Grilling burgers and cooking jambalaya under purple and gold tents on Saturday afternoons is a ritual performed by LSU fans, but few people know about traditions that no longer exist.
History professor Randy Hoffman said many LSU traditions ended because of changing standards of acceptable behaviors in society.
“If you look at the “L” Book you will see that many traditions are not explained in great detail because many of those traditions today are considered not acceptable anymore,” Hoffman said. “The University for the last 15 to 20 years was very concerned that no one was hazed in any organization.”
According to the L-Book, a guide that explains past LSU traditions, shaving the heads of all entering freshmen began in 1911 and ended in the 1960s. The tradition began with upperclassmen who were jealous of a freshman many of the coeds found attractive.
Beanies were worn by all freshman males to signal their status.
Hoffman said shaving heads and the freshman beanie has ties with LSU’s military affiliation.
He said this tradition, like many others, changed in the mid-to-late-’60s when these activities were no longer acceptable to most of the community.
According to the “L” Book, freshmen came together in protest of the hazing and organized a day of skipping class in 1920, and became official in the 1930s.
On Freshman day, freshmen were dismissed from all classes, and the president of the freshman class and his consort reigned as king and queen over a planned program and dance. The freshman flag flew over campus to commemorate the day.
Hoffman said freshman day ended in the ’60s.
He said the reason it ended was not from the community, but from the freshmen students themselves who did not want to continue the tradition.
“Students in the ’60s were part of the Baby Boom and basically said ‘we’re not gonna do it, that’s silly,”‘ Hoffman said. “There was widespread rebellion. Many other rules changed because of the society and the changing student population.”
Hoffman said male freshmen had to attend the first prep rally and the first home football game of the season in their pajamas and had to be dateless for both events.
“Taking a date to a game was quite common,” Hoffman said. “For a long time there were many more men than women at LSU. The rule was to give the upperclassmen the first pick with the girls. I don’t know how the girls liked that, but that tradition can be explained with the imbalance of the male to female ratio.”
Hoffman said this tradition ended in the ’60s when the ratio evened out.
Hoffman said other student traditions have disappeared because of circumstances that were out of students’ control.
“Most campuses had a place where female students were supposed to get their first kiss,” Hoffman said. “It was under the tower and it disappeared in the ’50s when the art museum was created and was no longer open to students.”
LSU’s sports have many traditions as well, beginning with the origin of their color selection.
Tammy Sam, psychology and English junior and LSU ambassador, said the LSU colors originally were blue and white.
Sam said it was Mardi Gras season when LSU ordered the blue and white colors from a New Orleans vendor, but Tulane had already ordered all of the blue and green from the same vendor.
Since it was Mardi Gras season, there was an abundance of purple and gold, which LSU took and pretended those were the colors they initially ordered, because they were too proud to admit what happened.
Hoffman said the first tiger mascot was a paper maché tiger that the school brought to every game.
According to Sam, LSU got its first live mascot in 1924 when an alumnus in South America donated a tiger named “Little-Eat-Em-Up.”
The first mascot did not last long, because he was not responsive at games, and superstitious observers noticed LSU didn’t win one important game that year, according to the “L” Book.
Sam said students crowded the area when the new mascot arrived on campus.
She said there is still debate today whether students filled the streets in celebration of the tiger or whether they were in protest for animal rights.
The “L” Book says in the ’30s, LSU’s athletic trainer Mike Chambers led the search for a new mascot.
In 1936 Chambers selected a Royal Bengal tiger named “Sheik” from a Little Rock zoo. Sheik was renamed in honor of Mike Chambers, who also was his trainer.
Hoffman said LSU used to have an intense rivalry with Tulane. At that time their mascot was a goat. LSU students would steal the goat, and for obvious reasons, Tulane students did not steal the tiger.
Sports information director Michael Bonnette said night games in Tiger Stadium began in 1931, and the idea was introduced by T.P. “Skipper” Heard, future athletics director.
LSU started night games to avoid the heat and humidity of afternoon games, to avoid scheduling conflicts with Tulane and Loyola and to give fans who were working in the afternoon the opportunity to see LSU play, according to Bonnette.
Bonnette said an immediate increase in attendance at night games encouraged LSU to make them a permanent fixture.
A ritual that began in the early ’90s is to line North Stadium Drive hours before kickoff to see the team walk to the stadium, according to Bonnette.
Former LSU coach Curley Hallman began the tradition of leading the team down Victory Hill from Broussard Hall two hours before the game; that ritual became so popular that Gerry DiNardo and Nick Saban continued the tradition, even though the team began to stay in a hotel the night before home games.
Bonnette said the football team now walks to the stadium from the academic center.