The history of the name Ragin' Cajuns

[Turbine]

There are several versions as to how we adopted the nickname Ragin' Cajuns.

The one I believe is the one from a local humorist and insurance tycoon, Sid Ory, who we lost this past year. But maybe it is in part because I knew Sid. He had an insurance agency, a customer was complaining about his policy, and Sid said, "Boy, you're a RAGIN' Cajun."

Another one was that it was thought up by an old Sports Information Director, Bob Henderson, as a means of promoting the school. I read somewhere that the majority of players on the football team were of Acadian French descent so the nickname really fit.

The use of the name evolved in the 60s during Russ Faulkinberry's tenure as coach. Gradually it took over and in the Summer of 1974, officially became the nickname. We had officially been "Bulldogs" since 1922.

At first some sensitive people who were generally elderly thought the "Ragin' Cajun" nickname was a mockery of someone of Acadian-French descent. Louisiana had a law from one year in the 1920s (1922, 1923, or 1926) forbidding a school kid from speaking French in school. If he did he was punished. Probably the motive was to ensure that they mastered English. I know people whose original language was French. Being "Cajun" wasn't marketed to the extent it is now, so an official nickname to Ragin' Cajuns was more of a bold move 30 years ago than it would be today. Now everyone seems to be delighted with it.

We have tried over the years to depict a "Ragin' Cajun" but whatever we come up with offends somebody. I remember "Mr. Cajun," a Disney-like character, used as a mascot, generic in appearance so it didn't offend anybody, but it seemed to offend everybody. A depiction of a white male doesn't represent women and people who aren't caucasian. Then one of the TV stations in the 80s had a contest to draw up a Ragin' Cajun decal. The winner had someone driving two alligators like someone in the Old West would drive a stagecoach. The winning drawing never saw the light of day. So any depiction of people is out. We outfitted someone to look like a crawfish, but my wife complained that he didn't do anything but just stand there. Evidently others agreed. Then we tried to bring a Red and White Bulldog back and name him "Ragin' Cajun." After the first one died, I think they came up with another one but he was gone after a year. The last 2-3 years we have had a pepper and call him "Cayenne." Probably the longest lasting and most enduring mascot didn't attempt to depict a Cajun at all. We had a guy dressed up as Bud Man like in the beer commercials, but after a year or two I think the administration wanted something other than a commercial product represented. So Bud Man got a chicken costume that looked like a Sesame Street character and was known as the Cajun Chicken. He did stunts and entertained the audience, particularly kids, and was very popular. Then there was mention of a law in Louisiana that when something as closely associated with the University as a chicken had become, the University "owned" him. In other words the Cajun Chicken could not sell "chicken" souvenirs and make money in any other way. So the next year he altered the costume enough to be able to do what he wanted and he was renamed the "Fabulous Cajun Chicken." That went on for a few years and then the Chicken wanted to go on the road and make somewhat of a career of it. The San Diego Chicken wanted him to drop the chicken costume because he originated the idea. The Fabulous Cajun Chicken kept doing Cajun games for a while then eventually retired and donated the costume to the University. The next year someone else wore it but he didn't do anything and it was not the same. I've read some posts that suggest this guy may want to come back. I hope so.

Most of us come from places that don't have a distinct identity, so calling your sports teams the "Cajuns" is a tremendous asset. It represents a lot of unique and outstanding things that are attractive to others.

I recall still another version. In Loreauville, there is a boat builder called Breaux's Bay Craft that used to compete in an offshore boat race off the coast of Florida. The name of the speed boat was the "Ragin Cajun". After several unsuccessful years at competing, the boat was scrapped, but the name caught on and was eventually picked up by (then) USL. Has anyone else heard that story? Don't know the veracity of it, however.

