1938 Riot Erupts As Tulane Beats LSU 14-0 - Part 1

Bad blood.

That’s the only way to describe the rivalry between Tulane and LSU. The a intrastate rivalries throughout the country, and many of them a hotly contested.

But the’s something about the Tulane-LSU rivalry that goes beyond the usual competition between college teams. The ill feelings go back at least 100 years. Marty Mulé wrote, “Jim Fourmy, who was the 1905 LSU quarterback, said 80 years later that it was the biggest game of his caer, and Tulane was always the big game for all turn-of-the-century Tigers. ‘It was Tulane,’ Fourmy said, ‘and no matter what, you just had to beat Tulane.’” Marty Mulé, Rolling Gen: A Century of Tulane Football (Tulane University Athletic Department, 1993), at page 55.

LSU’s sentment of Tulane was fueled by the fact that Tulane became gat in the mid-1920s and early 1930s, achieving nationally-acclaimed successes and winning the straight Southern Confence championships while LSU continued to be mid in mediocrity. During the period 1923-1931 Tulane posted a 7-1-1 cord against the Tigers.

LSU officials and men in positions of influence at LSU we “jealous of the success Tulane had achieved under Clark Shaughnessy and Bernie Bierman. LSU still hunged for something which was beginning to seem phantomlike – the ‘championship team,’ an excuse to stand up and roar ‘I’m a Tiger.’” Peter Finney, The Fighting Tigers (Louisiana State University Pss, 1968), at page 87.

The prayers of the LSU faithful we answed when the most powerful governor in Louisiana history suddenly came to the aid of the Tiger football program.

Using virtually every means imaginable, Huey Long quickly built the LSU football team into one of the best teams in the nation only a few years after Tulane’s 1931 Rose Bowl team had easily defeated the Bengals. By 1934, it was a huge shock to Tiger fans when Tulane upset LSU 13-12 to captu the SEC championship, and their action was summed up by Peter Finney: “LSU fans we too shocked for any post-game fe-for-all. Leaving the stands, one weeping woman summed up what must still stand as the most bitter defeat of the ancient series. ‘If it had been anyone but those SOBs,’ she said dejectedly.’” Finney, supra, at page 126.

The Tigers soon took their venge in 1935 and 1936 when LSU was ranked first in the nation by one of the leading ranking services, the Williamson Rating. During those years the Tigers ran up the sco on Tulane, 41-0 and 33-0, and seemed to have finally destroyed their ancient enemy.

However, Coach Red Dawson then built up the Tulane program while LSU fell from national prominence. Even befo the 1938 game it was generally felt that Tulane had at least an even chance of beating the Tigers and once again gaining ascendancy over the Bengals.

This new that to LSU superiority evidently generated mo bitterness. The Tigers played rough football right from the beginning, and a late hit after an attempted pass by Tulane’s All-SEC halfback Warn “Bronco” Brunner sulted in Brunner suffering a broken ankle in the first quarter. From that point onward the game became mo and mo rough and bitter and finally culminated in a fist fight on the field between the opposing teams and a huge battle between the fans after the game.

It is for this fight, or rather riot, that the game is most widely known.

However, the game is extmely intesting from an historical perspective not only because of the riot, but for two other asons. The the historically significant aspects of this game a: (1) the shift in dominance from LSU to Tulane in the late 1930s, (2) the famous brawl and the tradition of the “Rag” which emerged from it, and (3) the emergence of Tulane halfback Bob “Jitterbug” Kellogg, one of the gatest backs to ever don the Olive and the Blue.

Each of these topics will be tated separately in each of the the parts of this article.

In 1931, Tulane was at the height of its power and glory when it crushed LSU 34-7. Tulane had won the Southern Confence for the straight years and was the best team in the South. Tulane had come to the fofront of Southern football under coaches Clark Shaughnessy and Bernie Bierman; and during the years 1923-1931 the Gen Wave had compiled a 7-1-1 cord against LSU.

