BATON ROUGE — Former LSU football player Joseph “Red” Baird, a lineman on some of the great Tiger teams of the late 1940s, has died. He would have turned 81 years old on October 22.
Baird, a native of Shreveport, played for LSU from 1946 to 1949 after a standout career at Byrd High School and a stint in the US Navy. He played in the 1947 Cotton Bowl against Arkansas and the 1950 Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma. He played for two years under coach Bernie Moore and two years for coach Gaynell “Gus” Tinsley.
In 1992, Baird was inducted into the Byrd High School Hall of Fame. At Byrd, he started at tackle for four years, and then entered the US Navy, serving for 10 months on a ship that went to China, Japan and numerous other countries and islands during World War II.
Baird received a master’s degree in education from LSU and taught history and math at Central, Baker, Kenilworth and Glasgow schools. He retired after 23 years of teaching to become a real estate appraiser. He also managed an American Legion baseball team for nine years.
Baird is survived by his wife, Patsy Sandifer Baird, and two sons, Greg and Gary.