by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
Homecoming is always a special occasion on LSU’s campus. The parade and the pageantry and the week-long celebrations make for an exciting time that usually culminates in a football game under the lights of Tiger Stadium.
The script was changed a bit in 1969 however, as a regional TV audience tuned-in to ABC on a sun-washed October afternoon to watch LSU host Auburn for the first time since 1948. What the TV audience and the more than 65,000 in attendance saw was a back and forth brawl in which Tiger All-American linebacker George Bevan blocked an Auburn extra point to seal the win, a play that will be forever legendary in the minds of LSU football fans.
“That was a wild one,” said former Tiger head coach Charles McClendon. “We always had tough games against Auburn and that was certainly one of them.”
McClendon was leading what was perhaps his most talented team ever onto the field that afternoon to take on a young, but extremely talented Auburn offense led by eventual Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan, who was starting as a sophomore in ’69.
Auburn looked to be the first real challenge of the season for McClendon’s team, as LSU had posted wins of 20 points or more in its first five games of the year, including a 63-8 romp over Baylor and a 20-0 downing of Miami in the Orange Bowl a week earlier. McClendon said he knew the homecoming game would be tough and he wanted to set the tempo early.
“I decided we would put the ball in the air on the first play of the game,” he said. “I knew the Auburn safety would come up to defend the run and I wanted to run a play and see if he’d bite on it.” McClendon decided to test his theory before the fans even settled in their seats. On the first play of the game, LSU quarterback Mike Hillman pitched the ball to tailback and converted QB Jimmy Gilbert who heaved a pass 62 yards to wide open split end Andy Hamilton giving LSU a 7-0 lead just 17 seconds into the game.
But Sullivan and the rest of the Auburn team were not as rattled as McClendon had hoped. The Plainsmen put together an impressive 15-play 74-yard drive ending in a 12-yard Sullivan TD pass to tailback Mickey Zofko to tie the score.
“That first play we ran on offense was great,” McClendon said. “Andy(Hamilton) was wide open and had to wait for the ball to get to him. But then they (Auburn) came back and rammed it right down our throats.”
The two teams continued to slug it out in the second quarter. Auburn recovered a fumble on the LSU 39-yard line early in the period which led to a 1-yard TD run by fullback Wallace Clark putting LSU behind for the first time that season.
LSU came back though, and tied the score late in the first half by taking advantage of an Auburn penalty. Fighting Tiger place kicker Mark Lumpkin missed a 34-yard field goal wide left. But Auburn was penalized 15 yards for roughing the kicker giving Hillman a chance to throw a 2-yard TD pass to receiver Jim West and tie the score going into the locker room.
“I always preached and still do about the importance of not committing penalties,” McClendon said. “The five yard types don’t hurt that much but the 15 yarders can really be a killer. We took advantage of an Auburn penalty.”
The second half proved to be as tough as the first as LSU broke the 14-14 deadlock with an 11-play drive ending in a 1-yard TD plunge by fullback Allen Shorey. Lumpkin provided the PAT that would prove to be the difference in the game.
The final score came when Sullivan hit Zofko again, this time from 14 yards out to bring the Plainsmen to within a point. Bevan then showed everyone watching why he was considered one of the best 25 players in the country that year by blocking the potential tying extra point and sealing the 21-20 LSU win.
“I got to be both the hero and the goat in that game,” Bevan said. “I was the middle line backer who was covering the running back (Zofko) when he made the great touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. But I guess it worked out okay. If I wouldn’t have given up the touchdown I wouldn’t have had the chance to be the hero.”
Bevan’s heroics gave the Tigers a perfect 6-0 record heading into the next week’s showdown at Ole Miss. Rebel QB Archie Manning and his teammates handed LSU a 26-23 defeat, the only blemish on the Tigers record that year. Despite an outstanding performance from LSU All-American corner back Tommy Casanova which included an interception of Manning, the Tiger defense could not stop the Rebel signal caller from rushing for three touchdowns and passing for another.
“I’ve always thought that I was very fortunate to be playing that year,” Bevan said. “I got to play with one of the best football players I’ve ever seen in Tommy Casanova and I got to play against one of the best football players I’ve ever seen in Archie Manning. I was very fortunate.”
However, Bevan said he did not feel so fortunate at the end of the season. The Tigers finished with a 9-1 record in 1969 and led the nation in rushing defense. The Texas Longhorns were the top ranked team in the land and had the best rushing offense. It seemed a lock that the two would meet in the Cotton Bowl to decide the National Championship.
But Notre Dame decided late in the season to participate in its first ever bowl game and the Cotton Bowl dropped LSU in favor of the Fighting Irish. Texas won the game 21-17 giving the Longhorns the title. The LSU players opted not to participate in the post-season after they were shunned.
“When I got the official news from the Cotton Bowl that they wanted Notre Dame, I went to tell the players at the dorm,” McClendon said. “Some of them were still in their pajamas. They just sat there stunned. There was complete silence. I asked them if they wanted to go to a game at all and they all said, ‘no.'”
McClendon said in retrospect, that not playing in a bowl game was a mistake and his team should have accepted an invitation from one of the lesser bowls. But, the disappointment of being left out of bowl play did not change the fact that the ?69 Tigers were one of the best teams in LSU history.
“We were very balanced that season and the hardest thing to do is stop a balanced team,” he said. “We won a lot of games we weren’t favored to win that year, like the Auburn game. We didn’t know we weren’t supposed to win. We just went out and won.”