re: LSU/College in the 80s

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Anyone of you baws go to college in the 80s? What was it like? Wild? What were the classes/chicks/greek scenes like? Could you still smoke in class at that point?

I would have to imagine it was one of the greatest times to be in college in America.

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LSU 84-89 (yes I needed an extra semester)

Tigerland was perfectly safe.

Freds, Sports Illustrated, The Bengal, The Chimes hosted live music, The Bayou, Murphys, and Louie's cafe on Chimes.

Free Speech Alley was fun.

Greek life was a blast. I was GDI but my best friend was an Acacia. South Seas was something else. I got to enjoy the greek life without paying for it. I also shot for Party Pics. Go ahead and criticize but it payed the bills and I met some really nice Tri-Delts, KKG's, DZ's etc. Some are still friends to the day.

I was there when X came on the scene and wasn't illegal because the cops didn't know what it was, and it was real and strong. One tab and you were blasted all night

At some bars you could actually buy it from the bartenders for $20.00.

We danced and screwed all night on that stuff

Fun Times !!

You’ve summed up most of my experiences except for the party pick stuff. Was a GDI…Graduated in ‘89…dated a sorority girl for a while so got to experience a lot of the Greek life. Loved the Bengal and Fred’s…thurs afternoon/nights were epic. $1.50 Long Island ice tea at Bengal, $1 screwdrivers at Fred’s…so much fun.

They would do $1 shots at Fred’s when a train was passing…one afternoon my buddy thought he heard a train coming, we yelled “train” and everyone crowded to the bar…we got like 4 shots each and a few minutes later manager starts yelling that there is no train….no train but there were $1 shots.

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My dad was there around that time. Said there was a bar White Horse - down Highland. Use to be a rule you couldn’t serve alcohol within 1 mile of campus, the White Horse was exactly one mile.

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There were tons on bars just past the North Gates. Most have been mentioned already.

I'm pretty sure the White Horse was a gay bar. Might want to talk to your dad about that.

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Ecstasy was pure and legal.

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Not in 85. Pure maybe, but legal not so much.

MDMA came on strong. Kingfish anyone?

Started LSU in the fall of '86. I can't tell you too much about the Greek scene because I avoided it until going to Southern Miss for my second bachelor degree. For the most part, though, those who were not part of the Greek system knew about the Dekes and their "shenanigans."

Classes were pretty much then what they are now, I would imagine. Maybe a bit more reliant on computers these days, but I can't imagine there's much more difference than that.

August of 1986, if you weren't pre-registered for classes as a freshman, you'd have to spend several hours going through line after line after line at the PMAC to collect perforated computer cards to register for your classes. I was lucky enough to score a spot in the trumpet section in Tiger Band and avoid the huge crowd for class registration. There was a day/time set aside for marching band students to come in and pull their cards without eating into rehearsal and practice time.

"Reggie" was introduced shortly thereafter and we would register from our phones by listening to a menu and pressing the corresponding numbers. It was at least a slight improvement over pulling computer cards.

I remember that you could smoke in the hallways between classes at Allen Hall and the other halls in the quad. There were ashtrays/cans at the entrance to each classroom in those buildings. Same at the geology building.

The building housing the College of Architecture was pretty new at the time so smoking was not permitted inside there. Tureaud Hall (known as "Classroom Bldg" to those of us who were the first to have classes there) was also off-limits for smoking indoors.

Alcohol was available at the game room/bowling alley portion of the Union. Not just beer, either. You could get pretty much any common mixed drink you wanted. Drinking age was 18, so ...

Football was always the center of things in the fall semesters. Arnsparger was head coach in '86. We won the SEC that year and played Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl where they came back in the 4th quarter to beat us. We had lost our second game of the season to Miami of Ohio by a score of 21-12. I still remember being sick to my stomach about it. The only thing good about the Miami of Ohio game was our kicker, Ronnie Lewis, making national headlines for flipping off the entire student section for booing him for missing several field goals.

In January of '87, Dale Brown and our basketball team made the trip to play Kentucky at Rupp Arena in Lexington. I drove up with a couple friends from band to go to the game. I wasn't too excited about it until LSU whipped UK's arse by a score of 76-41. That 35-point scar is still visible across the face of Rupp Arena to any Kentucky fans who were alive and watching that day. And, as far as sports go, we were very much into basketball those days as well.

Baseball was fun. I could walk from the dorm room in South Stadium to the old Alex Box Stadium in a couple minutes. Ben McDonald was our ace pitcher. Joey (later known as Albert) Belle, and Jack Voigt were two other big names from 1980s LSU baseball.

The stadium dorms had no A/C, but you would get used to it eventually. Same with Pentagon dorms where I spent my sophomore, junior, and senior years. Being a "Stadium Rat" or a resident of "the cave" carried a certain mystique to it that always drew questions from other students who only saw the stadium from the outside or from their seats in the student section during a game. The toilets on the first floor of South Stadium had stalls with doors. The toilets on the second floor had stalls without doors and privacy was significantly diminished. The toilets on the third floor had neither doors nor stall around them. It was just a big social gathering when the urge to empty one's bowels hit. All sense of shame or modesty had to be tossed out the door to live on the third floor of South Stadium.

Pastimes was a decent bar to hit on occasion, but most of my afternoons were spent at "The Library" on West State St just before or just after Tigerband practice. Thursdays meant going to Fred's or Sports over in Tigertown, or staying near campus and shooting pool at The Bayou or maybe going to the Bengal to try to score with the chicks.

Louie’s was always good for breakfast on a Saturday morning. There was also a place called "The Gumbo Place" that was tucked away behind "The Bayou" near The Chimes. Ghatti's was just a walk across the parking lot from Kirby Smith, and IHOP was just a tad further.

I could go on and on and on about those days, but I really need to cut myself short before I have to come to terms with the fact that I'm a middle-aged old bastard now. In eight years, the 1980's will have been 50 years ago,

Thanks for lighting up all those memories of my college days at The Ole War Skule, BigWilly. That was exactly what I needed to go with my coffee this morning.



(edited to correct spelling/typos)

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I'm not sure we had real laws in the 70s anywhere.. Seems like they just made them up on the fly. I rarely saw a cop as a child or teen

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As it should be

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These are amazing stories. At least us younger folk can dream about what we missed.

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there was a bar in the union that opened at 8am, took an elective one semester, class started at 9am, prof was a VN vet, on the first day of class he said that he stops there for a beer before class most mornings and that anyone that met him there for a beer before class would get an A, guess where I was before his next class?

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The Stark Club i

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that was one weird place

Were the chicks pretty uninhibited? I get the feeling it was a simpler time and they were probably happier and less worried about garbage like social media/photos hence more action