Saban burned in effigy at rally

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 8, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Burn baby burn, or more accurately, burn Nick burn.

That was the mantra of about 100 to 150 LSU fans at a pre-football game rally Friday night when Nick Saban’s effigy was burned in the parking lot of a condominium complex just off of State Street.

The crowd chanted and cheered as a woman in a tiger costume held a torch to the 7-foot-tall effigy that was stuck in the middle of a pile of bales of straw.

Dressed in a red Alabama T-shirt, faded jeans and with a cut-out face of the former LSU coach stuck on the head, the effigy went up in flames and burned in just minutes.

The crowd, gathered in the parking lot of 3000 July St., cheered as the effigy disappeared in the flames. The events were held on the eve of the football game between LSU and Alabama — the first game between the two schools in Tiger Stadium with Saban as head coach for Alabama.

According to many in the crowd, there are still hard feelings against the coach for defecting first to the NFL and finally to Alabama.

“Nick Saban’s a sellout and a liar,” 19-year-old LSU freshman Annabelle Grimes said. “He told everyone here that he was an honest man and that he wasn’t leaving and then he left.”

Ezra Wheeler, a senior at LSU, agreed.

“He broke a lot of promises and that’s why we’re mad,” Wheeler, 22, said. “He said he wasn’t leaving and then he left and got a job at one of LSU’s biggest rivals.”

This was the second year the event has been held, said Glenn Stewart, the organizer.

There was free beer, food and even a parade that included a Baton Rouge fire truck, unmarked city police car, three-wheeled cycles bearing banners advertising Tiger Manor condominiums, a golf cart and a truck pulling a wagon filled with revelers.

As the parade wound around the parking lot of the condominium complex, parade riders threw toy fireman’s hats, beads, stuffed tigers, water bottles and T-shirts.

Stewart said the event is meant to be just good fun — even though Stewart admitted he still harbors anger against Saban.