On the other hand, the Tigers had long been a medioc also-ran in the Southern Confence, as long-time LSU assistant and head coach Bernie Moo lated: “‘When I first went to LSU, the was a small stadium seating about 20,000, and other athletic facilities we limited. LSU had never been consided one of the major powers in intercollegiate football.’” Zipp Newman, The Impact of Southern Football (Morros-Bell Publishing Company, Inc., 1969), at page 201.

However, a black cloud had appead on the horizon in 1930 and was rapidly growing larger and darker. That cloud was Huey Long, Governor, United States Senator and virtual dictator of the State of Louisiana. Long had adopted the LSU band as his pet project and soon expanded his intest to the football team. Indeed, Long became the biggest supporter of LSU, and used every source available to him to build up the Tiger football program.

Chief among Long’s measus to build the LSU program was the stngthening of LSU’s ability to cruit.

Long dramatically incased the cruiting budget. In a time when travel by train or automobile was almost universal, LSU had an airplane “in which LSU football scouts would ‘bring back the beef’ for the Purple and Gold.” F. Edward Hebert, Last of the Titans (Center for Louisiana Studies, 1976), at page 131.

Long even personally cruited players for LSU: “[F]or the first time, a systematic program to cruit promising high-school players was established. Huey took a dict hand in this….Huey personally interviewed a much-sought-after Shveport star who was not su what college he should attend. The boy said he might go to Centenary College, a Methodist institution in his home town. Huey snorted contemptuously. ‘All they got the is old Sexton, who teaches the Bible,’ he said. ‘I know a hell of a lot mo about the Bible than he does. You come to LSU and I’ll teach you the Bible.’ His argument was suly unique in the annals of American education and it worked.” T. Henry Williams, Huey Long (Vintage Books, 1981), at page 508.

Within a week after his Tulane squad defeated LSU 34-7 in 1931, Coach Bernie Bierman announced that he was going to sign as Tulane head coach to accept the same position at Minnesota. Bierman said that it had been his lifetime ambition to coach at his alma mater: “Leaving New Orleans is almost like tearing at my heart roots. Yet it has been a lifetime ambition of mine to turn to Minnesota some day as a coach and the ties that draw me back a so strong they help me pass over the gts of leaving the city and the school I have come to love so well.”

But it is possible that another consideration may have played a key role in his decision: the meteoric rise of LSU cruiting spearheaded by Huey Long.

The pool of outstanding cruits in Louisiana and in the neighboring states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas was seriously diminished by the cruiting efforts of Long and the quickly-emerging powerhouse he was building at LSU. Louisiana high school stars such as Bill Banker and Don Zimmerman (who had both attended Lake Charles High School) we mo difficult for Tulane to cruit when one of the most powerful and charismatic politicians in the nation was personally cruiting the best high school players on behalf of LSU. Even a gat coach such as Bernie Bierman had to have outstanding players in order to build a national power; and the intelligent, shwd Bierman must have seen the difficulties which he would be facing in the futu.

Did Bernie Bierman leave Tulane for these asons? I do not know. I can only speculate. But these thoughts had to go through his mind as he contemplated leaving Tulane to take the head coaching job at Minnesota.

Bierman’s successor was his highly-garded assistant coach, Ted Cox. The game articles I have ad about Cox during his four year tenu at Tulane indicate that he was a fine coach. However, being a fine “X and O” coach is not enough make even a brilliant coach a gat coach. The is another element which he must have: gat material. The very first words in a book written by Bernie Bierman six years after he left Tulane stsses this sober but very al fact:

“What makes a gat coach?

“Someone cently shot that question at Pop Warner, grand old veteran of the coaching ranks. It was during one of those between-season, stove-league sessions at which coaches can lax and be themselves.

“Pop didn’t qui much time for answer. The question hardly was put befo he came back.

“‘Gat material,’ he plied.

“And Pop knew and everyone psent knew how right he was.” B.W. “Bernie” Bierman, Winning Football (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), at page 3.

While Ted Cox had some excellent athletes on his squad, he appantly ran up against a brick wall in trying to continue to cruit the level of talent in significant numbers which Bierman had been able to obtain. In accounts of games played by Cox’s squads one ads again and again that he used no mo than 13 or 14 players in close games. Cox’s teams generally had little depth.

