Tommy Casanova, Bert Jones, Pete Maravich, Bob Pettit and Jerry Stovall are some of the greatest athletes to ever pass under the oaks of LSU.
These men represented their school in an exemplary manner during their time on campus, but they lived a life off the field that few have ever seen.
Casanova (safety from ’69-’71), Jones (quarterback from ’71-’72) and Stovall (running back from ’60-’62) are brothers of the Gamma chapter of Kappa Sigma. Pettit, a Basketball Hall of Famer, was a member of the Zeta Zeta chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon and fellow enshrine Maravich was a member of the Louisiana Epsilon chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
In 1867, when the University campus was located downtown, SAE opened its doors as the original Greek letter society at LSU.
One hundred years later, Pistol Pete walked through the doors of SAE, then located at the current Pi Kappa Alpha house, to claim the University’s oldest fraternity as home while he rewrote the NCAA record books for scoring each of his three years playing for the LSU basketball team.
While Maravich was balancing brotherhood with basketball, a new shining star was emerging on the gridiron for the Bayou Bengals in Casanova, who would go on to be LSU’s only three-time All-American.
“I couldn’t have asked for better teammates but I wanted to meet other people besides just athletes,” Casanova said. “I wanted to get more of a total college experience. I think that’s why I ultimately pledged.”
Casanova faced the daunting task of juggling pledgeship along with his duties to the Tigers during his sophomore season under coach Charles McClendon.
“I didn’t go through all of Hell Week,” Casanova said. “A lot of the guys in my [pledge] class would call me up and tell me don’t go to the house tonight come tomorrow night. I don’t know what the hazing process is now but back then it was brutal. I think they’ve probably toned it down a little since then, but it was fun. I enjoyed it. I didn’t mind being humiliated or anything. It was just part of the initiation.”
While the Tiger great was still required to go through much of the hazing that took place during Kappa Sig’s strenuous pledgeship, Casanova said his brothers understood that football came first.
“[I was closer to my] teammates, no question about it,” Casanova said. “When you’ve got guys risking their limbs and bleeding for you, you get pretty close to them. Kappa Sig was just a social thing. The closeness of a football team, I think the only thing that would be closer would be being in the military with people willing to die for you.”
However, Casanova wasn’t the only member of Kappa Sig on the football team. His teammate, Jones, was also a younger member of Kappa Sig’s Gamma chapter.
“There’s a great tradition at this fraternity,” said Barrett Bailey, an active brother of Kappa Sig and former football team walk-on.
“We’ve been able to establish a long tradition here, so I think for a lot of the guys from the 70s and 60s it was kind of the thing to do.”
Almost 50 years after leaving the university, former star running back Jerry Stovall remains an active, notable Kappa Sig alumnus.
“It was an honor. [When] we were freshman, we had Jerry Stovall talk to us about the importance of representing your fraternity well and representing your university well,” Bailey said. “It’s cool to be able to say that you’ve had famous people like that in the fraternity that help make it better.”
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Contact Michael Gegenheimer at [email protected]