The paperwork for what will be the UL Ragin’ Cajuns’ first postseason game since 1970 was formally delivered Monday night to Mark Hudspeth — attached to the end of a red-and-white rope.

How fitting.

The Cajuns have been pulling on one — figuratively and literally, during locker room celebrations and even preseason tug o’ war workouts — since shortly after Hudspeth was hired as the university’s head football coach in December.

"Don’t let go of the rope," Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation chairman Paul Valteau said to Hudspeth during a pep rally Monday night attended by about 3,000 fans, players, students and school officials, "because at the end is an invitation to the New Orleans Bowl."

And there it was, quite literally

attached to the rope.

UL will play in the Dec. 17 New Orleans Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans against a still-to-be-determined opponent, marking the first time the Cajuns have played beyond the regular season since losing to Tennessee State in the 1970 Grantland Rice Bowl at Baton Rouge.

"I want this," a pumped-up Hudspeth said, "to be a moment every Ragin’ Cajun fan can remember and cherish."

The hour-long pep rally at the school’s Leon Moncla Indoor Practice Facility featured a video presentation showing the 8-3 team’s rather unorthodox training methods and in-season game highlights, a team introduction with comments from various player representatives and the invitation.

As the fight song blared, cheerleaders cheered and brisk business was done at a trailer where short-sleeve UL/New Orleans Bowl T-shirts sold for $15 and the long-sleeve ones went for $22.

"I’ve always thought having a Louisiana team would be just so special in our bowl game, and it will showcase both our city as well as the city where that team is coming from," Valteau said.

"I’m really, really excited about Lafayette being in our bowl game," he added. "It’s just a great, great opportunity all the way around."

The former longtime Orleans Parish sheriff and acting bowl chairman has been with the game since its inception in 2001, and has made his share of invites over the years — some in lockerrooms, some elsewhere.

But Monday’s, he suggested, was like no other.

"This is the greatest one I’ve been to," Valteau said. "In terms of enthusiasm, in terms of fan support, in terms of cohesiveness of the entire university — this has been the best. It made me excited, to see the excitement here and the energy in the room. It’s great, and it just reaffirms my belief that college football is one of the great events we have in our nation."

"The most impressive one I’ve seen, by far," New Orleans Bowl executive director Billy Ferrante added. "But for me personally, it’s what I expected. We’ve seen the enthusiasm that this community, this fan base, has for this institution for a long time now."

Ferrante said he expects a crowd of more than 30,000, which would exceed the bowl’s 2008 record from a game between Southern Mississippi and Troy.

The overwhelming majority of those attendees are expected to be Cajun fans, and if that’s the case they’d been answering the challenge of offensive lineman Leonardo Bates — who played his high school ball in New Orleans — to "paint my home city red."

Cajun players are genuinely excited to caravan to the Crescent City with a long line of fans in tow.

"Words really can’t describe it," defensive lineman Chris Tucker said. "All I can do, really, is smile."

"It means a lot," safety Lionel Stokes added. "It has been so many years since UL has been in a bowl game."

Forty-one, to be

precise.

That made Monday oh-so-special for longsuffering Cajuns fans who have waited decades to go bowling.

"We’ve had a lot of good teams over those 41 years," Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation chairman and ex-Cajun football player John Bordelon said. "And some were, unfortunately, not able to make it to a bowl game."

In fact, UL football operations director Troy Wingerter — another ex-Cajun — addressed a long list of perceived snubs, from the 1989 and 2008 Independence Bowls to the 1994 Las Vegas Bowl.

And that, Wingerter suggested, made Monday that much meaningful.

So, too, did the fact the invitation was delivered on the same practice field where the Cajuns have devoted so much time and sweat over the past several months.

"We talked (before the season started)," Wingerter said, "about all the things we hoped and dreamed would happen."

And now — with a New Orleans Bowl appearance one of their stated goals long before the season started — they’re being realized.

"It means a lot," tight end Ladarius Green said, "knowing that you’re going down in history doing something that the program hasn’t really done."

At least not in an awfully long time.

Athletic Network Footnote: The 1970 football team played in the Grantland Rice Bowl in Baton Rouge.   
Click here for the 2010 40th Reunion and Recognition of the 1970 Championship Team photo gallery, including posters and news stories of the Cajuns season which ended with the lost to Tennessee State by a score of 26-25.

Click here for the Photo Gallery of the 1943 Oil Bowl Champions. The Cajuns avenged a 20-20 tie during the season to win the Oil Bowl in Houston by a score of 24-7. Gallery complete with season record, game story and a unique poster.