Despite the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, college football and other collegiate athletics march on, at least for most schools.
Tulane University was supposed to open their season at Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, but Katrina changed all that.
Tulane’s home in New Orleans, La. was destroyed. Hattiesburg was left powerless, without water and with enough trees down to make driving down roads impossible.
Football was suddenly unimportant as players’ homes and the lives of their loved ones became more important.
“Football is just not high on the list right now,” said Luke Johnson, USM’s place kicker.
As the clean up continues throughout the southeast, football will finally begin for Tulane and Southern Miss as each university begins the season Saturday with a new story.
For Southern Miss, the story will be one of resilience. The Golden Eagles will begin the year at Alabama. Then they will return Mississippi and their normal lives.
“Things are getting back to normal as they can be, considering we didn’t have power or water,” said Mike Montero, USM’s media relation’s director.
The Golden Eagles have been practicing and living temporarily in Memphis since Aug. 31.
Southern Miss plans to begin class for students Monday and extend the semester to December 21 while canceling fall break to accommodate for late start.
The Golden Eagles will leave for Hattiesburg after their game Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Al. and finally begin to prepare for their home opener against McNeese State on September 17, said Montero.
“We are looking forward to going home,” Montero said.
Home is an idea far more distant for conference rival Tulane.
Tulane’s story this football season will be one of a new home, a new university and a lot of new fans.
“We are glad to do have Tulane and be able to do it,” said Malcolm Butler, media relation’s director for Louisiana Tech University. “It is definitely going to be unique because it has never happened before.”
The Green Wave will make their new home for football this season at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., 333 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Tulane transfers will be able to start classes on Sept. 12 on time because of the quarter semester system practiced at Louisiana Tech.
“We have a lot of guys on our team from south Louisiana and all the players said the same thing. They are happy to do their part to help them,” Butler said.
Tulane will share the facilities with Louisiana Tech this year much the same as Southern Miss did at The University of Memphis, Butler said.
“They are going to work around our schedule,” Butler said. “They are going to use our weight room some when we are not using it and use our soccer practice fields for practice when we are unable use the football field.”
The Green Wave will have their home games in Shreveport, La. at Independence Stadium, 60 miles outside of Ruston.
“It is definitely not like their home stadium,” Butler said. “But at least we could find them a home and I think a lot of the local residents will come out and root them on.”
It is the least Louisiana Tech could do for Tulane, Butler said.
After all, if there is a happy story in Louisiana with the many colleges destroyed or damaged throughout the south after Hurricane Katrina, it is Louisiana Tech’s.
“The hurricane almost completely bypassed us,” Butler said. “We didn’t get a drop of rain and we only saw a few wind gusts at around 20 mph. We have a lot to be thankful for.”
