Football: UL loses shot at sole possession of SBC crown, still invited to New Orleans Bowl-photo gal

Megan Wyatt, Daily Advertiser, Dec. 1, 2013

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Fans are filling up the Cajun Field lot today in preparation for the final home game of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns.

Decked out in red, black and white, the tailgaters are cooking vats of gumbo and chili and are firing up the grill for afternoon meals of burgers and hot dogs. Some are playing their own games of football, others beer pong.

One group of Cajuns fans that call themselves the Milton Mafia, Milton Mob or Milton Marvels depending on the day is ready to cheer on senior football player Andrew Hebert in his final game at Cajun Field.

“We’ll be out here tailgating even after he graduates,” Andrew Hebert’s mom, Denise Hebert, said. “He’ll be able to tailgate with us then for the first time in his life.”

Gabe Fortier, another member of the Milton Mafia, cooked what he called the day’s “chickenhawk gumbo.”

“You got to win to be called a warhawk,” Fortier explained.

The Milton Mafia has been tailgating since 10 a.m. and will continue on until the game begins at 6 p.m.

“More of our family will be coming here later,” Fortier said. “We all graduated from UL, and our kids all go to UL. That’s the best part about this is family.”

No matter where a Ragin’ Cajuns fan finds himself before the game, he could spot Blake Chachere, who rides through the Cajun Field lot on a Cajuns-decked-out lawnmower. Attached to the lawnmower is a keg-sidecar where little fan Noah Menard, 8, rides and honks a bicycle horn.

Chachere built the Ragin’ Cajuns lawnmower the season Coach Mark Hudspeth joined the team. He bought the lawnmower used and put decals all over it, then connected a boat seat to an old beer keg to form a side car. To give Menard something to hold onto, Chachere attached old bicycle handlebars with red pompoms on either side to the keg.

“We’ve been tailgating since 2004, and back then, there was nothing to get excited about,” Chachere said. “So we decided to make our own excitement by dressing up and having fun.”

Back at their tailgating tent, Chachere and his two friends and fellow 2008 UL alumni Matthew Wiltz and Brandon Quebedeaux eat a lunch of chili.

When asked what they were most excited about for the UL versus University of Louisiana at Monroe game, they replied, almost in unison, “We want a Sun Belt Championship title, a New Orleans Bowl invite and some more chili after the game.”