Stovall well acquainted with LSU-Tulane rivalry

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 29, 2009 - Page: 1C

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From the time he first saw an LSU-Tulane game, Jerry Stovall knew there was something special.

Something different.

That first in-person game for Stovall was 1958 when the Tigers trampled the Green Wave 62-0 at Tulane Stadium and Stovall was there as a wide-eyed high school recruit from West Monroe.

“The big thing you could tell was how important the game was to both schools because it was an in-state rivalry game,” said Stovall, an All-American for the Tigers in the early 1960s and who later became the school’s head football coach.

“There were a lot of us young guys in that stadium that day who were trying to decide where to go to school, and both schools were recruiting us. So that made that game a big recruiting ground.”

The No. 9-ranked Tigers (6-1) entertain Tulane (2-5) at 7 p.m. Saturday in the last scheduled game between the two old rivals in Baton Rouge.

A 10-year series contract signed in 2005 has been voided, although LSU and the Wave will meet one more time in New Orleans in the future.

From all indications, though, this week’s game and whenever the teams meet in New Orleans could be the end of a series that dates to 1893.

Saturday’s game will be the 98th between the two programs that once battled for recruits and position in the fledgling Southeastern Conference.

Of the previous 97 meetings, the LSU-Tulane game has been the regular-season finale 68 times — most recently in 1991.

“It was always important when I played, because it was a conference game. And whenever we played one of those it was always an important event because it might mean you were playing for a conference championship,” Stovall said.

“But it was also the last game of the season. Back then we didn’t have dozens of bowl games to choose from. You had to be elite to get invited to a bowl game and that meant every win was important.”

It was also meaningful because the Tigers didn’t have another built-in rival like other Southeastern Conference heavyweights did.