Errol Laborde: Yes, Tulane Football Is Important, and Here’s Why

Most of my friends are LSU football fans. I have a big problem with the "Bubba's" who paint their pick-up trucks purple and gold but who never attended a class on LSU's campus. (And note that an LSU diploma now has a real value since the university has dramatically inceased its admission standards.) But I always root for the losing underdog, Tulane, and love their out-of-the-stadium chant: "Thats all right; That's OK You're gonna work for us one day".

It "felt like" a continuous winning tradition when I was at Tulane from 1947-1951. Henry Frnka was the coach and the team was doing quite well. So well, in fact, that faculty calls for "de-emphasis" in athletics were paramount and, shortly after, the major in physical education was dropped.
Not just football players sought that degree. Indeed, many local and state high school coaches in all sports came out of the program. I was one of the student sports reporters for the Tulane "Hullabaloo" at the time. In many ways we have never recovered from that "de-emphasis." Maybe it was needed, but maybe the "de-emphasis" needed to be "de-emphasized" a bit.
And you are right, about playing schools like Vanderbilt and Rice. We do play the latter and the baseball rivalry with Rice is a crowd-pleaser. Let's go further, why not a Conference of such schools: Not only Vanderbilt, Rice, and Tulane; how about SMU, Duke, TCU, Baylor, Wake Forest. You can probably think of others. None of those schools have truly long-standing winning traditions---only 15 minutes of fame here and there. The Conference winner could have its own BCS Pre-Bowl game with Notre Dame each year!

I am a Tulane alumnus, but haven't gone to a game since 1998, my freshman year (our undefeated season). My interest in football is fleeting at most, but honestly, it's very depressing to watch a game in the nearly empty Dome. Someone told me about last year's Homecoming Game, which was held at Tad Gormley Stadium. Although I was not there, most of the press from that event heralds it as a success. Apparently, the coach was not impressed with the stadium and refused to hold more games there. Why? Someone needs to revisit this issue, starting with Tulane administration.

http://blog.nola.com/tulanebeat/2008/10/tulanes_venture_to_tad_gormley.html

Unfortunatley, Tad Gormley is not large enough nor does it have the facilities to meet NCAA requirements. The rules let you stage occasional games at less than adequate locations, but Tulane could not host all of its games at Gormely and remain a Div 1 team.

That being said, the Dome is indeed too big and too sterile for Tulane football. Perhaps an investment in Tad Gormely to bring it to NCAA standards? Or what about an uptown riverfront staium? It's going to take a lot to get the crowds in the Dome to see Tulane.

I have been a fan of Tulane football for my entire life and have been there from TU stadium to the debacle of the dome. There are many reasons TU football does not draw a crowd, one of which is winning. But there are programs all over the country that are not winning that draw more, tens of thousands more than TU. Even when TU was working on a perfect record, they never drew that many fans. I may stand to be corrected, but on T'giving night of that perfect season when they played La. Tech, only 27,000 showed up on the last game of the season for TU.

I believe the BIGGEST REASONS for little turnout for TU is the venue and that most of TU's alums live outside of NO. The Dome is horrible for TU football. Here's my thought. BUILD A 35-40,000 SEAT, OPEN AIR STADIUM ON THE BUTTERFLY BY AUDUBON ZOO. Students and fans can walk to the games and there can be a real family friendly atmosphere for tailgating and enjoying the beauty of that uptown area. Safe, easy for the students, plenty of parking available and a true college home for Tulane Football. The University of Houston did it when they left the Astrodome and went back to campus and TU should do it too. They have to. The Dome is a morgue and if TU doesn't get out of there, I think the end of TU football (shutter!) may be at hand.

Erroll - to answer your question about why Rice, SMU, Duke and Vandy are not in the same conference: there were talks in the late 50's, early 60's to set up a Southern Ivy League and call it the Magnolia Conference.

However, Duke did not want to give up rivalry with North Carolina and Rice/SMU did not want to give up the money from the Cotton Bowl tie-in.

Mr. Laborde - what you write is very "on the button". If Tulane were a consistent winner in football, similar to the way they are in baseball, then I would find the money and time to go to most of the games. (I drive in from Baton Rouge to do this when I can)

I have already made a comment to Coach Toledo that it is not fun to witness Tulane give up at least 31 points to every visitor to the Superdome this year. How can you consistently win at home with that statistic?

By the way, Tulane is in the same conference with Rice, in case you missed it.

The Tad Gormley idea was tried by Tulane, but it has been found to not be the solution to the attendance woes. Tulane is just going to have to find a way to build its own facility (starting at a capacity of 30K), and build the program back up from that point.

A.S.Madere, Baton Rouge, LA

One reason Tulane doesn't command a large crowd is that there is a whole lot of "other stuff" going on in NO all day, every day. In BR the only game in town is Tiger Football on a home game day. In NO, Tulane Football is just one choice among hundreds, no matter what day it is. Winning would certainly help, but I fear even that wouldn't be enough in a city that never stops partying.

Tulane has football? I didn't know that. Gee, thanks Erroll, after living here all my life, you would think it is hard to be shocked. Wow!

Seriously, it isn't just not winning. It is not just the Superdome. Other schools who do not win draw crowds. Tulane was not drawing a crowd even at the old Tulane Sugar Bowl Stadium. I think it is because the University, its students and its alumni do not make it important. And this is not a recent phenomenon. It has not been important for a long time, probably the 1950's. If it is not important to the school as a whole, you will not draw a crowd. If it is important, it will not matter where you play or how you play. It will be the event that matters. UNO is the same about sports. Look what the students did to that program and the alumni did not step foward to push the idea of increasing fees to keep sports alive, because it just did not matter.

I'm a current Tulane student so let me give you some insight into what's going on on the inside. I've attended every home game in the Dome ever since my first game as a freshman. That's nearly four years of support for my team whose greatest moment was a 10-9 lead over LSU at half time wo years ago. The problem truly lies in the University and the Student Body. I've been to too many games where the students number in the single digits. The University provides transportation to and from and that's their entire effort. The Greenbacks put more energy into student participation at games than they do. I urge alumni to press on the university to create programs and events that encourage students to attend and not just during Homecoming Week. It also has to do with our student body being from so many areas around the country. So many of us come from states with big schools that have successful athletic programs (i.e. Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, etc.) Tulane's student body is apathetic and it's killed me for all of my undergraduate career.

My belief has always been that if you have a college sports program, support and relish it because it's an experience you won't ever get again.