Travis Dickson Continues Family Legacy at LSU
For LSU senior tight end Travis Dickson football is a family affair.
His grandfather played football at Ole Miss. His father, Dick, played at Mississippi State, and his brother, Richard, was a four-year starter at tight end at LSU and is the school record holder for receptions, yards and touchdowns from that position.
Football runs in his family’s veins, and Dickson spent hours as a child playing football in the backyard with his brother.
A four-year age gap separates Travis and Richard. Having never played on a team together, the only experience Travis has ever had playing ball with his brother was in the backyard.
However, he always knew that he had someone to count on and talk to when he needed advice about the game.
“During the whole recruiting process, my brother coming here wasn’t much of an influence on me,” Dickson said. “Richard wanted me to do my own thing, the same as my dad, but once I did get here, he became a big influence. He had a really successful career here, and he was always someone I could fall back on and talk to. He was also someone whenever I needed the extra time to watch film or try to improve myself, I could go watch film with him. He was kind of like a third or fourth coach.”
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Now, Travis finds himself in his brother’s shoes. He works with the underclassmen, similar to how his brother assisted him.
“If you want to get in extra work, you can call him, or if you need help with the little things you can go to him. He’s like a big brother,” sophomore tight end DeSean Smith said.
Dickson, a fifth-year senior, is known as a hard worker in the weight room, in the classroom and on the field. He was named to the SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll in 2010 and to the SEC Academic Honor Roll in 2011.
According to Smith, Dickson sets an example for the tight ends because of his work ethic. He also attributes some of his influence to his family history.
“He has to continue the tradition that his family has going on. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on him, too, just because of that,” Smith said.
However, he also notes that Dickson does not let his family’s history and tradition affect his play.
“You would never know. He’s calm. He doesn’t open his mouth. It’s always ‘yes sir, no sir,’ and he watches film like everyone else and does whatever he can to help out,” Smith said.
Dickson learned from tight ends in front of him, such as Mitch Joseph and Chase Clement. He explained that their leadership in the tight end meeting room his freshman and sophomore year showed him how he needed to take care of the underclassmen.
“Playing football at LSU has been all I could ask for,” Dickson said. “It’s one of those things that you want to encourage everyone to experience. You go back and look at it when you’re just a young little freshman. When I came here there were guys like Kelvin Sheppard and Drake Nevis, and you have guys like that yelling at you at practice every day.
“It seems like it was so long ago. It was only five years ago, but it goes by so fast. Now you’re one of those guys having to get onto the freshmen. It’s one of those things you really just want to tell people not to take for granted. It feels like just the other day I was a freshman getting yelled at, and five years have gone like that,” Dickson explained.
Dickson is a kid at heart who enjoys having a good time, but he makes his presence known as a leader among the tight ends.
“He pushed me along in the right direction since I’ve been here, the same with Dillon (Gordon) and Colin (Jeter),” said senior tight end Logan Stokes. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. If he could help you in any way, he would.”
SEC football may be one way of life for the Dickson family, but it’s not the only. Dickson and his family live in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where they reside along the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and enjoy fishing.
“He’s probably the biggest fisherman I know,” Stokes said of Dickson. “Any chance he can get to get out of here and go on the water and go deep sea fishing, he takes it. In the summertime, he’ll leave every weekend to go fishing.”
When he is not playing football, Dickson can easily be found fishing or hunting. “The day we get back from the bowl game, I’ll have my truck packed up, and I normally go on a two-week road trip hunting wherever I can until school starts,” Dickson said.
However, he would miss a hunting or fishing trip whenever necessary to help out an LSU teammate.