re: The Two Golden Eras of LSU Football: 1958-1973 & 1995-2010

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1969, the year of grand theft Notre Dame. F the Irish and NBC.

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Has there every been a one loss team from a big conference that was left out of the bowls?



Little queenie decides she now wants to play in the bowls, and the cotton falls all over themselves.

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No one can give LSU credit for 1958 decade of LSU football when they wouldn't even allow blacks to play in the SEC. As I recall, thats around the same time Bear Bryant had his arse handed to him by USC... those titles had absolutely nothing to do with who is the best team and everything to do with southern racial politics. Southern would have kicked LSU's arse back then, just look at who was sending more players to the NFL. LoL what a joke

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thanks Eric. Now could you explain to us how Billy Cannon paid off the Heisman voters. This has always bothered me and FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY your expert knowledge on this era is enlighting. What would the rant be without people like you.

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A better place?

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nailed it!!!!

A little help here..

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If so, everyone needs to stop playing the r-e-s-p-e-c-t card,

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The reason why tiger fans bitch about no "respect" is because most of the sports anchors and talking heads can only back to their recollected memories which probably goes back to their high school days in the mid to late seventies or later. That's why teams like Miami and FSU are considered national powers with tradition. When LSU was good, teams like Miami and FSU didn't even exist in the national spotlight.

I don't think I have a problem with including 95-99 in this current era. Those years started our current bowl dominance. Prior to the DiNardo era, we absolutely sucked in bowls from 74-88. And of course we went six years after without sniffing a bowl game from 89-94. We've doubled our bowl win total since the 1995 season.

THE CLASSICAL ERA
[Season, Record (SEC Record), Final AP Ranking]
1931, 5-4 [3-2 in SoCo], N/A ( 1931; #49)
1932, 6-3-1 [4-0 in SoCo], N/A ( 1932; #21)
1933, 7-0-3 (3-0-2), N/A ( 1933; #5)
1934, 7-2-2 (4-2), N/A ( 1934; #6)
1935, 9-2 (5-0), N/A ( 1935; #4)
1936, 9-1-1 (6-0), 2
1937, 9-2 (5-1), 8
1938, 6-4 (2-4), NR
1939, 4-5 (1-5), NR
1940, 6-4 (3-3), NR
1941, 4-4-2 (2-2-2), NR
1942, 7-3 (3-2), NR
1943, 6-3 (2-2), NR
1944, 2-5-1 (2-3-1), NR
1945, 7-2 (5-2), 15
1946, 9-1-1 (5-1), 8
TOTAL, 103-45-11 (48-27-5 in SEC; 7-2 in SoCo)


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SoCo Standings for 13 Future SEC Teams in 1931
Tulane, 8-0
Tennessee, 6-0-1
Alabama, 7-1
Georgia, 6-1
Kentucky, 4-2-2
LSU, 3-2
Auburn, 3-3
Sewanee, 3-3
Vanderbilt, 3-4
Florida, 2-4-2
Georgia Tech, 2-4-1
Ole Miss, 1-5
Miss. State, 0-5

SoCo Standings for 13 Future SEC Teams in 1932
LSU, 4-0
Tennessee, 7-0-1
Auburn, 6-0-1
Alabama, 5-2
Vanderbilt, 4-1-2
Tulane, 5-2-1
Georgia Tech, 4-4-1
Kentucky, 4-5
Ole Miss, 2-3
Georgia, 2-4-2
Florida, 1-6
Miss. State, 0-4
Sewanee, 0-6

SEC Regular Season Records, 1933-1946
(Team, Record, Winning Pct., Conference Titles)
1. Tennessee, 57-13-3, .8014, 4
2. Alabama, 59-16-6, .7654, 4
3. LSU, 48-27-5, .6313, 2
4. Georgia, 38-29-5, .5625, 2
5. Tulane, 37-32-5, .5338, 2
6. Georgia Tech, 39-35-5, .5253, 3
7. Miss. State, 34-32-3, .5145, 1
8. Vanderbilt, 32-39-4, .4533, 0
9. Auburn, 31-39-7, .4481, 0
10. Ole Miss, 23-36-4, .3968, 0
11. Florida, 16-45-4, .2769, 0
12. Kentucky, 13-47-3, .2302, 0
13. Sewanee, 0-37, .0000, 0
TOTAL, 427-427-0

NOTE: JHowell’s site does not include Vanderbilt win at Sewanee in 1940 as a legitimate conference game.

NOTE2: Auburn, Georgia, & LSU never played Sewanee in a conference game. Sewanee’s 37 SEC opponents included: Vanderbilt (8); Tulane (7); Florida (5); Ole Miss (4); Miss. State (4); Tennessee (3); Alabama (3); Georgia Tech (2); & Kentucky (1).


