ArtW

This is an ancient thread but I just found it and it brought back some fond memories.

In 1969 I had just gotten out of the Army and started college at L.S.U. mostly because I could get there from Port Allen by public transportation and my G.I. bill would pay for all of it with money left over (times have changed...a lot.)

My first semester was summer school and during an orientation Joe May got up and said that he was short runners on his cross country team and that all comers were welcome. I had been a runner of modest ability in high school so I signed up.

Long story short - I stuck. I contributed in Cross Country, especially early in the season because I always came in in shape. I was never able to truly run with the big boys but I ran on the team for three years and was privileged to run at the Conference Cross Country Meets in 1969, 1970 and 1971. I graduated in three years because I had met the girl I married and needed to get a job.

I really didn't have the talent to run on the track team. We ran against a lot of studly boys back then, Leonard Hilton, Doug Brown and Gary Bjorkland to name just a few; not household words today but all of whom ran in the Olympics, in the case of Hilton more than once.

However the upgrade in coaching and competition upped my game a lot. I never broke 4:50 for the mile in high school but in the 1970 Conference Meet I ran the first mile in 4:45 en route to a 20:58 time for the four mile Montgomery Ala. course. A race in which I finished 10th...from last :lol:.

The athletic department backdoored me a scholarship my senior year as a manager though I still ran for LSU that year and ran a comparable time to my 1970 effort in 1971.

I got to know some cool people. Tommy Casanova was a true gentleman for example, John Stewart, a Baton Rouge boy and one of the best middle distance runners the state ever produced was another. I was hurt and missed track season my freshman year and I remember that "Cholly Mac" would ask how I was when he saw me even though I not only wasn't a football player but wasn't on scholarship at the time.

I made some great trips, ate some great food and made some close ties. Three guys I ran with were groomsmen in my wedding.

If we were on the road the Department of Athletics would sometimes get us tickets to football games. One memorable one was Alabama in 1970. After the meet we drove down to Legion Field. Coach May said we had tickets half way up on the 50 yard line. That was correct but it was half way up on the 50 yard line on the Alabama side :confused:. So two coaches and seven athletes in LSU travelling gear were sitting in a sea of Crimson Tide high rollers. Those Alabamians were very gracious and went out of their way to compliment the play of the Tigers. Of course beating the tide that day made it even more fun. I have had a bit of a soft spot for 'Bama since then unless of course they play the Tigers.

Coach May did have a sense of humor. He wore number 20 for the Tiger football team before Billy Cannon. It is said that walking into the stadium when Billy Cannon's number was retired he commented "Look! they retired my number." :rotflmao:.

Those were happy days. A guy with very modest talent was able to run on big league track program for three years.... what a country.

McClendon played 60-80 players in every game. There were some sound reasons for that and a lot of the time it payed big dividends,

As far as Casanova rushing for 100 yards against Auburn....I doubt it. I just checked the 1969 stats. Casanova rushed for 101 yards on 24 carries in 1969, and I mean all of 1969.

Until recently I had no interest in sports blogs. In fact after I left college I had little interest in sports. Our daughter married a very nice man who is a big OSU Buckeye fan and over the last 10 years it got to be a male bonding thing with us.

I mentioned this part in another thread. After getting out of the Army in Feb. 1969 I enrolled in LSU in the Summer. I graduated in May 1972. When I got on campus I went to an orientation where Joe May, the track coach said he was short a couple of guys for the cross country team so I walked on and I stuck, I ran CC and some track for LSU until through the 1971 cross country season and it was a heck of a ride. I was also around the other teams, especially football since my main sport was a fall sport.

Before I get to real meat of this I think it is important to realize how good the 1969 Tigers were. I absolutely believe they were the best LSU team that didn't get a chance to play for a national championship. They averaged 35 points a game while allowing just 9. They allowed 39 yards per game rushing and 189 passing; just amazing stats especially for the time. Mike Hillman, the starting quarterback was probably the best qb at LSU ever up to that time. He completed 56% of his passes for 1180 yards. The second and third string quarterbacks, Buddy Lee and Butch Duhe weren't any slouches either and LSU completed 52% of their total passes for almost 1900 yards. Added to a formidable running game this gave the Tigers one of the most potent offenses in the country.

Before the Auburn game the coaches noticed that one of the Auburn cornerbacks loved to make tackles at the line of scrimmage and realized they might be able to take advantage of him. Coach McClendon believed in giving seniors who had payed their dues a reward. Jimmy Gilbert was the 4th string quarterback at the start of the season but McClendon gave him the chance to play tailback as well. Gilbert was the third leading rusher that year carrying the ball for 325 yards in 83 attempts that year so it was no surprise foe him to be dotting the "I" for LSU.

So LSU lined up in their base formation. Hamilton was to take the pass from Gilbert and Lonnie Myles, the walk on senior split end who would hold all the LSU receiving records at the end of the year was to decoy the other safety out of the play.

The LSU staff decided to run the halfback pass play from Gilbert to Andy Hamilton on first down when Auburn would expect it least, sure enough the Auburn cornerback bit on the run fake big time and it worked perfectly. Hamilton almost walked into the end zone just as planned.

I remember that play well, I was in the LSU student section half way up on the 25 yard line. I can remember almost being able to see the shock on that Auburn safety's face when he realized what was happening to him.

Sorry this is long, but it was one of the best football games I ever saw and if I'd gone to buy a coke I would have missed an iconic LSU play.

Buddy Lee and I were both '48 models. When I was running track in High School we sometimes had meets that included Zachary. Buddy Lee was a man at 15. He ran the 100 and 220 on the Zachary track team and could motor in the 220 running in the mid 22s. Not quite enough start to be a great 100 guy but darned fast when he got moving. One of his receivers was a boy named Kenny Hurst. Hurst was a miler and I ran against him several times without success. I was as fast at the end of the year as he was at the start of the year which says it all.

I went to LSU starting in '69 after 2 1/2 years in the Army on the GI bill. Ran Cross Country and a little track before graduating in May of '72 which meant I spent some time around the football team.

It is my personal opinion that Buddy Lee is the most underrated post WWII quarterback to play for LSU. His one year as a starter came between Mike Hillman and Bert Jones Which sealed his doom, today he's barely a footnote.

A lot has been said about how much LSU ran the ball, LSU ran the ball about the same as most other teams in the late 60s - early 70's. In Lee's senior season in 11 regular season games he completed 73 out of 138 passes for 1162 yards (53%,) Bert Jones completed 50 of 99 for 894 yards (52%.) That's 2056 yards or just under 200 yards a game in a year in which the Tigers averaged about 375 yards a game total offense. That was explosive offense back then. The rules gave the edge to the defense then and the fact that the QBs had less time to throw and the emphasis was on the downfield game meant that any quarterback who completed about 55% of his passes would likely be on the podium for the Heisman. The only time LSU attempted a pass less than about 20 yards was on a checkdown or a screen. In 1970 LSU averaged 17 yards per completion. The leading receivers, Andy Hamilton, Gerald Keigly, Ken Kavanaugh Jr., and Jimmy LeDoux averaged 22, 17, 13 and 18 yards a catch respectively.

I talked to a fellow I know who started on the LSU defense for three years and was a senior on the 1970 team. He said that Buddy Lee was a decent and honorable man, which I suppose does mean more than being a good football player.