By T. Scott Boatright
It was a football walk-through practice nearly 52 years in the making Thursday afternoon at Lincoln Preparatory School’s Panther Field.
That’s because for the first time since November of 1971, a Southern University football team practiced on a football field in Grambling.
The last time Grambling State University played host to Southern was on Nov. 20, 1971, when the G-Men defeated the Jaguars 31-3 at the old Grambling Stadium across campus from where Eddie G. Robinson Stadium has stood since 1983.
Southern’s football team was traveling to Little Rock, Arkansas, Friday afternoon to prepare for Saturday’s contest for the Jaguars at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
It was a close circle of coaches that led to a Southern football team returning to Lincoln Parish for more than half a century.
“I know the Southern head coach (Eric Dooley) and assistant head coach Terrence Graves, who had both coached at Grambling,” Hall said. “Coach Dooley had Coach Graves call me and ask me about it because they needed a spot to do a walk through. And you know, those are good guys, so I helped them out.”
Lincoln Prep Principal/CEO Gordan Ford made it possible for some students at Lincoln Prep to get a glimpse of the Jaguars at practice.
“We had several different groups of kids out there watching,” Ford said. “We had some of our athletes out there just to give them the opportunity to talk to Division I athletes and talk about what that looks like.
“And we also had our early college kids out there that are working on (an Associate’s) degree at Southern-Shreveport. But it was also unique in that the Southern head coach’s wife actually taught at Lincoln Prep and those were her fifth-grade students when she taught here.So Coach Dooley FaceTimed his wife and let the kids have an opportunity to talk to her.”
Ford, a Grambling State University graduate and loyal GSU supporter, said it wasn’t an issue having a Southern football team return to Grambling after so many years.
“That part wasn’t part at all,” Ford said. “The biggest thing about the Grambling-Southern rivalry is the fact that it’s family. My mom is a Grambling grad and my dad was a Southern grad. I talked to some of their players and I don’t think they even realized they were actually in Grambling.
“When I said, ‘Welcome to Grambling,’ they looked at me kind of funny and I told them that we might fight each other on Thanksgiving weekends, but anytime other than that we’ve got their backs 100%. We’re one big happy family.”
Hall was more than pleased to have his Panthers’ football team get a look at the Southern practice.
“I know it was good for them,” Hall said. “Our guys haven’t ever seen anything like that up close and personal. They always think everything’s just about playing — the physical part of the game.
“So when they came out and saw those Southern players doing things so seriously, even during a walk-through without a football, they noticed. They paid attention. And now they understand what I try to preach to them so much.”
