BATON ROUGE – You can add releasing a bald eagle back into the wild to the list of things LSU coach Brian Kelly has done in his two years as the head coach of the Tigers.
Kelly released the once-injured eagle on Friday morning on the levee along the Mississippi River. With Tiger Stadium in the backdrop, Kelly opened the door to the crate and the eagle – with a wingspan of five feet – flew out and found a resting spot on a tree along the river.
The eagle arrived at LSU Vet Med on October 30 with a fractured coracoid bone – a bone vital for birds in flight. Under the care of LSU Vet Med, the eagle made a full recovery and released back into its natural habit.
“This is what it’s like being involved with a university and a flagship university like LSU,” Kelly said. “This was fabulous, majestic. Our vet school does an incredible job caring for so many different animals.”
Kelly’s daughter Grace is a graduate assistant at the LSU Vet School.