13, 2016, named Harvey, but after doctors at LSU’s veterinary school deemed him fit to serve he was given his new identity - and happily inherited generations of LSU acolytes who, several times per game, invoke his name while singing the LSU fight song (to the tune of “Hey Look Me Over”), lyrics that seem especially relevant during this high-octane Tigers season: Mike I has had six successors since his 20-year reign ended. All these years later he is the only live tiger on any campus in the U.S., his habitat located between the track stadium and basketball arena, just across from Death Valley. He is greeted triumphantly by a boisterous throng of students and townies. 21, 1936, when a 1-year-old Tiger arrives at the Baton Rouge train station from its birthplace in Little Rock, Ark. So before we finish, let’s crank the clocks and the calendars still farther back in time and settle on Oct. Oh yes: They also have the same nickname. And it will feature, of course, Travis Etienne, who took his talents and a football to the house with less than two minutes to go Saturday in Clemson’s stirring 29-23 Fiesta Bowl win over Ohio State, reeling in the game-winning catch and setting up this meeting of Death Valleys, Tigers and preposterously talented football teams. 13 will almost certainly consist of more than seven total points - figure on maybe 10 times that the over/under opened at 69.5 on several prominent books. The teams’ next postseason meeting on Jan. To the victors went a nice trophy and, apparently, a coveted stadium nickname as the spoils. On that day LSU’s Tigers bested Clemson’s Tigers in a 7-0 rock fight in the Sugar Bowl. 1, 1959, when LSU decided to push the new name. That was the place where opponents’ dreams go to die.” It would be an LSU coach from a later generation who once marveled at the level of noise inside Tiger Stadium: “That was Death Valley. Until 1958, Tiger Stadium’s alternate nickname was “Deaf Valley” - a tad less ominous, perhaps, but certainly a proper reflection of the raucous atmosphere that was an LSU football game - and remains such. It is unknown if Etienne is merely engaging in a little signing-day trash talk or if he really knows his history, but facts are facts and this is a fact: Clemson’s stadium has been known as Death Valley since at least 1948, when Presbyterian College coach Lonnie McMillian dubbed it that because his poor Blue Hose kept getting … well, killed there: 39-0 in 1946, 42-0 in ’47, 53-0 in ’48, 69-7 in ’49. There are two things to note here: Many of Memorial Stadium’s best moments are for Clemson day games in the searing South Carolina heat at Tiger Stadium, the most frightening hours occur at night, after 100,000 or so students and locals have engaged in an epic tailgate for hour after hour.Īlso: Both consider their houses of horror to be - quote - “the real Death Valley.” Both Clemson and LSU play in enormous, intimidating football stadiums that have been dubbed “Death Valley” for years. “I’m taking my talents to the real Death Valley,” he says. LSU and Clemson are considered the favorites. Last is the orange and white of Tennessee. The maroon and white of Texas A&M is a third. To that end, there are four baseball caps neatly placed on a table. Jennings is a school of 880 students in Jefferson Davis Parish - yes, you read that right - and sits 90 miles west of Baton Rouge, home to LSU, which badly wants to land the signature of Jennings’ star running back, Travis Etienne. We are inside an office at Jennings High School. At schools like LSU and Clemson - and every other place where college football is equal parts life, love, death, religion, relevance and oxygen - these are the days that define you or destroy you, that push you higher toward the football firmament or assure that you’ll always be the program “looking to improve upon last year’s 5-7 campaign …” Well, we might as well start the fun immediately, don’t you think? So let’s do as they do in the movies, and start rewinding the hands of time to set up a couple of key flashbacks, as we begin the 14-day journey to the college football championship game, Tigers versus Tigers, LSU versus Clemson. Mets threatening to join unwanted list of local flops after high expectations Subway Series has bright future to look forward to despite buzz-free edition Yankees grinding away while Mets inch closer to the abyss Mets' suspensions can add up to one sticky theory Brandon Nimmo's big hit saves Mets from brutally ugly defeat
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