Sept. 8, 2010
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| Dan McGugin (left), Huey Long (middle) and Nashville mayor Hilary Howse (right). |
Commodore History Corner Archive
This week the LSU Bengal Tigers will roll into Nashville for a battle with Vanderbilt at Dudley Field. The hoopla that occurred when the Tigers came to Nashville 76 years ago will be missing.
In 1934, the flamboyant and controversial Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, led a contingent of LSU fans by rail cars into Nashville. At this time, the former Louisiana governor (1928-32) was deflecting rumors that he was preparing to challenge Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency.
Long secured six special trains consisting of over 100 cars carrying 5,000 LSU fans from Baton Rouge to Nashville’s Union Station. The collection of Tiger fans arrived in Nashville on the morning of the game. The “Kingfish” needed to work out details between Tennessee officials and the dozens of armed Louisiana police parading into the state.
The Tennessee Game and Fish Commission sent word that the Louisianans could enter the state as “deputy game wardens” to guard whatever “wildlife you may see fit.” This solved the problem of the gun-toting policemen from the Pelican state. Also joining in on the “circus” was the 125-piece LSU band and 1,500 LSU cadets. The cadets were wearing their new grey uniforms that were rushed from the tailors.
The newspapers reported that Long also “loaned” seven dollars each to those 1,000 or so students who lacked funds to make the trip. The Senator stated that he acquired the money from “contributors.” Long dispatched his “sound trucks’ to Nashville indicating the Kingfish had planned to make a speech.
The Tennessean reported on Long’s expected arrival that Saturday morning:
Interest in the arrival of the fiery 42-year old senator from the Pelican state took an upward leap yesterday with rumors that the senator would take the occasion of his visit here to announce the candidacy for President of the United States.
Warden Headden had 21 deputy warden commissioners, grandly decorated with purple silk seals, 21 gold-and-purple ribbons and 21 gold-plated warden badges. The Louisiana police will be deputized when they step off the trains, the state’s game warden declared
On his arrival, Senator Long plans to lead his band up to Memorial Square and review a parade from the steps of the memorial building. Following the parade, the Louisiana State University band will give a concert in Memorial auditorium. Whether Senator Long will direct the concert was not known last night, but he has promised to lead the musicians in their parade at Dudley stadium.
Tennessee folks are interested for many reasons. They want to see Senator Huey Long. They want to see him with his hobby–L. S. U. The idea of five trainloads of football team supporters has captured the imagination of this section. Senator Long last year promised Coach Dan McGugin of Vanderbilt that there would be a good attendance at the Nashville game this year.
This was the LSU parade route: from Union Station on Broadway: to Eighth Ave., to Church St., Church to Third Ave., Third to Deadrick St., Deadrick to the War Memorial building.
Friday night the sound trucks arrived with Long’s advance party. They stayed at the Hermitage Hotel and signed in as “Huey Long’s Boys.” The sound trucks were used during the parade to promote Long and LSU football. Long was informed before the trip that Vanderbilt had a sound system.
“I never heard your loud speaker system work, but my sound trucks are better than what you have,” said Long in a telephone interview before the trip.
Long declined all invitations to be entertained during his brief Nashville visit. Said Long, “I had better stay with the crowd for a change, for I will have to settle some argument every five minutes.”
The LSU football team arrived in Nashville Friday afternoon. They worked out on Dudley Field and reasons not reported had dinner in Murfreesboro at the James K. Polk Hotel. They spent the night in Murfreesboro and bused to the game Saturday morning.
Long did provide a speech before the game, which was broadcast to a national audience. He did not announce a run for the presidency, but did predict an LSU victory. With Long roaming the LSU sideline throughout the game, the forecaster was right on. LSU defeated the Commodores, 29-0. This was the first time that LSU had played in Nashville since 1910. In 1933, the Commodores and LSU played in a 7-7 deadlock in Baton Rouge.
Vanderbilt’s coach Dan McGugin entered the game undefeated with wins over Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, and Auburn. After the LSU loss, the Commodores would finish the season 6-3.
The Tennessean reported:
Huey Long put on the circus yesterday as almost 20,000 folks crammed into Dudley Stadium but Biff Jones’ Tigers from Louisiana eclipsed the circus with a Roman holiday. Superior in every department, the Tigers clawed Vanderbilt to shreds by a 29 to 0 score, the most savage drubbing the Commodores have ever sustained in their stadium.
Not since they were overwhelmed 44 to 0 in 1920 on old Dudley field by Georgia Tech has Vanderbilt been so completely slaughtered by an invader.
While Vanderbilt was a pigmy, Louisiana State was a gridiron Gulliver, which sent one touchdown messenger over via a pass and three more by, passes and line assaults. To swell the total. Abe Mickal, the Syrian star who eclipsed any passing back seen on Dudley Field since the era of Tennessee’s Bobby Dodd, pumped a field goal from the 11-yard line.
It had been expected that the Tigers would be magnificent in its aerial circus but it also had been expected that the Commodores air defense would counteract that weapon.
Less than a year later on September 8, 1935, Long was assassinated in the Capitol Building in Baton Rouge. His assassin was the son-in-law of a long-time rival of Long. Long’s bodyguards killed the murderer with a barrage of firepower, but Long took a bullet in the stomach. Long died in the hospital two days later. Bullet holes from the historic shootout remain visible today in the Capitol Building.
If you have any comments or suggestions you can contact Bill Traughber via email WLTraughber@aol.com
