Early 1960's LSU Football Heroes

HalloweenRun

I did not mean to get old, but I did.

I first gravitated to LSU football as a wee lad of 6 or 7. I was captivated by radio broadcasts featuring Billy Cannon and the Chinese Bandits and the Go Team. Powerful imagery really hooked a kid from NC on a sports team "a million miles away."

As I got older I was further entranced by the Jerry Stovall era. He lost the Heisman by less than a hundred votes and as I recall, he was totally awesome. Did well in the pros, too. I remember a pretty potent backfield of Stovall and Wendell Harris.

A highlight of my life was seeing the 1961 game in Chapel Hill, coached by Dietzel and featuring both Stovall and Harris. LSU won 30 - 0. I don't think the two have met since.

The point. I don't recall seeing anything about either Stovall or Harris on the forum. I know Stovall coached with mixed success several years. Are they just gone and forgotten? Are most members and posters to young to remember or even know of these guys? Did they do something wrong and have been blacklisted by those in the know? Just curious.

hwr

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houtiger

Stovall gets plenty of cred from anyone old enough to remember him, or from those who love LSU and did some reading. I think he makes a short list of the top 5 Tiger footballers, as you say, he finished second in the Heisman balloting to unforgettable Terry Baker of Oregon (who flopped in the NFL). Stovall should have won it, another example of "west coast media bias" and why, even with its problems, the BCS has been great for the SEC.

Now Wendell Harris, that's mostly a forgotten name. I remember the name, I remember he was good, but I don't remember much else. Anybody?

Now, the names I remember as a kid:

John Garlington, Remi Prudhomme, George Rice, Screen, Ezell, Doug Moreau, Nelson Stokley, Don Schwab, Joe LaBruzzo, Brad Davis, Trigger Allen, Art Cantrelle, Eddie Ray, Tyler Lafaucie, George Bevan, Mike Anderson, Bert Jones, Ronnie Estae, White Graves, AJ Duhe, Dennis Gaubatz, Fred Miller, Cassanova, just some who come to mind. Add Gawain DiBetta.

Here is an interesting piece on Dennis Gaubatz, an interesting time capsule about the pro game back in the day. It will bring back good memories if you were around back then.
http://www.profootballresearchers.or.../25-02-975.pdf

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houtiger

I was looking around that website, found this I had never heard about YA Tittle in the 63 championship loss to the Bears:

http://www.profootballresearchers.or.../05-08-152.pdf

I never heard Tittle had torn ligaments in that game, took 2 injections and then finished. I bet that doesn't happen today.

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stevescookin

We must all be the same age, or thereabouts. I remember those names and haven't thought about them for years. I remember my very first LSU game in 1968...the Sugar Bowl against Wyoming. Most of those guys you mentioned played in that game. Wow. Time flies. Glenn Smith was MVP.

I see that Dandy Don has a page called where are they now. Lots of familiar names are there. a lot of the people are repeated, but it's a great stroll down memory lane.

Dandy Don's Sporting News | Dandy Don's Where Are They Now?

Thanks for posting this nostalgic thread. .

houtiger

I remember that Sugar Bowl. I think the Cowboys were up 14-zip at the half. We hadn't seen Glen Smith much all season. He comes off the bench, goes wild, and we win 21-14, in one of the more exciting games in that era. Did Smith score all 3 Tiger TD's? I watched for him the next season, but the high point of his career must have been that Sugar Bowl.

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stevescookin

I just found this from google.

34th Annual Sugar Bowl Classic ~ January 1, 1968
LSU 20 (Final: 7-3-1)
#6 Wyoming 13 (Final: 10-1-0)

Glenn Smith, an unheralded New Orleanian, sparked a second-half uprising that lifted LSU to a comeback 20-13 win over Wyoming, the nation's only undefeated, untied major college squad.

Smith, who didn't touch the ball until late in the third quarter when he was on the receiving end of a 39-yard pass from Nelson Stokley, gained all of his 74 yards in the remaining time. He scored the first LSU TD and set up the game-winner with a 16-yard run. Smith turned out to be the game's "Most Outstanding," but just as outstanding for the fast-starting Cowboys, featuring Jim Kick at running back, was Jerry DePoyster, who repeatedly kicked Wyoming out of trouble. He averaged 48 yards per punt for the day and had two field goals, one a 49-yarder that helped stake Wyoming to a 13-0 halftime lead.