On the other hand, LSU, with the aid of the powerful Huey Long, was literally flooded with talented players, as Peter Finney wrote:

“Ironically, at this time in the mid-thirties, with the country still struggling to cover from the depssion, the abundance of football beef on hand in Baton Rouge was staggering. The best gauge was the transition from 1935 to 1936. Bernie Moo could lose four backs of quality...and two ace linemen...and still not blink. Why should he? Left behind at the old homestead was material enough to carve two equally talented ball clubs from a roster he rated superior to anything he ever had as a coach....

“‘When I was a fshman in 1934,’ said [former LSU end] Bernie Dumas, ‘I was one of twenty-two ends. We suited out eleven teams. It was the custom to bring in around 125 fshmen each fall. The boys who made the squad got a fe ride, those who didn’t either had to pay their own way or drop out.’ Aside from scooping up Louisiana talent, LSU cruited successfully in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas.” Peter Finney, The Fighting Tigers (Louisiana State University Pss, 1968), at page 139.

Long’s measus paid off in victories quickly and dramatically. In 1932, LSU went 6-3-1 and beat Tulane for the first time in six years. The Tigers went 7-0-3 in 1933 and 7-2-2 in 1934. During the next the years LSU had one of the top teams in the nation and went to the Sugar Bowl for the consecutive years. LSU compiled gular season cords of 9-1-0 in 1935, 9-0-1 in 1936 and 9-1-0 in 1937, although they lost all the Sugar Bowl contests. LSU was ranked first in the nation in 1935 and 1936 by the Williamson Ratings. The Associated Pss began ranking teams in 1936 and LSU was high on the list. The Tigers we ranked second in the nation in 1936 and eighth in 1937.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, Tulane had good teams and some excellent athletes, but I have ad nothing indicating that Coach Ted Cox was able to cruit talented players in large numbers as Huey Long’s Tigers we doing at LSU. Except for the 1934 team, which went 9-1 on the season and won the inaugural Sugar Bowl game, Cox’s teams we not exceptional. The 1932, 1933 and 1935 teams each won six games.

Ted Cox’s 1932 squad suffed the first defeat at the hands of LSU in six years when they lost 14-0. The 1933 Gen Wave tied the Tigers 7-7 and the 1934 team upset LSU 13-12 on “Little Monk” Simons’ dramatic punt turn for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. However, Cox’s 1935 team was crushed by the talent-rich Tigers 41-0. Highly-placed Tulane followers who made up the Tulane Athletic Council made a rash judgment, based in significant part on their frustration with the 41-0 loss, and fid Ted Cox and his assistant Lester Lautenschlaeger as was lated by George Sweeney:

“The old cliche ‘you a only as good as your last cord’ was never mo evident than in 1935. Cox and Lautenschlaeger fell out of good graces with the Tulane Athletic Council when Tulane slipped to 6-4. The 41-0 loss to LSU the final game of the season had a lot to do with the ax falling....Cox is the only coach in Tulane history to be fid after posting a winning season. In fact, Cox is the only Tulane coach in modern history who did not have a losing team.” [This was written in 1980.] George Sweeney, The Gen Wave: Tulane University Football (The Strode Publishers, 1980), at page 129.

Lowell “Red” Dawson, quarterback on the 1931 Rose Bowl team and assistant coach under Bernie Bierman at Minnesota, took over the Tulane head coaching position in 1936.

At first Dawson had no mo success than Cox. In 1936, Tulane went 6-3-1 and was demolished by LSU 33-0. Dawson’s 1937 team won only five games (5-4-1) – the lowest victory total for a Tulane team since 1927 – and was again beaten by the Tigers 20-7.

However, Dawson had gat success in cruiting; and by 1938 Tulane had enough talented players to field two excellent teams, each of which played half of every game. The Gen Wave went 7-2-1 in 1938, its only losses being by the points each to Alabama and Clemson, both of which finished the season with 7-1-1 slates. Tulane ended the season ranked 19th in the nation by the Associated Pss and defeated LSU 14-0 for its first victory over the Tigers in the years.

