The 2019 football season for the LSU Tigers will be remembered as one of the greatest and most dominant seasons in University history. To remember that greatness, fans came from all over town on Monday and rushed to grab a slab of the sod that lay in Tiger Stadium during the historic run.
The team have gone 12-0 in the regular season, marking the first time the Tigers went undefeated in the regular season since 2011. With the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, many fans who bleed purple and gold wanted something to plant in their homes to remember the occasion.
The LSU Athletic Department pried up 3500 square feet, amounting to more than 3,300 slabs of Tiger Stadium sod with grass on top, to invest in a months-long project to fix field drainage in Tiger Stadium. Right outside of Alex Box Stadium from 4-6 p.m., the slabs were given away.
Fans went crazy over the opportunity to receive a piece of LSU history, and all the sod was gone within minutes of it being available. Petroleum engineering freshman Alex Ignative was one of the first people to get in on the giveaway.
“When is this ever gonna happen again? I thought, ‘why not come get some grass?’” Ignative said.
Ignative was not the only one running though. Many people were walking up to the stadium excited when they were told all the sod had already been distributed. Construction management freshman Collin Craddock said he was just happy he was able to get some after running for it.
“It’s a big deal, not many opportunities to be able to get this,” Craddock said.
Craddock was not the only fan to feel this way, as many people waited around the stadium in their cars since 10 a.m. Monday for the chance to get a piece of sod. At first, visitors were told to only approach the area in vehicles, but traffic was moving fairly slow, and many people had already walked far just to turn around and possibly not get any. Once the first person walked up and grabbed a piece, it was a free for all.
The highlight of the scene was certainly seeing people get fired up when they secured theirs, including marketing senior Emily Mancusi.
“This is special sod. This is 12-0 sod,” Mancusi said. “This is legendary, this is iconic. Joe Burrow, our Heisman, our quarterback, walked on this.”
LSU will not play any more games in Tiger Stadium this season but will face the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta Saturday at 3 p.m.