity was expanded in '77 with the addition of the first west side upper deck to around 76K. We actually put 83K in TS for the '83 Washington game. Afterwards, the fire marshall implemented controls to preclude that from recurring. The original west side upper deck was replaced in the early 2000s to match the since added east side upper deck.

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Construction was ongoing during the ‘77 season. I would sit in our seats and look at those huge concrete supports jutting out over TS. It had two huge escalators that went straight from the ground to the deck. My first season tickets were up there. Three rows from the bottom on the 35 yd line. We were closer to the field and lower than the top row of the bowl. When the new upper deck was built, everything was pushed higher and further back to make room for the 3 level champions club.

We were behind bama

You right it was always packed and the tailgating was way better!! Good ole days

John Ferguson on the radio Saturday nights. With the loud crowd noise you felt like you were there.

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John Ferguson on the radio Saturday nights. With the loud crowd noise you felt like you were there.

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This was about 90% of my Tiger childhood. Taking an AM radio and trying to get a signal so my dad, brothers, and me could listen to the games.

WYES produced the "Men of LSU."

Semjase is in that documentary for a few seconds when there is a close up of the Bass Drums while the rest of the Band is coming up through the portals and in to the stadium..........

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That's what I miss the most. It was the intense atmosphere of fan and student noise volume, combined with an unencumbered GBFTL.

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I've sat in TS before and after it expanded beyond 80k. At its peak TS today is MUCH louder than it was prior. The difference is it doesn't get to its peak all that often. 2007 Florida, last year's Alabama game. Hell, the Alabama games in 2008, 2012, 2014 rivaled any big game before it in terms of atmosphere.

The increased expectations have led to the inconsistency though. In the 70's, 80's, 90's, there were never any expectations of a championship team (hope, but not expectations). Thus, just about every game was a big deal. Since 2000 the fans walk into a game expecting LSU to beat the opponent in most games. That's because history has shown they will. That reduces the excitement level which is no reserved for only the "big" games. Like it or not, LSU is a victim of its own success in that regard.

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Tailgating was just a fun warm-up, but was secondary to the actual game.

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Agreed. VERY few people ventured out to campus just to tailgate. If you were on campus, you were going to the game. And the game was the event...not the tailgate. The tailgate was a fun pregame. But you weren't missing the game to stay at the tailgate. And you weren't leaving the game early to go back to the tailgate either. That was for two reasons: (1) no one was going to be there if you did, and (2) you weren't going to be able to watch the game at the tailgate.

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Many of these "Old School Rabid LSU Fans" have been priced out and the Coliseum is now predominately filled with Corporate Season Ticket Give-A-Ways, (The ones with no connection to the University and the ones that leave early) "

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You may have more "corporate seating" than you used to. But it is still FAR from predominant. There are many, many blue-collar folks in stadium. And just because someone may be a white-collar working doesn't mean they aren't rabid fans. I promise you, there were many doctors, lawyers, bankers, business execs, etc in the stadium in the 70's-90's.

Humans have ALWAYS longed for the "good old days" for as long as humans have existed. But many of the best and wildest atmospheres in LSU football have occurred in the last 20 years or so. It's just that beating Tulane, or Miss. State doesn't move the needle like it may have in 1983.

Charles Alexander was a full grown man. He weighed about 215 lbs and ran some 9.4s 100 yds.