There are certain college football rivalries that resonate around the country.

There is Michigan vs. Ohio State, Alabama vs. Auburn and Notre Dame vs USC just to name a few.

However, there is another football rivalry based in Louisiana that over the years has become more than just a battle for bragging rights between two institutions. It has become the cornerstone event for both a city, and a culture.

In this all new edition of the Historically Speaking Sports podcast, the Sports History podcast that gives you the sports for back in the day, we will talk with author Tom Aiello and his book the History of the Bayou Classic.

The annual game between the Grambling State Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars evokes memories of great coaching matchups which featured the great Eddie Robinson and incomparable players on both sides with a good number of them reaching the pro football hall of fame.

Even though the game known as the Bayou Classic has been around since 1974, the rivalry between Southern and Grambling goes back nearly a century with a very interesting history and back story.

Along with the game there is a number of other events connected with the bayou classic that includes the Greek Show, job fair and the famous Battle of the bands.

Yet of course, what makes the game are the players. And some of the greatest players in NFL history have played in this game. In our shout out segment, we will highlight some of the players that have stared in this annual game that has become the biggest and most important football rivalry in the state of Louisiana.

All that and more in this all new edition of the historically Speaking Sports here on the sports history network.

To contact the show, please e-mail us at Historically.speaking.sports@gmail.com

Here is the link to Tom Aiello's books: https://www.thomasaiellobooks.com/

The year was 2002.

The price of gas was roughly a $1.19 a gallon, a dozen of eggs were under a dollar and the biggest hits in Hip Hop was "Getting Hot in Here" by Nelly and the song from the movie Eight Mile "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.

In the world of college football, the Miami Hurricanes were coming off of a national championship run and were looking to continue their 22-game winning streak, a streak that seemed to have no end in sight.

However "The U" was beginning to hear rumbles from other programs looking to knock them off of their lofty perch.

In this episode of the podcast, we will travel back to the year 2002 in College Football in our first episode of the series we call "A Year in the League" where we talk about all of the headlines, best teams and memorable moments that made that season so memorable.

In addition of the Larry Coker coached Miami Hurricanes, there were other teams that included the USC trojans that were on the rise who were led by head Coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Carson Palmer who went on to win college footballs most coveted trophy.

Another team that was making noise in college football that year was Oklahoma who had returned to glory after years of struggle that followed the exit of their legendary coach Barry Switzer and also will revisit one of the most improbable finishes in college football that fans have called the "Bluegrass Miracle".

Yet that season climaxed in the desert of Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl when a team with a second year coach and a freshman running back pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year in one of the best national championship games ever and brought a national title to a place that hadn't celebrated one for more than a generation.

Later in the show, we'll send a shout out to all of the schools in our home state and what they did in that season of 2002 including our alma mater who won their rivalry game for the ninth time in a span of 10 seasons.

To contact the show, send us an e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail .com

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz https://sites.google.com/view/sportsfanztastic/sports-history-network?authuser=0

This is a short bulletin previewing from a historical perspective the upcoming World Series.

In this, the 121 edition of the fall classic, features the National League and defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. looking to repeat as World Champions and to claim its ninth World Series in history They will face the Toronto Blue Jays, looking to win its first title in 32 years when they themselves won back to back titles under manager Cito Gaston in the early 1990s.

Historically Speaking Sports co hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs are both natives of Louisiana and also the southern part of the United States where college football is more than just a sport. On Saturdays in the fall it is the south's secular religion.

In this edition of this podcast, Dana and Charles highlight teams they they consider the best college football teams they had ever seen.

The teams that are highlighted are some of the best college football teams ever. Most won championships. Some came close to winning. A couple won despite of on and off the field controversy. One team made the list that had two losses on the season but in the process had a Heisman Trophy winner and rewrote the NCAA offensive record books.

Later in the show we will send a Shout Out to pair of coaches that were major parts of the college football landscape and had some of the best players and some championship season but for whatever reason, they both had fallen through the cracks of sports history.

We have all that and more coming up on this all new edition of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast.

