No political leader is more closely identified with Louisiana State University than the flamboyant governor and U.S. senator Huey P. Long, who devoted his last years to turning a small, undistinguished state school into an academic and football powerhouse. From 1931, when Long declared himself the “official thief” for LSU, to his death in 1935, the school’s budget mushroomed, its physical plant burgeoned, its faculty flourished, and its enrollment tripled. Along with improving LSU’s academic reputation, Long believed the school’s football program and band were crucial to its success. Taking an intense interest in the team, Long delivered pregame and halftime pep talks, devised plays, stalked the sidelines during games, and fired two coaches. He poured money into a larger, flashier band, supervised the hiring of two directors, and, with the second one, wrote a new fight song, “Touchdown for LSU.” While he rarely meddled in academic affairs, Long insisted that no faculty member criticize him publicly. When students or faculty from “his school” opposed him, retribution was swift. Long’s support for LSU did not come without consequences. His unrelenting involvement almost cost the university its accreditation. And after his death, several of his allies—including his handpicked university president—went to prison in a scandal that almost destroyed LSU. Rollicking and revealing, Robert Mann’s Kingfish U is the definitive story of Long’s embrace of LSU.
Magnificent, maddening, thrilling, heartbreaking— over the years, LSU football has been called many things; boring is not among them. But no period in the team’s history exemplifies the extreme highs and lows of sport better than the past fifteen years. In 1993, the Tigers were in the midst of a record six-season losing streak and the program was struggling to dig its way out of its darkest days. By 2008, LSU had emerged as one of the premier college football powers in the nation and the unprecedented two-time winner of the BCS national championship. In The Fighting Tigers, 1993–2008, award-winning sportswriter Scott Rabalais chronicles the Tigers’ fantastic rise to the top of the college football universe, vividly detailing the victories and defeats, the coaches and the players, the tears and the titles of this sometimes frustrating, always fascinating period of LSU football. Game by game, Rabalais recounts the tenures of the four head coaches who led the Tigers during these years—“Curley” Hallman, the strict taskmaster whose mounting losses created dissension and apathy among the Tiger faithful; Gerry DiNardo, the charismatic salesman whose efforts to “Bring Back the Magic” temporarily vaulted the Tigers again into the national polls; Nick Saban, the intense workhorse who steadily rebuilt the program and led the team to its first national championship in almost fifty years; and Les Miles, the engaging wildcard who finally emerged from Saban’s shadow with a championship of his own. Rabalais provides expert analysis of the 2004 and 2008 BCS national championship games and other postseason bowl games as well as the “ordinary” games that have crossed over into legendary status—1993’s “Pigs Will Fly” victory against Alabama, “The Night the Barn Burned” at Auburn in 1996, and 2002’s “Bluegrass Miracle.” Along the way, Rabalais recounts the incredible athletic feats of numerous standout players, including Eddie Kennison, Kevin Faulk, Josh Reed, Michael Clayton, Marcus Spears, Chad Lavalais, and Glenn Dorsey. Throughout, Rabalais interweaves off-the-field events that have affected or enhanced the LSU football legacy: the return of the traditional home white jerseys; the creation of the Bengal Belles; two expansions of Tiger Stadium; the death of Mike V and the introduction of Mike VI; and perhaps most poignant, the Tigers’ volunteer efforts and emotional responses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. An appendix contains the vital statistics of LSU’s entire football history. Individual and team records in every area, coaching records, All-Americans and Academic All-Americans, year-by-year results, top ten Tiger Stadium crowds, Tigers in pro football— all of this and more will satisfy even the most hardcore LSU sports statistician. Peter Finney, venerable author of the three previous volumes of The Fighting Tigers, passes the official historian’s torch to Rabalais in a compelling foreword that emphasizes the significance of the Tigers’ recent run of success. To many die-hard Tiger fans, LSU football is a religion all its own. With The Fighting Tigers, 1993–2008, Rabalais has written the next book of its bible.
