Vintage Fans: Tell Us a Tulane Stadium Story?

HouYat · 03-08-2011, 03:26 PM

Love the posts on this thread, Mike. For me, go back to a sunny, hot September day in 1967. I'm standing on the field in the northwest corner of the end zone next to one of the cars that Paretti Pontiac had on display right next to the field (this would never happen today....cars on the field and me on the sideline!) My dad had a moving company back then and we would move the Saints equipment every week and get field passes. The crowd was really pumped, not only for the regular season opener but also for the fact that the Saints had gone 5-1 in preseason games. So at that point, the NFL crown seemed to be ours (Ha!). Rams kick off to John Gilliam, who breaks through the front line of Rams defenders and untouched, and he's off to the races, coming straight to the side of the field where I was standing. I had never heard such a loud and thunderous noise in my life, it was unbelievably loud! When he scored and turned to go to the sidelines, I could swear he hadn't even broken into a sweat on his 94-yard run! At that point we just knew that we would win that game, but that didn't happen. This was the NFL and the games were now for real, a rude awakening into the league. Roman Gabriel had a good day, and the Rams running game wore the Saints down to give us an opening day loss. But our spirits weren't dampened at all since it seemed like we always had 80,000 screaming fans at all the games.
Billy Kilmer, Jimmy Taylor, Doug Atkins, Flea Roberts, Charlie Durkee (everybody called him Charlie Turkey), Danny A, The Wheel Ernie Wheelwright, Little O Obert Logan, Dave Whitsell, there were so many names that became fan favorites that first year.

I've got tons more memories, a lot of bad ones, but some great ones also. That will have to be covered in future posts.

Thanks for this thread, Mike. Great stuff for the offseason.

03-08-2011, 03:26 PM	#9
HouYat Site Donor 2014 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Humble, Texas Posts: 460	Love the posts on this thread, Mike. For me, go back to a sunny, hot September day in 1967. I'm standing on the field in the northwest corner of the end zone next to one of the cars that Paretti Pontiac had on display right next to the field (this would never happen today....cars on the field and me on the sideline!) My dad had a moving company back then and we would move the Saints equipment every week and get field passes. The crowd was really pumped, not only for the regular season opener but also for the fact that the Saints had gone 5-1 in preseason games. So at that point, the NFL crown seemed to be ours (Ha!). Rams kick off to John Gilliam, who breaks through the front line of Rams defenders and untouched, and he's off to the races, coming straight to the side of the field where I was standing. I had never heard such a loud and thunderous noise in my life, it was unbelievably loud! When he scored and turned to go to the sidelines, I could swear he hadn't even broken into a sweat on his 94-yard run! At that point we just knew that we would win that game, but that didn't happen. This was the NFL and the games were now for real, a rude awakening into the league. Roman Gabriel had a good day, and the Rams running game wore the Saints down to give us an opening day loss. But our spirits weren't dampened at all since it seemed like we always had 80,000 screaming fans at all the games. Billy Kilmer, Jimmy Taylor, Doug Atkins, Flea Roberts, Charlie Durkee (everybody called him Charlie Turkey), Danny A, The Wheel Ernie Wheelwright, Little O Obert Logan, Dave Whitsell, there were so many names that became fan favorites that first year. I've got tons more memories, a lot of bad ones, but some great ones also. That will have to be covered in future posts. Thanks for this thread, Mike. Great stuff for the offseason.