To contact the show you could drop us an e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

Between the years of 1985 thru 1996, the New Orleans Saints had risen from the cellar of the NFL to become a perennial playoff team.

Though they never won a playoff game during that time, the Saints, behind quarterback Bobby Hebert and a legendary linebacking corps known as the Dome Patrol, became one of the NFL's elite teams. Behind it all was the quotable head coach with ties to the USFL, Jim Mora.

In this episode of the podcast, hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs will talk about the key players and moments from that time in Saints history along with there own personal memories of that team, both growing up in Louisiana at the time.

Later in the show we will send a shout out to the Who Dat Chant. a chant, which actually became famous in the 1960s thanks to high school and colleges in the area but actually predates the NFL itself and we will settle....sort of ...the debate which have raged on for decades. Which came first the Who Dat chant in New Orleans or the Who Dey chant in Cincinnati?

To contact the show you could send an e-mail to Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

September 3rd, 1995 was the start of the 76th season of the National Football league. The San Francisco 49ers were the defending Super Bowl champions and every team was looking at the new season with new hope, possibilities and opportunities.

For two of the now 30 teams in the National Football League however, the hope, possibilities and opportunities were new.

On this early fall afternoon, in 1995 were the first games of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville jaguars as newly minted members of the NFL.

Though they both lost their opening games of the regular season, no one had any idea just 16 months later, some 497 days later, both would be playing for a right to play in Super Bowl XXXI.

In this all new edition of the podcast, Co Hosts Dana Auguster and Charles will take a look at the first two seasons of the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. Two franchises that shocked fans and football experts alike, crawling from expansion obscurity to the darlings of the NFL in just two seasons.

Later in the show, we will send a shout out out one of the members of the Carolina Panthers team who embodied the leadership and toughness of that team that was one step away from the Super Bowl. An undersized linebacker who came up with the teams motto that it still follows today and thus far, the only player to have his number retired by the team.

To contact the show with questions, comments or show ideas, please e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, football is back and not a moment too soon.

In this episode of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs are joined by fellow football fans and good friends Mark Boutte and David Bashay to talk out of course, football.

We will discuss our our hopes this year for out teams as well as debate on who is the most overrated and underrated quarterbacks, coaches and teams heading into the the 2025 NFL season.

Also later in the show, on a lighter note, our favorite all-time football movies as well as out top five favorite fictional football players.

all that and more as well welcome back football in our lives.

To contact the show, you could e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

There are teams that linger on in the memory long after they had vanished from the scene.

One such team was the Brooklyn dodgers who was one if the winningest teams in the mid 20th century and had a storied and devoted following in the borough that was known as the bedroom of New York.

The Montreal Expos was not as storied as the boys of summer Brooklyn Dodgers but over its 36 years of existence, "Les Expos" was as big to French speaking Canadians as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Resse was to Brooklynites.

Hello this is Dana Auguster, and my co-host Charles Combs will be along shortly or this new edition of the new and improved Historically Speaking Sports podcast where we give you the best of sports from back in the day.

As you have probably noticed we have a new theme song...so thanks to my main man Ron Tyke Oliver and Donovan D who wrote produced and performed the theme... thanks for that gentlemen

In this episode of the podcast we will continue out Forgotten Franchise series with a team that is hardly forgotten by baseball fans.

The Montreal Expos are maybe more popular now then they were 20 years ago where their existence were hanging by a thread and was ran my Major League Baseball.

yet during there time in Montreal before their move to Washington DC, the expos had some of the greatest players in baseball history over the last 50-plus years.

Those players included the likes of Rusty Staub, known as the Grande Orange' the teams first superstar. also the likes of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, John Wetteland, Steve Rogers, Vladimir Guerrero, and a catcher nicknamed "The Kid".

We have that coming up as well as as shout out to the original team in Montreal....the Montreal Royals that had at one time a who-who of players to play for this minor league team in the international league including one Jack Roosevelt Robinson and a heartfelt tribute to Chicago Cubs great Ryne Sandburg

To contact the show you could send us an email at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com

This is the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, a member of the Sports History Network.