LSU baseball first sported its iconic gold jerseys during the postseason of 1996, and they quickly became known as Championship Golds after winning the College World Series that season.
The following year, the Tigers began wearing their Championship Golds on Sundays, and they’ve become a staple in LSU’s baseball and softball wardrobe.
A superstition surrounded the fact that fans felt the Tigers played better when coated in gold. In 1996, second baseman Warren Morris hit a walk-off home run to return the Bayou Bengals to Baton Rouge as national champions for the third time.
This phenomenon grew with the 2023 national championship run. After the LSU fell in their first two games of the College World Series, the Tigers beat Tennessee while donning gold.
After that game, LSU wore gold for every game except when Paul Skenes pitched against Wake Forest to get to the Championship Series Finals.
So, do the Tigers play better in Sunday Gold?
LSU has won seven national baseball titles, two before the 1996 season when the gold uniforms were debuted. In national championship-clinching games, the Tigers have only worn gold for 1996 and 2023.
However, the postseason is not the only time LSU wears gold; the Sunday Golds are rolled out every Sunday during the regular season, the third game of a series and the second game of a Saturday doubleheader.
After counting all the Sunday or third games in a series from the 1997 season until 2024, the Tigers have a record of 232-141 (62.2%) through 373 games.
Each Tiger coach in the Sunday Gold era has had a winning record in the regular season while wearing gold.
Skip Bertman coached baseball in the Bayou for 18 years. From the 1997 season until he retired in 2001, LSU went 30-27 (52.6%) when his players wore gold during the regular season.
From 2002 to 2006, Smoke Laval was the head coach of the Tigers. When LSU wore gold, the Tigers had a 49-23 record (68%).
Paul Mainieri coached at LSU from 2007-2021. During his decade-and-a-half-long tenure as the Tigers’ head coach, LSU carried a record of 153-95 (61.7%) across its 248 games in gold.
Current Tigers head coach Jay Johnson has been at the helm since Maineri retired in 2021, and LSU has gone 24-19 (55.8%) while wearing gold since.
Maybe Tiger fans have acted on how they’ve felt about Sunday Gold in the past, but there is no doubt that the statistics back up how they think about LSU’s iconic attire.
The Tigers are two-for-two in their gold garment outings through two contests this spring, defeating Purdue Fort Wayne on opening weekend 8-1 and dominating Omaha 12-1 in Game 3 last Saturday to win the series 2-1.
LSU will look to keep the reputation of their Sunday bests intact when the Tigers face Sam Houston State at the Frisco Baseball Classic this weekend.