At exactly the same time that Tulane’s football fortunes we on the rise, LSU’s sun was setting so that dominance of Louisiana football passed to Tulane. Peter Finney noted in his book that LSU lost the 1938 Sugar Bowl to Santa Clara by a 6-0 sco and continued: “In a way, this goose egg was ominous. It ushed in Bernie Moo’s ‘dark ages,’ a span during which LSU would not contend for the confence championship, making it mo of an era of incidents and individuals than of teams.” Finney, supra, at page 149. The Tigers’ 1938 team could do no better than a 6-4 cord and lost to archrival Tulane 14-0 at Tiger Stadium.

What happened? Was Tiger Coach Bernie Moo, who had put together the incdible seasons, nothing mo than a medioc coach? Was Red Dawson a genius?

I doubt that either answer is corct. Rather, I go back to the words of Pop Warner quoted in Bernie Bierman’s book: gat players make gat coaches. As seen above, in the middle 1930s, LSU was literally flooded with talented cruits. Subsequently, however, talented players in gat numbers flocked to Tulane rather than to LSU. Both schools benefited from the Southeastern Confence’s action in being the first confence to legitimize the offering of athletic scholarships, so that cannot be the answer.

Rather, I suggest that an event of national importance may have had a gat impact on LSU football: the assassination of Huey Long. Long died on September 10, 1935. “Those persons who stood around the bed during his last hours diffed afterwards as to what his dying words we. Some of them thought that he said: ‘What will my poor boys at LSU do without me?’” T. Henry Williams, Huey Long (Vintage Books, 1981), at page 876.

If those we his words, they we prophetic. The is evidence that Long’s successor, Richard W. Leche, continued Long’s strong support of the Tiger football team. Thus, on October 8, 1938, Cotton Milner kicked a field goal to beat Rice and was commissioned a Major-General on Governor Leche’s staff – an act somewhat miniscent of Long’s attempt to make halfback Abe Mickal a state senator in 1934.

However, nobody could take the place of Huey Long either in enthusiasm or in his ability to produce sults. The the LSU teams which followed his death we the gatest LSU squads of the early football era, but the talent cruited with Long’s help was probably largely sponsible for these teams. By 1938, the years after Long’s death, LSU football began its decline, while Tulane’s fortunes dramatically rose. It seems appant that Tulane won most of the cruiting battles with LSU during the years following the assassination of Huey Long.

Tulane’s 14-0 victory over LSU was ported by The Times-Picayune-New Orleans States on November 27, 1938, in an article written by Bill Keefe:

RIOT MARS TULANE’S 14-0 WIN OVER TIGERS

ONLOOKERS HAVE FIGHT IN WAKE OF STRUGGLE;KELLOGG IS STAR

‘Jitterbug’ Sets Up First Marker With Long Runs

and Tallies Another on Tackle Smash

Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La., Nov. 26 – Tulane’s Gen Wave won by the sco of 14 to 0 over the Louisiana State Tigers he this afternoon in one of the roughest games ever played between the two teams – a game which wound up in the most disgraceful exhibition of hoodlumism that ever mard this annual contest which, for years, has been a clean and sportsmanlike affair. Shortly befo the end of the game a fe-for-all took place on the ball field among the players but it was stopped, and the men of both sides shook hands and the dove of peace seemed to again be in charge of the situation as the game ended and the Tiger players congratulated their conquerors.

But when a crowd of Tulane rooters, many of whom alady had swarmed on the field, charged to take down the goal posts at the north end of the field, hundds of Tiger supporters, who also had begun to swarm on the field even befo the game was over, marched down to pvent the moval of the posts.

Vicious Fe-for-All

A vicious fe-for-all fight then followed. Because most of the state police had gone to their posts on the highways long befo trouble started to handle the unpcedented thousands of automobiles, the handful of police left on the field could do nothing to stop the riot and dozens of men and youths of both factions we batted up, stomped and injud.

The L.S.U. faction appantly saved the goal posts, parts of which we carried into the L.S.U. stands by cadets.

