New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Tabasco’s Ties to Football Burn Deep

AVERY ISLAND, La. — Walter Stauffer McIlhenny, the fourth chief executive of the McIlhenny Co., the makers of Tabasco sauce, was a farsighted risk taker. The son of one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, he was an expert marksman who was wounded at Guadalcanal in 1942. He did not have the bullet in his leg removed until the next year so he could keep fighting.

After the war, he helped turn Tabasco into a global brand. A prominent businessman in New Orleans, he bought a slice of the Saints before their first season in the N.F.L. in 1967. That savvy investment included 50-yard-line seats to Saints home games and the Super Bowl when it was played in New Orleans.

But when Uncle Walter, as he was known to his extended family, died a bachelor in 1985, none of his cousins took his stake in the Saints. So the stake was sold and with it access to those seats.

“They were wonderful; you could pound on the metal deck at Tulane Stadium and make a lot of noise,” said Paul C. P. McIlhenny, the current chief executive of the McIlhenny Co., who attended several Super Bowls and many Saints games. “Shame on us for not keeping them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/sp...s&emc=rss&_r=0