When the UL Ragin’ Cajuns officially received the invitation to compete in the New Orleans Bowl, a group of former players lost something.

And boy were they happy about it.

No longer is the 1970 UL squad the last Cajun football team to play in a bowl game.

"We’re absolutely excited about this," said longtime Acadiana High assistant coach Myles Casbon, who was a starting junior defensive end on the team. "We’re the opposite of Mercury Morris. We’re popping champagne that it’s over. I mean 40 years … give me a break. It’s been way too long between bowl appearances. This is very exciting."

Casbon is referring to members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins who get together to celebrate every time the last undefeated team loses a game each NFL season.

Like the Dolphins, the 1970 Cajuns — officially still known as the USL Bulldogs that season — remain a close-knit group of guys who spend a lot of time together, including tailgating at Cajun Field through the years hoping that their distinction would one day end.

"I’m really excited for this team," said Jim Doyle, who was a senior right tackle on the team. "When they were 6-1, I sent him (coach Mark Hudspeth) a note and told them that those kids had an opportunity to do something that was really special … something that people would still be talking about 40 years later."

Those players have certainly enjoyed watching the 2011 version of the Cajuns get to an eight-win season and earn a spot in the New Orleans Bowl.

"I’m very impressed with the team," said David Rogers, who was a senior cornerback. "No matter what the score is, this team feels like it can still win the game. In the past, that hasn’t happened. The desire is there. They do what they have to do to win."

Bobby Banna, the only living coach on that 1970 coaching staff, has particularly enjoyed watching Hudspeth mold this year’s team into a winner.

"It’s beautiful to see the program doing well," Banna said. "I’m so happy for them. He seems to be an outstanding coach. He’s brought a lot of enthusiasm to the program.

"I went to a couple of games and I saw a couple of games on TV. I absolutely love his approach. It looks like he’s the guy to bring UL to where it should be."

But now that the 1970 team will become even more of a footnote in Cajun football history, this could be one last opportunity for many fans who aren’t familiar with the 1970 Grantland Rice Bowl to brush up on their UL football history.

For the record, Tennessee State defeated UL that day 26-25 at Memorial Stadium in Baton Rouge, but that only begins to tell the tale.

The Cajuns were playing against a Tigers’ squad that had "Jefferson Street" Joe Gilliam as its quarterback, Ed "Too Tall" Jones as a starting sophomore defensive end and Cincinnati Bengals’ 1971 first-round pick and nine-year NFLer Vernon Holland lined up opposite Casbon.

Gilliam played for the Pittsburgh Steelers for four seasons and later with the Washington Federals of the USFL. He’s still TSU’s all-time leader for completions in a season. Jones was a first-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys, where he was a three-time Pro Bowler in his 15 years there.

Differing reports have between 10 and 15 players who played professional football off that Tennessee State team.

UL had none.

"Tennessee State was incredibly talented," Casbon said. "They had something like 15 players play pro football, but we really didn’t have an idea of exactly how talented they were. I didn’t get the paper every day to read about it. We watched film, but it wasn’t like it is today. We’d watch film for an hour or so between classes."

Still, the Cajuns led 25-12 with 8:57 left in the game after Mike Courville recovered a fumble in the end zone, despite throwing eight interceptions and getting two extra points blocked.

"It was almost like they looked at the clock and thought, ‘Hey, we might lose this game.’ After that, it was like they went into a higher gear," Doyle said.

Former UL athletic director Nelson Schexnayder caught two TD passes in the game, including a 17-yarder just before Courville’s fumble recovery.

But Gilliam scored on a 3-yard TD run with 6:12 left and Albert Davis later had the game-winning 5-yard TD run.

Doyle recollects UL’s offense seemingly getting a big first down to extend a drive that might have prevented that TSU’s game-winning touchdown, but it was called back on an illegal procedure flag.

"I certainly don’t want to diminish our effort," Doyle said, "but they probably went into the game overlooking us a little bit. They were bigger, stronger and faster. Certainly no one on our team went on to play in the pros."

It was obvious at the banquet the night before that TSU outweighed UL by "30 or 40 pounds at every position" on the line.

Doyle said UL’s team arrived first at the banquet and its eyes got big as the first two or three members of the Tigers’ team "had to duck to get through the door" upon their arrival.

"Then after the banquet, we had a 10-minute awkward mingling period where they were just looking at us," Doyle said. "We had a defensive back named Bob St. Amant, who was 5-8, maybe. One of their players asked him what position he played, "it was almost like he was laughing at him."

Despite the loss, that 1970 bowl game is still a pleasant memory for the players. It was sort of a culmination of a successful stretch under coach Russ Faulkinberry.

UL won the Gulf States Conference title in 1968 and hoped to go bowling that year, but the Grantland Rice Bowl instead selected Terry Bradshaw and Louisiana Tech, despite the fact that UL beat Tech and was the outright league champion at 8-2 and 5-1.

Two years later, in the final season at McNaspy Stadium, UL was 9-2 and 5-0.

"It was a great feeling going to a bowl game," Casbon said. "It was totally new to us. It was great."

"It was a wonderful experience. We truly enjoyed it," Banna said. "We had an outstanding football team. It was a team with great players, but they also were good people with great character.

"Coach Faulkinberry was a stickler for conditioning. Fortunately, we had dedicated players."

And coaches.

"They were so involved with us," Rogers said. "They were with us around the clock — in the dorms, in the classroom, everywhere. They knew where we were on Saturdays and Sundays. It was pretty intense.

"Coach Faulkinberry had the ability to get a player to play way beyond their talent."

For many of the leaders of that team, that closeness hasn’t ceased. As late as this past summer, eight couples from the team took a trip to Italy. The team also held a 40-year reunion last year.

"It is kind of unique," Rogers said. "I think it has something to do with the coaches we had. We bonded pretty quickly and stayed together. I think that’s the kind of program USL had at that time."

At the time of last year’s reunion, five players from the team had died.

Doyle, himself whose brother Ed was a defensive tackle on the team, was given six months to live in 2007 with multiple myeloma.

Tragically, this past Monday, sophomore lineman David Autin, a local physician, died of a heart attack.

That news particularly hit Banna hard. Autin had treated Banna when he went through cancer treatments three years ago.

"David did so much for me," Banna said. "He went above and beyond. You can’t imagine how much he helped me through that."

A high percentage of that 1970 team have achieved amazing business success since their playing days. To name a few, Doyle is the executive vice president of BrennTag North America. Ken Blanchard was a CEO of Superior Energy and the list doctors included the late George Coussan, Roland Degeyter, Ron English, not to mention a judge in Richard Haik and Schexnayder the former athletic director.

"We had a tremendous amount of very successful people in their post-playing days," Doyle said.

"I think coach Faulkinberry and his staff were as proud of that than anything else."

Through the trials and successes of life, Doyle said he’s often leaned on his experiences as a UL football player.

"During my battle with cancer, I looked back on the lessons I learned and they things they put us through," he said. "I really believed that helped me tremendously. I thought that if I made it through some of the things they put us through when we thought we wanted to die, then I could make it through this (cancer treatments)."

Athletic Network Footnote:

Please click here to view the 2010 40th reunion and recognition of the 1970 championship team, which includes the poster and stories of that memorable season, culminating with a trip to the Grantland Rice Bowl.