By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Baton Rouge criminal defense attorney turned 19th District Court Judge James Manasseh has spent most of his adult life in courtrooms.
But most of his Saturday nights between September and December since he was a boy and now at age 64 have been spent in the Tiger Stadium pressbox. The son of legendary LSU sports information director Paul Manasseh (1971-83), Manasseh started going to LSU football games in 1969 at age 7, and the Tigers had one of their greatest seasons at 9-1 with the only loss, 26-23, to Ole Miss and quarterback Archie Manning in Jackson, Mississippi.
He has worked in the pressbox since 1977 when he was at University High. Since 1983, Manasseh has been the voice of the LSU pressbox, giving details, facts and notes on each and every play for media covering the game in between crowd roars.
Few know LSU football history better. And Manasseh during an appearance on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night pinpointed exactly when LSU just got “different,” to quote new LSU coach Lane Kiffin at his introductory press conference on Dec. 1.
It was Dec. 5, 1970 … No. 8 LSU 61, No. 16 Ole Miss and Manning 17 … on ABC national television at night. That was LSU’s first nationally televised game in Tiger Stadium in prime time. … And a star was born.
The next season, Tiger Stadium hosted its second nationally televised game in prime time under the lights on ABC … No. 14 LSU 28, No. 7 Notre Dame 8.
Yes, LSU won the national championship in 1958, and Billy Cannon won the Heisman Trophy in 1959, largely based on his iconic 89-yard punt return for a touchdown on Halloween Night that season as No. 1 LSU beat No. 3 Ole Miss, 7-3, at night as usual in Tiger Stadium. But that revolution was not televised.
“The LSU-Ole Miss game in 1970 and the LSU-Notre Dame game in 1971 – those were the two games that I think made the nation sort of look at LSU and Tiger Stadium as being just something different,” said Manasseh, who wasn’t even 10 yet for those games, but he is right. And, like his father, he did the research.
“There weren’t a lot of nationally televised games at night back then,” he said.
ABC did another national night game in Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Night in 1973 as No. 2 Alabama beat No. 7 LSU, 21-7. It was Alabama and coach Bear Bryant that played in first nationally televised college football regular season game in prime time in history when it beat Ole Miss and Manning, 33-32, on Oct. 4, 1969, in Legion Field in Birmingham on ABC.
“It was a fantastic environment that was just different,” Manasseh said, not realizing he was quoting Kiffin. “A night game in Tiger Stadium was just different.”
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There was another nationally televised LSU-Alabama game on ABC to kick off the season in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 5, 1981, that Alabama won, 24-7. LSU has had at least one nationally televised night game in Tiger Stadium every year from 1984-2026 with the exception of 1999.
LSU will not be at home on Saturday night, but the No. 7 Tigers (2-0) will be on national ABC television again when they play at No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0) in the first top 10 pairing in the LSU-Ole Miss rivalry since Nov. 3, 1962. No. 6 Ole Miss beat No. 4 LSU, 15-7, in Tiger Stadium in that game in a non-televised night game.
Manasseh says this LSU-Ole Miss game represents LSU’s return to its real blood feud.
“The Ole Miss rivalry is the number one rivalry for LSU,” he said. “Alabama’s been a bigger rivalry the last 20 years because Nick Saban was at Alabama (from 2007-23).”
Saban coached LSU from 2000-05 before leaving for the Miami Dolphins and then Alabama. He led LSU to its first national championship since 1958 in the 2003 season and won six at Alabama. He’ll be at Saturday’s game in Oxford as part of the ESPN College GameDay crew.
“But overall, LSU-Ole Miss is the rivalry,” Manasseh said. “I used to wear a “Go To Hell Ole Miss” T-Shirt under my shirt to U-High.”
Manasseh is picking an LSU win Saturday.
“We’re going to win easy,” he said. “We’re going to win by two scores at least. Everybody right now is so excited about the future. They’re so excited about what’s happening and the chances of – not just winning this season, but everybody’s looking at this like LSU’s got a chance to do what we’ve wanted to do for so long. And that’s to have a real sustained winning program that wins championships for five, six or 10 years.”
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