Tulane Stadium
Att: 72,858

LSU 0 0 7 13 - 20
Wyoming 0 13 0 0 - 13

SCORING SUMMARY
Wyo: Kick 1-yard run (DePoyster kick)
Wyo: DePoyster 24-yard field goal
Wyo: DePoyster 49-yard field goal
LSU: Smith 1-yard run (Hurd kick)
LSU: Morel 8-yard pass from Stokley (Kick failed)
LSU: Morel 14-yard pass from Stokley (Hurd kick)

stevescookin

We lived in Harahan and my dad decided to go to the game because of the bad weather (cold and rainy) about 1/2 hour before the game started.He figured that there were plenty of tickets left, so a few of my brothers and I piled in the Volkswagen and went to the game at Tulane Stadium. The stadium was 1/3 empty. I remember Nelson Stokely, Sammy Grezaffi, Tommy Morel. Also Jim Kiick and the kicker/punter Jerry De Poyster. I never saw anyone kick like that before...wonder whatever became of him?

I must have been in the eighth grade then.

houtiger

Thanks Steve, that's cool!!!

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stevescookin

I feel like JohnLSU now...

Jerry DePoyster

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Jerry DePoyster Position(s)
Kicker/Punter Jersey #(s)
15, 4 Born July 6, 1946 (1946-07-06) (age 63)
Omaha, Nebraska) Career information Year(s) 1968–1972 NFL Draft 1968 / Round: 2 / Pick: 37 College University of Wyoming Professional teams Career stats Field goals 15 / 3 Extra points 20 / 18 Punts - yards 177 - 6912 Stats at NFL.com Career highlights and awards Jerry Dean DePoyster (born July 6, 1946 in Omaha, Nebraska) is a former American football placekicker and punter in the National Football League.
[edit] College career

Jerry DePoyster was an outstanding college football player who was an All-American from the University of Wyoming, taking the school to a first ever Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. With at least three field goals over 53 yds. He was inducted into the University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame on September 15, 2006.
[edit] Professional career

DePoyseter was a 2nd round selection (37th overall pick) the 1968 Common Draft by the Detroit Lions. He would participate in all 14 of the Lions games that season. He next would play for the Oakland Raiders (1971-1972) until the arrival of the legendary Ray Guy (who was the first pure punter ever taken in the first round of the NFL draft). DePoyster was an average punter, and has the dubious distinction of having the shortest punt in NFL history. He received the snap at the Raider 2 yard line, and booted an eleven yard lame duck, which was promptly returned for a touchdown by the New York Jets. To add injury to insult, DePoyster was knocked silly by the returner, who bulldozed the hapless punter on his way to the Raider end zone.

(I wonder if that was the famous Heidi Bowl?)

Fritzz

Yep. Once the Bears knew he was injured, they pushed a heavy rush. The Giants had little or no running attack. They didn't allow YA to step into his passes. Don't know if he could, as he couldn't push off.

ok awesome

Who gave all these old people computers?

stevescookin

We began with slide rules. When I was at LSU the very first calculator came out by Texas Instruments. Ti10. It could add, subtract, multiply, divide, square and square root.

It cost $100 and was an unfair advantage in math class.

What's a computer?.

I found it and pulled it out of the closet !!! it's really called the SR10
It also had a 1/x function and could work in scientific notation because of the EE key (enter exponent) also could change signs (+/-)

It was in a shoe box in a closet in my old room at my mother's house and guess what else was in the box...a ticket stub from the NCAA basketball finals in the Superdome when MJ led UNC beat Georgetown and Patrick Ewing !!!! only cost $7 in the terrace !!!

tuckerman

I was a freshman but went home to Mississippi for the holidays and watched on TV. I remember how Wyo. completely dominated the game until Smith came in. A Wyo. player's comment went something like 'we'd scouted LSU so well that we knew what hand they pissed with, and then they brought in this guy we'd never seen before.'

The good ole days!

tuckerman

stevescookin

I took the Fortran course and used that big mainframe. I remember dropping a huge stack of those cards and now they were in random order ( the rubber band broke too). everyone around me on campus that day learned some new cursewords at that moment.

When I was a senior, I took a programming course in Pascall...it was a format free language and it didn't matter what row or column things were in. I thought I was in heaven. But I still couldn't understand the error messages ("undeclared variable") and couldn't get anything to compile until 10 or 12 times. I dropped that class like a hot potato!!

I think that's why I loved cooking and working in kitchens so much. I could actually get things right the very first time.

tuckerman

HalloweenRun

Hey, I was a slide rule guy, myself. Still have it in its orange case. At USNA they were called a "slipstick," I took a bunch of engineering and advanced math courses with one.

Never had a calculator in college, now, teaching 8th grade, all we use are calculators. Of course in business, never saw one, its all spreadsheets.

I remember one of the profs had a TI-10. Back then, $100 was a lot of money. Who could afford one? I did not remember the cost, just that it was way, way, way more than I could "ever" afford.

Oh yeah, I remember those damn IBM cards too. Nightmare!


hwr

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"When all was said and done, a lot more was said than done"

"It was a good life, if you didn't know any better."

stevescookin

I used to copy my calculus formulae on the back of the ole slipstick. .

