UL players to wear ‘Blue Dog’ helmet stickers to honor Rodrigue

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, Dec. 20, 2013

UL players will wear ‘Blue Dog’ helmet stickers in their postseason game against Tulane at the Superdome to honor the memory of famed artist George Rodrigue, who passed last Saturday at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer. / Chad Washington, The Advertiser

NEW ORLEANS — The Ragin’ Cajuns will be recognizing one of their own in Saturday night’s New Orleans Bowl.

UL players will wear “Blue Dog” helmet stickers in their postseason game against Tulane at the Superdome to honor the memory of famed artist George Rodrigue, who passed last Saturday at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer.

After focusing early in his career on the Louisiana landscape, Rodrigue became renowned for his “Blue Dog” series of paintings.

The New Iberia native is a graduate of the then-University of Southwest Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Family approval of the gesture from the Cajun football team came late this week, UL Sports Information Director Brian McCann said.

Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth pushed the sticker plan.

“Hud said, ‘He’s a Cajun,’ ” McCann said. “He said he’s a grad, and he’s been there for the university so much over the years that it’s only fitting we dedicate the New Orleans Bowl to him.”

UL plays Tulane at 8 p.m. Saturday in the ESPN-televised New Orleans Bowl.