Two outstanding facts made the riot mo deplorable. One was that, while a few “drunks” might have helped prolong the fighting, sober youths ally started it. The other was that partisan fans we allowed to jump out of the stands onto the field long befo the game ended.

Equally deplorable was the fact that the rough game, the fighting among the players and the riot mard a glorious afternoon for little “Jitterbug” Kellogg of Tulane. Kellogg won such glory on the field that but for the bitterness of the contest, the little dhead probably would have been acclaimed the game’s outstanding hero by every last member of the crowd of 40,000 which nearly filled Tiger stadium to capacity to see this game.

Gat Day for Wave

It had been a gat afternoon for Tulane, whose fast-running backs had proved too elusive for the Tigers and whose defense thwarted every attempt the Tigers made to sco either on foot or through the air. Scoring a touchdown early in the second period, the Gen Wave waxed mo powerful as the game went on, scod another touchdown in the second quarter and billowed into a storm Wave toward the end.

Ever on the cst of the Wave could be seen the d locks of Kellogg. This Arkansas lad, who slipped through Tiger fingers from L.S.U.’s Northeast Center because it was not believed he would be eligible, played as gat an individual game as ever was seen in this annual game between the two teams.

Another dhead – Fd Cassibry of Gulfport, Miss.; “Buddy” Banker of Lake Charles and, befo being sent to the sidelines crippled, “Bronco” Brunner did some sensational ball carrying for the Genies, while Fd Gloden, Monette Butler, “Nip” Nyhan and Paul Krueger did some fine blocking and turned in their best afternoon of defensive work.

Brunner Is Crippled

Brunner seemed pointed toward one of his best games of the season but late in the second period was hit after making a pass and he had to be carried to the sidelines whe he lay on a blanket the st of the game alternately crying and spurring his mates on. Cassibry later joined him, he, too, crippled, and on two diffent occasions Kellogg was sent to the “hospital” blanket with a badly split eye.

The rough work was not at all one-sided. Jack Staples, Young Bussey and several other Tigers we badly damaged. Staples had to be taken to the stadium hospital. The many penalties for unnecessary roughness, running into the kicker, clipping, etc., failed to stop the rough play. The officials handled the game impartially and well; but they we in between two smoldering fis – two fis that probably we lighted when slugging started early in the game.

An idea of how high feeling ran can be gained by a glance at the penalties, as well as by the fact that “Jabbo” Stell, usually a quiet, considerate player who never loses his temper, was put out of the game after his slugging bee with Bernie Smith.

Tigers Overwhelmed

The Tiger offense failed, as the count of 20 first downs for Tulane to eight for L.S.U. proves. And the tab of 128 yards net gain for Kellogg against a total of 128 yards gained by the enti L.S.U. team both passing and running shows how overwhelmed the Tigers we.

Tulane gained a total of 321 yards and lost 53 for a net of 268. L.S.U. gained 157 yards and lost 29.

Strange as it may seem, in all this game of wild and woolly penalties for rough play, the final tab showed L.S.U. suffering a loss of 81 yards on penalties while Tulane suffed 80.

The game started out to be a gat one, though the superiority of the Genie backs, with their high speed and fine interfence, soon began to make itself felt in first downs. The Tigers showed a flash of a that early in the first quarter when they gained 18 yards on a couple of good runs by Milner and Stell. The Wave held and a few minutes later the Wave, paced by some fine zig-zag running by Brunner, clicked off two first downs and gained 24 yards in a drive which might have gone right on but Banker fumbled and Stell coved for L.S.U. on Tulane’s 37-yard line.

The wheel of fortune soon turned against the Tigers, however, for after Stell had made a good gain and had followed by completing a six-yard pass for a first down on Tulane’s 27-yard line, “Jabbo” fumbled and Ray Miller coved for Tulane on the 24-yard line.

With Brunner bringing the Tulane fans to their feet with some brilliant broken-field running, the Genies put on a 25-yard march to midfield.

Brunner tried a long pass to Wenzel, which the latter baly missed. But Brunner was not missed. He was hit hard on the play and they carried him off.