MobileBengal

I had a Ti-89....in high school.

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Ryan

Who Dat Nation Pledge of Allegiance: I pledge allegiance to the Saints and the great city of New Orleans , and to the Super Bowl for which we will win, one city, below sea level, with Mardi Gras and alcohol for all.

DJM136

steve, tuck, hwr and other relics,

I love telling youngsters (45 or younger) about taking fortran at LSU in mid-70s. One building, 20 punch card machines. You wait until a machine comes free (hours), type punch your (seemingly) 500 cards as people are breathing down your neck waiting for your machine, and hand your stack of cards to some goobers behind a counter. Then you go "somewhere" for more hours, occasionally going back to the building to check and see if your cards were "run". No, you don't have email or cell phones to tell you it's ready, you have to go there and check.

Finally you find your batch of cards in the out bin with a printout attached by rubber band. YES! You open the printout and find that the 3rd card has a typo and the computer kicked it out. MF SOB!! So, you wait for a machine, fix that card, rinse repeat only to find (hours later) the 4th card had a typo.

The above is NOT fictional. It actually happened. You kids curse when a web site takes 3 seconds to appear because you need to copy text into "your" report. I say this full of love: kiss my ass!

On topic, I clearly remember Glenn Smith against Wyoming, he was a mudder on that sloppy field. I also had a LSU jersey, #13 for Mike Hillman, who was a left handed (like me) QB.

tuckerman

HalloweenRun

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE. I love the "go somewhere" part. ABSOLUTELY TRUE and how it was routinely the case. Not the exception. I can only add, about the breathing down ones neck. I was a PLEBE (freshman) at USNA and those breathing down my neck were Upperclassmen. It was even worse.

Dayum the bad luck.

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"When all was said and done, a lot more was said than done"

"It was a good life, if you didn't know any better."

65Grad

Add Roy "Moonie" Winston to that list.

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kdeuce

My sister and ex-brother-in-law were at LSU in the 1950s and I followed the Tigers as a school boy at that time.

After the 1958 National Championship, the 1959 season and 1960 Sugar Bowl, I remember having a conversation with them asking how LSU would replace its graduating backfield. The reply was they'd been hearing that LSU had a back coming up, Wendell Harris, who might be the best in recent years.

That made an impression because the backs of 'recent years' had included Jimmy Taylor, Billy Cannon and Johnny Robinson.

Wendell Harris played in what might have been LSU's most talented back field. Wendell Harris, Jerry Stovall and Earl Gros were all first-round NFL draft picks (Gros and Harris in 1962, Stovall in 1963).

Stovall was selected to the Pro Bowl three times as a defensive back for the Cardinals. Earl Gros played in the NFL for 9 seasons. Wendell Harris went on to play for the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. He was a defensive back, kick returner and punt returner.

kdeuce

That was a good comeback by LSU. It wasn't the first time I'd seen the Tigers in the Sugar Bowl. My parents had bought bonds when the stadium was being built so we had Sugar Bowl tickets every year.

The first game I had a chance to attend was 1957 (Baylor vs. Tennessee), when I was 10. During the 1958 season, I attended the LSU-Florida game in Tiger Stadium. Then on January 1, 1959, we went to the Sugar Bowl to see the Tigers beat Clemson 7-0 on a TD pass from Billy Cannon to Mickey Mangham. LSU finished undefeated and untied and was selected the AP and UPI national champion.

The next year I listened as Billy Cannon ran the ball back 89 yards on the famous Halloween night punt return that enabled LSU to beat Ole Miss 7-3. The following January 1 was a rematch in the Sugar Bowl.

The week following the Ole Miss victory, LSU had been upset 14-13 by Tennessee so the Tigers were no longer #1. The only loss by Ole Miss during the 1959 season had been to LSU so they were looking forward to a rematch in the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss was #2 going into the game and LSU had fallen to #3. Ole Miss beat LSU 21-0. It was a disappointing finish for LSU fans after the 1958 team had not lost a game and returned its core of players.

But during the following season, LSU did get a measure of revenge against Ole Miss. The Tigers had a 1-4 record as they traveled to play undefeated, #1 Ole Miss on October 29, 1960. In one of the greatest upsets of that era, Ole Miss had to kick a field goal in the last 6 seconds to tie LSU (6-6). Ole Miss finished 9-0-1 that year. That game had one of the most unusual runs I've seen in college football. LSU's Charlie Cranford ran into a pile of players, flipped over them in a somersault, landed on his feet and made a vital first down.

One other Sugar Bowl was particularly memorable. The 1964 game was played shortly after it had snowed in New Orleans and we had to clear snow from the stadium seats! That was when the game was played at Tulane Stadium, before the Superdome was built.