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National Leaders Ranked Subjectively, 1931-1946
(Team, Record, Top 20 Seasons, Top 10 Seasons, Nat’l Titles Officially Claimed)
1. Minnesota, 94-35-6, 6, 5, 5 (1934; 1935; 1936; 1940; 1941)
2. Notre Dame, 110-29-10, 10, 9, 2 (1943; 1946)
3. Tennessee, 121-24-7, 9, 5, 2 (1938; 1940)
4. Army, 108-36-8, 4, 3, 3 (1944; 1945; 1946)
5. Southern California, 103-48-15, 4, 3, 3 (1931; 1932; 1939)
6. Alabama, 115-24-7, 6, 4, 2 (1934; 1941)
7. Michigan, 94-39-5, 9, 7, 2 (1932; 1933)
8. Pittsburgh, 91-50-8, 3, 3, 4 (1931; 1934; 1936; 1937)
9. Ohio State, 94-34-7, 6, 2, 1 (1942)
10. TCU 108-55-10, 3, 1, 2 (1935; 1938)
11. LSU, 103-45-11, 4, 3, 0
12. Duke, 114-35-4, 8, 4, 0
13. Georgia, 110-48-8, 4, 2, 2 (1942; 1946)
14. California, 91-68-7, 2, 1, 1 (1937)
15. Fordham, 72-25-10, 6, 2, 0
16. Tulane, 91-54-7, 2, 1, 0
17. Duquesne (of Pittsburgh), 71-22-2, 3, 2, 0
18. Texas A&M, 96-57-11, 3, 3, 1 (1939)
19. SMU, 90-70-12, 0, 0, 1 (1935)
20. Santa Clara, 75-32-9, 5, 2, 0
21. Texas, 94-56-7, 5, 2, 0
22. Boston College, 97-37-8, 2, 2, 0
23. Holy Cross (of Worcester) 104-36-13, 3, 1, 0
24. Mississippi State, 90-51-5, 3, 1, 0
25. North Carolina, 89-51-3, 2, 1, 0
26. Stanford, 76-41-11, 2, 1, 0
27. Nebraska, 84-55-6, 3, 2, 0
28. UCLA, 84-66-11, 3, 2, 0
29. Rice, 91-73-6, 2, 1, 0
30. Tulsa, 104-40-10, 4, 1, 0

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Cornell; Dartmouth; Georgia Tech; Hardin-Simmons (of Abilene); Missouri; Northwestern; Oklahoma; Penn; Princeton; & Villanova.


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1931-1946 --> 68.2% overall; 64.6% in conf.; 6 Top 10 finishes; 0 NC
1958-1973 --> 76.3% overall; 71.4% in conf.; 10 Top 10 finishes; 1 NC
1995-2010 --> 71.4% overall; 62.9% in conf.; 6 Top 10 finishes; 2 NC

Doc I would have a large problem with putting 1931-46 together:

1st 1931 Coach Russell T. "Russ" Cohen last season.
1932-34 Coach Lawrence M. "Biff" Jones
1935-46 Coach Bernie H. Moore his final season is 1947.

Coach Russell T. "Russ" Cohen 1928-1931
Coach Lawrence M. "Biff" Jones 1932-34
Coach Bernie H. Moore 1935-47

2nd There is two losing seasons in the span 1939 and 1944. With 1941 a break even year between the losing seasons.

3rd Biff Jones is the first major recruiter at LSU since Wingard and his years added to the recruits Sr. year is a span of 1932-36 covering a span of one of the greatest in LSU history.

4th The Y.A. Tittle years are 1944-47 and that last season is left out of the span.

5th Coach Cohen span is broken into 2 parts vs his real span of 4 season, with a record of 23-13-1.

6th The Bowl game split, the 3 Sugar Bowl of 34-35-36 are based mainly on the Jones recruits, with a WWII being the major factor of the 44 Orange and 47 Cotton Bowl teams.

Just a few notes, the 1939 team is the weakest of the pre war teams on the list, with the 1944 team being the weakest on the list. The 1941 team was very young a rebuilding year for LSU.

The 1947 team left off the list is the strongest or 2nd strongest of the span with 1934 team being loaded 3 deep in an Iron man era of football. 1947 is the hard luck LSU team.

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there was very obviously a sharp break in LSU's degree of success on the field from pre-1995 to 1995-and-beyond

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1994.....4-7
1998.....4-7

Not very obviously. In fact, not even obviously.

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I can argue that the era from 1931 to 1946 represents the classical era of LSU football.

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My dad was a student at LSU in the mid-1930s, and growing up I was fascinated with the tales he told of Tiger football from that period. Really interesting stuff as you point out - Huey Long's total involvement in Tiger athletics. Always fun to read of that period.