Aug. 30 marks the 114th
anniversary of the birth of the Kingfish in Winnfield. It also marks the date
for LSU’s kickoff of the 2007 season against Mississippi State. Steve Myers and Steve Townsend
started this publication in 1978 with Charles Alexander gracing the inaugural
cover of the magazine.
The first game of the Tiger Rag Era
produced a stirring 24-17 victory over Lee Corso’s Indiana Hoosiers before a
then record crowd of 78,534 fans at Tiger Stadium. The first contest of the 2007 season
should produce a light workout against the Bulldogs of Sylvester Croom.
The main man in ’78 was Alexander
the Great. Others called him “Sweets.”
He was Hollywood handsome and packed a magnificent
combination of power and speed to emerge as a Heisman Trophy candidate 29 years
ago. Billy Sims won the honor that year as LSU’s superstar nursed an assortment
of leg injuries en route to a season with 1,172 yards rushing.
On the 28th day of July,
the Galveston, Texas native who enjoyed the greatest season
by an LSU back, celebrates his 50th birthday. Charles Fred Alexander will be a
half-century old in a few days. To many, the year of 1977 is chiseled in the
memory bank. That’s when the successor to Billy Cannon and forerunner to Dalton Hilliard and Kevin Faulk galloped through opposing defenses for 1,686 yards in
the regular season and added another 197 yards against Stanford in the Sun
Bowl.
The 20-year old Alexander galloped
for 237 yards against Oregon, added 233 against
Wyoming, another 199 vs. Tulane, 183 vs.
Vanderbilt and 170 yards vs. Florida. It was a toss-up in 1977 as to
whether the best back in America was Earl Campbell of Texas or Charles
Alexander of LSU.
Alexander’s NFL career was dashed
by the assignments he received from Cincinnati Bengals Coach Forrest Gregg.
After drafting the LSU product in the first round, Gregg converted the gifted
one into a blocking back to clear the way for the massive Pete Johnson. Most of
Alexander’s professional rushes were in short yardage situations. Thus, he never
gained more than 702 yards in seven NFL seasons.
Alexander does hold one NFL record
for fewest fumbles per carry in a career. In addition to his natural talents as
a runner, he rarely coughed up the football. His LSU years began with a
disappointing 10-7 loss to Nebraska in 1975 at
Lincoln and ended with a tough 20-15 defeat to
Missouri in
the 1978 Liberty Bowl.
Alexander never played on a team to
win more than eight games in a season and never tasted victory in a bowl game,
but he is the choice in this corner as the best rusher in LSU history. With
world-class speed, he was also durable enough to carry the ball more than 40
times in a game on four occasions as a Tiger.
Defenses were stacked to stop the
Tiger tailback, but Alexander made his mark despite a late start to the
intricacies of football training. It was assistant coach Jerry Stovall, who
taught Charlie how to skip rope as a freshman. He came into his own as a
sophomore when he shared time with Terry Robiskie. Together, they rushed for
1,993 yards and in 1976 and 1977 became the first two runners in LSU history to
surpass 1,000 yards in a season.
Thirty years ago, Elvis Presley
died on Aug. 16th in Memphis and the
plane carrying the Lynryd Skynryd band to LSU crashed in McComb, Miss., killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant on
Oct. 20th.
Charles Alexander was the headliner
in TigerTown in the fall of ’77. He helped his mates
pulverize Rice 77-0 and was in the
backfield as LSU staged a furious rally to overcome a
21-0 deficit to beat Ole Miss, 28-21 at
Jackson. The
Tiger offense, which boasted an
offensive line known as the “Root Hogs,”
set records that continue to stand for most
yards rushing in a season (3,353) and
most touchdowns on the ground (35).
Hail to No. 4 for making my first
semester at LSU a time to savor. Alexander ruled the college world in 1977 and
in the twilight of the coaching tenure of another man named Charles, he made
Cholly Mac a happy man.
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Jim Engster is the general manager
of Louisiana
Network and Tiger Rag. Reach him at jim@la-net.net.