It has been 35 years since a Cajun team earned a bowl bid.

When a member of the Tennessee State football team met USL's Jim Doyle in December 1970, he ventured a guess about Doyle's position judging by his size.

"What are you, a running back?" Doyle was asked.

"No," Doyle replied, "I'm the biggest guy on our team."

In fact, Doyle was a lineman for the Ragin' Cajuns of coach Russ Faulkinberry, one of the few sizable players on a 9-2 squad that earned a berth in the Grantland Rice Bowl after capturing the Gulf State Conference title.

The XXXXX Tigers were less than impressed with the Cajuns, their opponent for the Dec. 12 bowl game in Baton Rouge.

"Their attitude was that they would come in and run over us," recalled Nate Thornton, a freshman on that 1970 Cajun team.

To hear other Cajuns tell it, the Tigers had a right to feel that way.

"They were, without a doubt, the most talented team I had ever seen up close," said Nelson Schexnayder, a junior receiver in 1970. "Ten of their 11 defensive starters were drafted into the NFL after that season, and the only reason the 11th guy wasn't is that he was a junior and you couldn't draft juniors at the time."

Tennessee State was quarterbacked by "Jefferson Street" Joe Gilliam and had players like Ed "Too Tall" Jones in its defensive line.

"We were in way over our heads," said Mike McDonald, a junior safety in 1970 who remains the UL career interception leader with 21.

"There was a banquet the night or two before the game, and they thought we were the JV," Acadiana High assistant coach Myles Casbon said.

Schexnayder remembers that banquet scene like it was last week.

"In those days, we had set travel outfits," Schexnayder said. "We wore white slacks, blue shirts, white ties and red coats. So, we got to the banquet first, and then Tennessee State came in.

"They were dressed to the nines. They had on expensive suits, hats, fedoras. One guy was wearing a cape. Imagine wearing a cape in 1970! And there we were in our little red, white and blue outfits."

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com