[NewsCopy]

La LOUISIANE
Fall 2003
	SIDNEY “SID” C. ORY
	...is credited with originating the “Ragin’ Cajun®” nickname for Louisiana’s athletic teams, died July 9, 2003. He was 89. During a radio program in 1988, Ory said the name was first used in the mid-1960s when he was chairman of the Kiwanis Club Football Jamboree. As part of a ticket drive for that event, club members were divided into two groups, “the fightin’ foreigners –people who had moved in– and the natives, the Ragin’ Cajuns®,” he said. USL’s football coach at the time, Russ Faulkinberry, asked to use the name for the university’s team, Ory said. A salesman for Franklin Life Insurance, Ory earned its National Sales Achievement Award, National Quality Award and Legends Award, which he received after 50 years with the company. Other honors included the 1956 Lafayette Civic Cup, the Lafayette Civitan Club’s Mankind Award, the Volunteer Activist Award and the Boy Scouts of America’s Silver Bear and Silver Antelope awards. In 1978, the USL Alumni Association presented Ory, who attended SLI, with its Outstanding Alumni Award. Survivors include one sister, two daughters, seven grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren.

[NewsCopy]

The instant he heard it, Russ Faulkinberry said he knew "Ragin' Cajuns" was the perfect nickname for a team in Louisiana.

In 1963, Faulkinberry was the football coach at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, then playing with the nickname Bulldogs, to which he secretly objected.

One spring evening, Faulkinberry was to speak at a Kiwanis Club meeting for USL boosters. Members were going to kick off a season-ticket drive. The meeting moderator, a Cajun from the south Louisiana town of Kaplan, divided the boosters into two teams. He yelled out to one group, "Give me the Roarin' Cajuns," and to the other, "Give me the Ragin' Cajuns."

When Faulkinberry heard that, he thought, "Man, that's what I'm looking for."

After the meeting, Faulkinberry went to his office and made notes. He ordered Bob Henderson, then USL's sports information director, to start using Ragin' Cajuns instead of Bulldogs in all references to the football team. It worked particularly well for that sport because 43 of Faulkinberry's 45 players were from Acadiana, the largest pocket of the state's Cajun population as well as the location of the school, now known as the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

The name change was an immediate smash.

Basketball assumed the moniker a couple of years later, then baseball. By the early 1970s, the school had officially adopted it for all its athletic programs. It's a near-perfect and unique reflection of the culture of food, music and good times of Louisiana.

On top of that, it restored a certain order for Faulkinberry, who grew up in Tennessee but was sensitive to the history of Acadiana. It was the British who drove the oppressed Acadians out of Nova Scotia, sending them on an odyssey that eventually led them to Louisiana. That bothered Faulkinberry.

"There we were," he said, "playing in English-red jerseys, and with an English bulldog for our mascot. That just didn't fit in Cajun country."

The rest of the story

By Marty Mulè
Times Picayune

[DaddyCajun]

I knew 1963 was a GREAT YEAR for more reasons than it was my Birth Year!!!!!!!!!


DaddyCajun!

[R1Letterman]

I knew 1963 was a GREAT YEAR for more reasons than it was my Birth Year!!!!!!!!!


DaddyCajun!

what years did boomer play?

[60swerethebest]

63 was my first year at UL. Boomer was still trying to finish HS at Jesuit. He can give correct date but I think he came in 65. Don’t remember him in 64.

[Boomer]

As mentioned I am an alumnus of Jesuit and started UL in ‘63….. had 4 Landry’s on the team…. We won the GSC in ‘65 and there is a picture of the team in front of the press box mentioning our name ……the Rajin’ Cajuns!I played from ‘63-‘66

[R1Letterman]

As mentioned I am an limbus of Jesuit and started UL in ‘63….. had 4 Landry’s on the team…. We won the GSC in ‘65 and there is a picture of the team in front of the press box mentioning our name ……the Rajin’ Cajuns!I played from ‘63-‘66

wow, so are you considered one of the two not from acadiana?

[ColoradoCajun]

As mentioned I am an limbus of Jesuit and started UL in ‘63….. had 4 Landry’s on the team…. We won the GSC in ‘65 and there is a picture of the team in front of the press box mentioning our name ……the Rajin’ Cajuns!I played from ‘63-‘66

Wow! That’s so cool! I assume the picture I attached is the one you mentioned?

[R1Letterman]

Wow! That’s so cool! I assume the picture I attached is the one you mentioned?

mixed messaging regarding branding goes back further than we thought, or any others could dream of!

[R1Letterman]

where did the money for the other 50 scholarships go?

[CajunVic]

Russ Fulkinberry had one of the biggest noses known to mankind . . . he had to KNOW that we were meant to be Ragin Cajuns . . . Sid Ory was one of the nicest men to live in Lafayette, Louisiana . . .