Dear Julia
In the October issue of New Orleans Magazine, you treated us with an excellent replay of the first Saints football game. How about a similar piece about the first game played in the Superdome?!
– Irvin “T” Diemer II, Kenner
Thanks for the compliment, Irvin. I will answer your question, but first a recollection: When the Dome first opened in 1975 there was a device with four screens suspended from the ceiling. In the days before visual graphic scoreboards, images, such as replays, were projected on each of the screens. The device, known as the “gondola,” also showed commercials. One was of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. The ad would begin with a shot of a juicy steak on a grill and then a loud, very, very, loud sizzling sound to emphasize that the classic New Orleans style steak was cooked in butter. The sizzle was so loud it was jarring and seems like it could have shaken the roof.
I mention that because for the first Saints game in the Dome, that video steak was about all that sizzled, certainly not the Saints.
Actually, the very first Saints game in the Dome was a pre-season contest against the Houston Oilers played on August 9, 1975. The Saints lost 13-7. If you are one of those people, such as I, that does not take pre-season games seriously, then the question is when the first regular season game was. That occurred on Sept. 28. The Saints were pounced by the Cincinnati Bengals, 21-0.
Having premiered in 1967, this would have been the team’s ninth season, the first away from Tulane Stadium. Fortunately, the Dome was able to divert fans’ attention because the team finished with a dismal 2-12 record for the third time.
Their first home game win in the Dome was Oct. 12 against the Green Bay Packers.
While the Saints in those early years had few stars, they did have one, a kid from Ole Miss named Archie Manning. He wore a fleur de lis on his helmet from 1971 to 1982. Unfortunately, the Saints teams during those years were poor. They never had a winning record. Manning would finish his 13-season career playing with other teams, but he was always the ULTIMATE Saint who carried the team through the lean years, even beneath the dome where the franchise had lots of sizzle but little beef.
Julia,
Being from Shreveport, I really enjoyed the November “Streetcar” column about the 1873 yellow fever epidemic and the five priests who served the sick, died, and could be canonized. Coincidentally, at my annual St. Vincent Academy Alum Lunch in Shreveport on September 30, a speaker, Patti Underwood, told us about our three Daughters of the Cross nuns who served alongside the priests and lost their lives. We are hoping to get the appropriate recognition for them, as well. Let me know what you think!
-Nell Carmichael, New Orleans
Well yes Nell, anyone who sacrificed their lives nursing victims during an epidemic deserves recognition. Daughters of the Cross was a spinoff of a French religious order. The new order migrated to the United States. Its motherhouse was in Shreveport and at its peak it had 31 nuns and operated five schools in upstate Louisiana.
This year was recognized as the sesquicentennial of the epidemic which took its first victims in August 1873 and ended in November due to cold weather.
As the epidemic worsened the nuns (mostly French, at least one American) were called to help. Many spent their time aiding the priests. At one point there was only one priest still alive to minister to the city that had an estimated 800 victims. Five priests, all French, died to the disease as well as three nuns. There is a movement to have the priests canonized (declared to be Saints) but there is no known effort on behalf of the nuns, although the anniversary events have drawn more attention to them.
Can anything be done to give them the recognition they deserve? It might take a miracle.