There's a mystique about LSU's Tiger Stadium that's hard to grasp. Discover what it is through interviews with fans and writings of well-known sports figures. Find out what the 25 greatest games played in Death Valley are, including colorful and vivid descriptions told by players, coaches and fans who were present. Revisit LSU football from 1958 to 2012, detailing coaches hired and fired, including the dismal 1990s decade to the 2000-2011 period, when LSU won two national championships. Read about the 2011 SEC champions and what made the team extraordinary, despite losing to Alabama in the BCS National Championship game. Tiger Stadium is both intimidating and intriguing and it's all explained in this colorful account that's loaded with photos bringing the venue alive in a special way.
With traditions, records, and Tigers lore, this lively, detailed book explores the personalities, events, and facts every Louisiana State University fan should know. It contains crucial information such as important dates, behind-the-scenes tales, memorable moments, and outstanding achievements by players like Y.A. Tittle, Tommy Casanova, Alan Faneca, Odell Beckham Jr., and Leonard Fournette. Covering the championship eras of Paul Dietzel, Nick Saban, Les Miles, and plenty more, this is the ultimate resource guide for all LSU faithful.
Student journalists at the "Yale Daily News" interview fellow students at over 320 colleges in the U.S. and Canada to produce detailed profiles on each campus in this premier peer-to-peer guide to colleges and universities.
Explore the cultural phenomenon that is college football in the South. This completely new edition provides a close-up look at the great players, great rivalries, great coaches, and great traditions that make college football in the South more than just a game. It is a way of life that lasts 365 days a year.
Gumbo for the Tiger Soul is a collection of personal stories covering great and not so great moments in LSU football history over nearly 50 years. The stories have been contributed by friends, former football players, fans, band members, dancers, color guard and LSU staff. They offer a unique perspective that includes the emotions and feelings Tiger fans have experienced. Reading this book will trigger memories of games that you witnessed in person or TV. With gumbo as the undercurrent theme of the book, the chapters have clever titles - mostly ingredients of gumbo. Also, each chapter is followed by a great Cajun recipe.
A continuing and ongoing drama, LSU football has been marked by a string of improbable victories and sometimes valiant defeats. Game of My Life LSU Tigers is the chronicle of more than thirty-five of the greatest players as they tell the story of the game that meant it all. This book features the vivid and poignant single-game stories from three dozen of the most remembered Tigers games of the last eight decades. Readers will relive the fingertip catches, the bone-crunching hits, and epic touchdowns through the eyes—and from the memories—of the LSU players themselves. The words of Tigers such as Jim Taylor, Billy Cannon, Tommy Hodson, Carlos Carson, Matt Mauck, Rohan Davey, JaMarcus Russell, Marcus Spears, Jarvis Landry, and Leonard Fournette are all part of this storied collection that has become a must-have for any true Tigers fan and Bayou football lover. From the words of Tigers coaching legend Paul Dietzel, “This is really like a Tiger time machine, going back to LSU’s greatest football moments with the people who lived them, then and now.”
"Thayer paints a rich picture of Hong Kong politics as well as of the world of international architecture" (Publishers Weekly) in this gripping thriller about the world's most famous architect, who makes a fatal mistake in building the world's tallest skyscraper for the Chinese government. To mark five thousand years of civilization, China has commissioned master architect John Llewellyn to construct a building like no other—a three-thousand-foot-tall crescent of bronze, steel, and concrete, towering above the Hong Kong skyline. Its official name is the Fifth Millennium, but the city's citizens have dubbed it the Gold Swan. It will be the eighth wonder of the world, a testament to China's glory. And it may hold a fatal flaw that could bring it crashing to the ground before it is completed. Llewellyn's chief security man, ex-FBI agent Clay Williams, and young architect Anne Iverson suspect the impending disaster, and they are thrust into the deadly world of Chinese politics—where the truth is a lie, and lies are the only answers they can find. What they cannot know is that there are those in power who want the tower to fall, and with it, the very heart of one of the most powerful nations on earth....
