MULE’: The Sad End to an Historic Rivalry

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Tulane vs. LSU series coming to a close this Saturday

Much like the old Tulane Stadium, the LSU-Tulane rivalry has come crumbling down.

By Marty Mule’

They were once perfect foils for each other, the snobby silk-stocking school in New Orleans and the beacon of the common man in Baton Rouge.

The once-heated Tulane-LSU rivalry is in its death-throes with its last scheduled game coming up Saturday.

It’s a shame. Tulane is essentially dropping out of the Louisiana football spotlight, LSU left without a natural rival to truly make Mike the Tiger stand right up and roar.

Part of the fun of college sports is having someone you love to hate, someone more fun to beat than anyone else, usually a regular opponent located nearby. At one time in the Pelican State that was Tulane and LSU: More or less equal in the quality of their teams in the early days, two schools with differing personalities located less than a hundred miles apart.

They are each other’s oldest rivals, and some of the most memorable moments for each came against each other: Tulane students stealing Mike the Tiger, LSU students breaking into Tulane Stadium and seeding the grass so that at kickoff time the growth on the field would sprout a predicted score.

Turned out the agricultural sooth-sayers hit the upset exact right, LSU 21, Tulane 0.

Those kinds of small victories, coupled with big victories on the field in Louisiana are now gone with the winds of change.

Part of it is the programs are going in different directions. They no longer play each and every year, and Tulane hasn’t beaten LSU since 1982 - when the Green Wave won three out of four.

A run like that now that would get Tiger blood stirred. If that happened today LSU probably wouldn’t let the rivalry die.

But in today’s world, LSU, with two national championships in the last six years, is now part of the highest echelon of college football. Tulane, without a winning season in seven years, is struggling on a mid-major level, with mediocre teams playing in so-so conference in a stadium maybe a fourth filled.

No one would have believed this a quarter-century ago, but Tulane has become almost an after-thought in Louisiana. It’s clear everywhere. Walk into almost any super store or pharmacy, even banks, and there are racks of LSU merchandise, and streets across the state are filled with people, adults as well as kids, wearing Tiger gear.

Green Wave announcer Steve Barrios said when he first noticed the situation he decided he wasn’t going to shop at any stores that sold Tiger paraphernalia but not Tulane’s. “My wife put an end to that kind of thinking,” Barrios said. “She said we wouldn’t be able to shop anywhere!”

When you think about it, it’s almost as if Tulane has ceased to exist, not only as a sports entity but as a part of the landscape of the state. Tulane’s connection with the local populace has lessened considerably since the 1970s when it decided it wanted to be “a national school,” which translates to far more students from elsewhere than its home base.

“The demographics tell the whole story,” said Angus Lind, the former Times-Picayune columnist who attended Tulane in the 1960s. “I was looking through my old fraternity book the other day. Fifty percent of all my frat brothers were from here,” he said. “That situation doesn’t exist anymore. Tulane claims 16 percent of its population is from Louisiana. That means more than 80 percent are leaving to go home after graduation, and usually that means out-of-sight out-of-mind. Generally, they’re not coming back for a big game. I was a part of three Tulane-LSU games that drew more than 80,000 in New Orleans, but that was when there were a lot of Tulane grads living in the area. There are less and less of them today.”

There are those in the Tulane camp who think school President Scott Cowen is doing now what he failed to do in 2003 when he had an in-depth review of Green Wave sports: kill Tulane participation in Division I sports. Now, the theory goes, Cowen is simply letting the football program strangle itself out of existence without extending a hand of assistance.

It’s rumored around Willow St. in New Orleans that the rains last week interfered with Tulane’s practices. Coach Bob Toledo wanted to take his team to the Superdome to workout. That would have cost $1,000. Request denied. Does anyone think if Les Miles needed an extra grand to prepare for Alabama he wouldn’t get it?

Bruce Miller, the former Wave broadcaster, believes, along with Lind, a major part of Tulane’s football demise is a failure to follow up on the Green Wave’s highest note of success in the last quarter-century: an undefeated team in 1998, a year in which they did not play LSU. “Tulane had a good product, respectable crowds, a lot of success. But they didn’t follow up. Tulane fell back, and the program became, there’s only one way to say it: Pathetic. It’s become embarrassing, and the only reason for it is money - meaning what the school won’t put into it. I don’t think they have any idea of how much a good football program can mean to its base, how much it brings to the school.”

“There’s only one way phrase the state of Tulane football: Total capitulation.”

It’s sad, and, though Tiger fans don’t realize it yet, for LSU as well as Tulane.

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Marty Mule’ can be reached at MJM981two@charter.net