Jaguars recall first Bayou Classic win

• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 25, 2009 - Page: 3C

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Although Grambling has won four Bayou Classics this decade (including last season), Southern has spent much of the past two decades dominating this all-important series — much to the delight of fans who used to cringe at the thought of another probable loss to their archrivals.

The Jaguars have won two of the past three Bayou Classics, four of the past seven and 12 of the past 16.

It didn’t used to be that way. In fact, during the 1970s, Grambling absolutely crushed SU.

That pattern was finally interrupted 30 years ago.

In 1979, Grambling was on its way to the Division I-AA playoffs, and Southern hadn’t beaten them in nine years — including the first five Classics.

From the first Classic in 1974 at Tulane Stadium to the next four games inside the Superdome, Grambling had won by a combined score of 147-54.

Then the two teams met Dec. 1, 1979 — the only December meeting in the Classic’s history.

Doug Williams’ brother, Mike Williams, was the starting quarterback at Grambling then.

He got one-upped by a youngster named Wilfred Charles, who led the Jaguars to their first win in a Bayou Classic game.

Al Barron, a punter on that SU team, said he still finds himself thinking about that night.

“To me, the Classic has always been the first big Christmas party of the year,” Barron said. “That year, from the time we got back to Baton Rouge until Christmas, if somebody found out you were a Southern football player, you couldn’t pay for anything. People were just so happy that we had finally gotten one.”

Derek Price, a redshirt freshman on the team and now the school’s equipment manager, remembered that Charles scored not only the game-winning touchdown, but all 14 of Southern’s points.

Charles scored two touchdowns and a two-point conversion. The second touchdown erased a 7-6 deficit with 4:18 to play.