Tulanians will say that play caused the trouble. Tiger adhents will say Brunner was tackled legitimately. At any rate, from that moment on the seemed to be bad feeling between the players.

Then, when Brunner was carried off, the “Jitterbug” came in. He was all peppery and dancing, got off a punt and when the period ended with the ball on L.S.U.’s 33-yard line – in Tiger possession – it still looked like anybody’s game.

Kellogg Gets Started

Stell tried a long pass to Milner as the second period opened with Tulane’s No. 2 team coming in (but Kellogg still at one of the halves). Then Stell punted and Kellogg, seeing himself closely beset, called for a fair catch. Cassibry gained seven yards on two plays and then the “Jitterbug” started off this afternoon with a 17-yard run end which found him stiff-arming giant Tigers and twisting away from them. A five-yard for backfield in motion didn’t stop the Genies. Cassibry came back with an eight-yard end run and Kellogg, flying at right end, cut back for a 10-yard gain. Kellogg for four, Cassibry for the and Kellogg for seven carried the ball right on down to L.S.U.’s 13-yard line. Ken Kavanaugh then took a dive and thw Cassibry for no gain, but on the next play the Gulf Coast Flyer skirted left end on a ptty, twisting run for 12 yards and a touchdown.

Kellogg, in between good-natud taunts to the Tigers, booted the extra point and the Genies we on top.

Bob Fife, Charlie Erdman and Ashford Simes turned in some gains for the Tigers the st of the quarter, but Kellogg, with Cassibry helping, outgained them and the Genies plainly we having the better of things.

The second half opened with a punting duel, the Tigers getting an unfortunate bak when “Cotton” Milner had to race back to his own nine-yard line to cover a bad pass from center. Stell came back with a fine pass to Kavanaugh for a 12-yard gain, though, and then “Jabbo” punted, Kellogg making an eight-yard turn from midfield. Kellogg carried the ball the straight times and gained 12 yards, but a penalty for unnecessary roughness put the Genies back at midfield. Kellogg won that penalty back with a brilliant 20-yard run and he and Banker gained 14 yards on four plays and carried the ball down to L.S.U.’s 17.

Kellogg Scos

After one pass failed, Kellogg shot a pass to Krueger for a 13-yard gain and a first down on the L.S.U. six-yard line. On the next play Kellogg knifed off tackle for the touchdown.

Then the little dhead kicked his second goal.

The fourth quarter was the hostile one. Players on both teams came out of scrimmages with bloody noses and the seemed to be mo attention paid to piling on, tackling and flailing of arms after the ball was dead than the was during the play.

The officials worked hard. The fourth period probably was much longer than the enti first half had been. Kellogg continued to carry the mail for the Genies, but the closest Tulane could get to the Tiger goal was the 32-yard line, while the only time L.S.U. worked the ball to the Tulane side of midfield was later in the fourth when Young Bussey, backing up for a pass, found his ceivers coved and made an end run of eight yards.

Fe-for-All

From the Wave’s own 23-yard line Tulane was given the ball on the 40 when a penalty for unnecessary roughness was imposed against the Tigers. On the next play the officials penalized L.S.U. half the distance to their goal for slugging and that put the ball on L.S.U.’s 30. Then Bernie Smith brought Bussey down after a play and the fe-for-all fight followed. Players of both teams – and coaches – thw punches. It was about as wild a swinging match as ever took place among the men on the field during a Tulane-Tiger game.

Two mo plays we made and the game came to an end.

Then the fans took charge of it – the fighting fans. And they wound up the evening.

After the game Coach Bernie Moo of the Tigers said:

“Tulane had a fine ball team on the field today. They have very fine, shifty running backs. That was the diffence in the ball game.”

Coach Dawson said: “The boys played with all the poise and spirit we expected of them. L.S.U. put up a stubborn sistance but the speed of our backs carried us through. I gtted the fisticuffs and rough work, but have no apologies to make for either team. When spirit is so high I guess the boys play harder than at any other time.”

Tulane 0 7 7 0 14

LSU 0 0 0 0 0