As a long list of head and assistant football coaches came and went from 1963 until he passed in 1998, and countless players did the same at the school known now as UL and then as the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Bill "Blackjack" Landry was a mainstay bridging one regime’s team to the next.

Whether they played as Bulldogs or Ragin’ Cajuns, the longtime equipment manager was a glue that helped hold one team after another together through most of four decades — and now those who appreciated him most want to be certain he is not forgotten.

Toward that end, ex-players, current and former coaches, and supporters of the Cajuns footballl program gathered Monday night in Jeanmard Hall at Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church and Catholic Student Center on the UL campus to kick off a fundraising effort that will ensure Landry’s legacy endures.

Their goal: raising enough money to fund both an 8-foot bronze memorial sculpture of Landry and an endowed scholarship dedicated to trainers and equipment managers at UL.

Among those fondly remembering the man on Monday was Raymond Blanco, a longtime administrator at the school who basically brought Landry with him to then-USL when he left Catholic High in New Iberia to work as an assistant coach under Russ Faulkinberry in 1963.

"When he got here," Blanco said, "all he wanted me to do was point him in the direction of the work. I’m positive he wasn’t on any payroll — nor did he want to be."

Blanco, husband of former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, recalls Landry making a lone request the entire time he was there.

"The only thing he ever asked for," Blanco said, "was new, better machines. He wore out those washing machines and dryers."

At the end, his 55-year-old body ravaged by colon and liver cancer, Landry still was seeking improvement.

But it wasn’t a fancier washing machine.

And it wasn’t a bigger dryer.

"The only thing that he wanted," Landry’s sister, Courtney Landry Saucier, wrote on the school’s Athletic Network website, "was to get better so that he could go back to work as USL’s equipment manager."

What did a become a full-time, paying job really was Landry’s passion.

And by all accounts he toiled with such devotion that appreciation falls short in describing the feeling those closest to the program had for him.

"He was absolutely beloved by anybody that was around him," Blanco said. "He’s the one person everybody universally agreed on and loved."

Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for the Bill "Blackjack" Landry page  then scroll down for five links to more information of the Bill "Blackjack" Landry Memorial Athletic Fund – projects, activities, golf tournament, brochure, and more.

The Athletic Network was dedicated to "Blackjack" Landry and "Dutch" Reinhardt on Dec. 17, 2003. Click the Site Dedication link at www.athleticnetwork.net to view pictures, fond memories, articles, stories, anecdotes, and more.