Football 1996

[RedBug58]

Hours after the game ended, Larry and I were devouring some Denny’s along the main drag, still scratching our heads from what we’d witnessed in The Swamp, when we heard a ruckus outside that soon turned to a roar. I thought Huey P. Long had come back to life, the way the Louisianans were carrying on.

Turns out they were marching the goalposts down the street around midnight, headed goodness knows where. We watched the posts march by, and then turned our attention back to our pancakes.

"Denny's"??? We've never had a "Denny's" in Lafayette. The goal post was carried to "Ray's Sports Bar". They would have had to been in Luthers, what was the Mexican place on the corner, or one of the fast food places across Congress. (Methinks this Aggie was still crying in the stadium) Also a little advice to the Aggies..............Some of the best food in the country is right here in Lafayette. It's not hard to find food better than "Denny's"!!

[Turbine]

There used to be a Denny's on Evangeline Thruway, though I doubt they made it that far.

What was Mel's Diner (across from the Horse Farm) called 10 years ago (denny's type) ? It's "along the main drag" and not that far from Cajun Field. If fans were still carrying the post at midnight . . . . ???

[Ewhite]

There used to be a Denny's on Evangeline Thruway, though I doubt they made it that far.

What was Mel's Diner (across from the Horse Farm) called 10 years ago (denny's type) ? It's "along the main drag" and not that far from Cajun Field. If fans were still carrying the post at midnight . . . . ???

It was called Mel's Diner back then. He may have been PC about the fact he was probably at Ray's drinking beer. I thought I heard a story that the goalpost had gone down Johnston at one point.

There will be a Denny's in College Station, maybe it's a premonition. I hope so.

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It might have been the longest half a quarter in college football history. At least, it felt that way on Sept. 14, 1996 for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns as they battled No. 25 Texas A&M before a record crowd at Cajun Field. Cornerback Britt Jackson had given the Cajuns a the lead with a 30-yard interception return at the 6:30 mark of the fourth quarter, and UL needed to hold on. They didn't want to think about it, but it was hard for the Cajuns to ignore the creeping feeling that something could ruin another possible chance at history. Coach Nelson Stokley had been there before, losing 21-20 to Oklahoma State in his first game as Cajun coach in 1986, and falling by the same score at Ole Miss later that fall. UL lost 24-17 at Alabama in 1989, 9-7 at Arkansas in 1991 and 25-24 at Auburn in 1992. Something always seemed to happen. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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For most members of the Ragin' Cajuns' 1996 football team, the lasting image from then-USL's 29-22 upset victory over Texas A&M remains the goal post. Students and fans swarming the field had already torn down the south-end post, and another group headed toward the north end for a similar prize. Meanwhile, those with the south post faced a dilemma. "They tried to get it up the tunnel, and it wouldn't fit," said then-assistant coach Gerald Broussard. "So they just went up the hill." The natural bowl of Cajun Field couldn't contain that kind of enthusiasm, as the student army took the post up the steep slopes, passed it over a metal fence and eventually out into the nearby streets. "I'd never seen that before, and I don't expect I'll ever see that again," said Marty Cannon, then a junior offensive guard and now assistant principal at Our Lady of Fatima School. "I'd seen it on TV, but there we were at the game, I was getting hugged by everybody, and all of a sudden there was this huge pounding on my back. I almost got trampled by the goal post." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

This monument was a Swamp backdrop for 7 years

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Texas A&M has a rich, winning tradition - one of the best in college football. But on Sept. 14, 1996, the No. 25-ranked Aggies ran into something they'd never seen before as they were upset 29-22 by Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns. It was one of those nights when preparation met talent and blended with the element of surprise. "The thing we did, we were the first team in the South to be a true blitzing team," said Mike Doherty, a current Teurlings Catholic assistant who ran the defensive secondary for UL. "We got that from Arizona, Arizona State and the (NFL's) Cardinals. You see it every week now, but you didn't see it in the South then. Generally trends start in the West and work their way across the country. "A&M had a check-off system. If we did this, they would do that. We had some form of blitz on every snap. I don't think they were ready for the bluff part." The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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Ron Mertz had more beer than he knew what to do with when Texas A&M visited then-USL 10 seasons ago. Mertz, who has served as president of the Acadiana chapter of A&M's Association of Former Students for years, had literally hundreds of Aggies in town for that 1996 football contest at Cajun Field. "We had more Aggies in town than you could imagine," Mertz said. "A lot of them are engineers at our oil companies around here, and they all came by our tent." There was a big crowd for the pregame tailgating, but Mertz also had beer iced down for a postgame party in the tailgating area. But after the Cajuns had pulled off the upset 29-22 win, a lot of the out-of-town visitors didn't stay around. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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Don't let it be forgot That once there was a spot For one brief shining moment That was known as ... Cajun Field. With apologies to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and the musical "Camelot," fans of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns won't let it be forgot that on Sept. 14, 1996, their team stunned No. 25 Texas A&M 29-22. Can it really be 10 years now? Ten years since the Cajuns earned their first victory over a ranked team, and still the only time they've pulled it off. Ten years since 38,783 fans overflowed Cajun Field, spilling onto the hills behind the north and south end zones. Ten years since the Cajuns erased bitter memories of narrow losses to Oklahoma State and Ole Miss (both by 21-20) in 1986, at Alabama in 1989 (24-17), at Arkansas in 1991 (9-7) and at Auburn in 1992 (25-24). Ten years since the goal posts came down, and were carried away and out of the south end of the stadium by jubilant fans looking like so many ants toting a carrot up an ant hill. The rest of the story Bruce Brown The Advertiser

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Cody Romero only provided one offensive yard to his USL football team 10 years ago this week, but it was a big yard. The Loreauville product and senior tight end caught a one-yard pass from Jake Delhomme midway through the second quarter against Texas A&M on that Sept. 14, 1996 night in Cajun Field. It was the Cajuns' only offensive touchdown in what turned into the most notable victory in the program's history. "It was like it didn't hit me until later, what we had done," Romero said of the 29-22 win over the 25th-ranked Aggies. "Years later, it still hits you. When we realized that we'd beaten A&M ..." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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Football teams take their que from the quarterback, and Jake Delhomme never saw a game he didn't think he could win. So when the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns prepared for their second game of the 1996 season against No. 25 Texas A&M, they saw a senior leader who was ready to make history. "Our confidence level was extremely high," said Delhomme, who took a break from his Carolina Panthers playbook this week to revisit that moment in time. "We had lost to Florida (55-21) in the opener, but they won the national championship that year. They just demolished people. We played pretty well, but naturally they wore us down at the end." Delhomme threw two touchdowns at Florida, but the Gators also returned four UL miscues for touchdowns to make the win easier. Two weeks later, the tables turned as the Cajuns forced eight turnovers (four fumbles, four interceptions) and ran back three of those for scores in a momentous 29-22 upset before 38,783 fans at Cajun Field. "We had a lot of confidence," Delhomme said. "We were going to try to wear them out. We were going to get after them. We felt we matched up with them well. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com