Posted February 4th, 2010

Crowley High School was one of its most formidable rivals when

the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute first began to

field athletic teams.

Edwin L. Stephens, first president of the school that is now UL-Lafayette, saw sports competition

with area schools as a way to bring students to the campus and to keep the local community and

its alumni involved in SLII affairs. In 1904, he was the prime mover in organizing an association

that included high schools from Breaux Bridge, Crowley, Franklin, Lake Charles, Leesville,

Marksville, New Iberia and St. Martinville (as well as SLII).

The avowed purpose of the association was “the advancement and improvement of Amateur

Athletics and the fostering of interest in Oratory among the schools of southwest Louisiana.”

A “Field Day” that included track events had been held in 1902, but the track meet in 1904

apparently was the first of the events sponsored by the new athletic and oratorical association.

Three years later Stephens reported that “the spirit of track athletics in the schools has been

greatly developed. Many of the high schools … have developed teams that are equal or superior

to the Institute team.”

That created several rivalries, not the least of which was the one between SLII and Crowley,

which apparently was as intense as any you’ll see today.

Things became really tense in 1910, when Crowley wanted to have the games moved from SLII,

apparently with the support of principals in Lake Charles, Leesville and to the west, who saw

Crowley as a more central location.

Stephens couldn’t argue that point, so he turned to his friend J.H.R. Parsons, Southern Pacific

passenger agent in New Orleans, to set up special trains to and from Lake Charles, Morgan City,

and Washington to bring the teams and their fans to Lafayette.

“We are determined to make this the greatest school stunt in Southwest Louisiana and we want

to do it so well that nobody henceforth will question the necessity of anchoring the annual event

at Lafayette,” Stephens wrote to the SP agent. A series of letters between the two men are in the

UL archives, showing that the Southern Pacific agent took some convincing.

But Stephens was nothing if not persuasive, and finally got his way. When the principals met to

set the date and place for the next meet, Stephens wrote, “I had some trouble convincing some

of the men that Lafayette is the place for it rather than Crowley. And the final argument … was

my assurance that we could beat any other place on account of the fact that we can have

special trains to take the crowd home Saturday night in all three directions.”

Then, there was the question of the “ringers” from Crowley. Participants in the athletic and

oratorical events had to be enrolled at the schools they represented, and some questions arose.

An SLII alumnus first wrote to Stephens before the 1910 event that one of Crowley’s track

entrants, a young man named Morris, “was working in a rice warehouse the greater part of the

fall in Eunice … and my impression is that they are trying to enter him in the contest unjustly. We

understand that he is a very fast short distance runner.”

Later, questions were raised about a Miss McDonald, who Stephens said had had professional

training, making her ineligible for the oratorical competition, and about a Mr. Buckley, who’s age

was “in doubt.”

Stephens went through the records and found that Buckley had won the pole vault in 1906 and

1907, both years as a 17-year-old, and still seemed not to have aged. He was disqualified.

I find no report of Miss McDonald’s fate, but Morris ran in the meet and won the 100-yard dash,

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I find no report of Miss McDonald’s fate, but Morris ran in the meet and won the 100-yard dash,

220-yard dash, and 440-yard run. A note on the scorecard said that he was allowed to run

“under protest” and that a committee would investigate his eligibility.

There’s nothing in the archives to say how the investigation came out, and some indication that it

simply dragged on until it was forgotten.

Or maybe not forgotten, A printed card in the archives titled “Yells of the SLII Rooters Club” to be

used at Institute football games, shows that the rivalry continued at least for another few years.

Cheer No. 3 is: “Ice Cream, Soda Water, Ginger Ale, Pop! Lafayette Institute Always at the Top!”

Cheer No. 4 is not so positive: “Crowley, Crowley, Pumpkin and Squash! Hayseed! Hayseed!

Yes — By Gosh!”