by Malcolm Butler
Although he is very new to the Louisiana Tech – ULM rivalry on the athletic fields, first year Warhawks AD SJ Tuohy may have surmised it up the best when speaking at Tuesday’s press conference announced the Radiance Technologies I-20 Showdown Rivalry Series.
“This isn’t a rivalry that has to be manufactured,” said Tuohy to the invite-only crowd and media at Squire Creek Country Club. “It’s real.”
Real it is.
And now, for the first time in nearly four decades, the rivalry between two universities separated by less than 35 miles of I-20 will once again be played out as conference foes.
Louisiana Tech’s move to the Sun Belt Conference reunites the Bulldogs and Warhawks as conference opponents for the first time since 1987, when Tech and then-Northeast Louisiana were members of the Southland Conference.
The newly announced Radiance Technologies I-20 Showdown Rivalry Series will put a name and a scoring system to a rivalry that, as Tuohy noted, has existed for generations.
For longtime Louisiana Tech alum and fan John Allen, the memories go back to the days when ULM was still Northeast Louisiana University.
“I think it’s a great thing for both of us,” Allen said. “I fully expect that the crowds are going to pick up for both games, at their place and at our place.
“It goes back so far, and there’s so many people, my age, older, younger and everything, that remember those days when, you know, ‘Beat Northeast.’”
The schools have continued to meet in various sports through the years — although its been a quarter of a decade since they clashed on the gridiron –, but those contests have been non-conference affairs. Now victories over one another can impact Sun Belt standings and championship races.
Few understand that history better than Louisiana Tech women’s basketball coach Brooke Stoehr.
Stoehr played for the Lady Techsters from 1998-2002 and has experienced the series both as a player and coach. She also understands that the history between the women’s basketball programs stretches well beyond her own playing days.
“Whether it be Teresa Weatherspoon and Kim Mulkey, and for them E.J. Lee, some of their great players, there were some great, great games in the ’80s,” Stoehr said. “That was the height of women’s basketball in this country, but also in this area.”
The Lady Techsters and Warhawks will now meet with more than regional bragging rights on the line.
“For us, we try to make sure our kids understand that, but I think it’ll be even more now, because you’re competing for a conference title,” Stoehr said. “They’re another team on your schedule that you’ve got to beat in order to win a conference championship.”
Stoehr said part of the responsibility for Tech’s coaches will be making sure a new generation of student-athletes understands why games against ULM have traditionally mattered to the schools and their fan bases.
“You understand the history of the programs, and as a staff, we’ve got to continue to educate our kids in the right way,” Stoehr said. “I don’t think it means any more that I played in it. I just think that we understand what it means to the region, to the community, but also to both institutions.”
Louisiana Tech softball coach Josh Taylor did not grow up with the rivalry and had no previous connection to either school when he arrived in Ruston in 2021.
It did not take him long to learn about it.
“When I first got to Louisiana Tech, Wesley Harris and a bunch of alumni made it clear to me how important not losing to ULM was,” Taylor said. “That was made very clear in the first three days I was here.”
Taylor is 6-4 against ULM during his tenure, with the teams splitting their meetings last season. The Warhawks are coming off a Sun Belt regular-season championship, and the move into the same conference means the programs will now face each other in a three-game league series.
“We’re excited about the rivalry,” Taylor said. “It’s always heated. They’re always intense and focused games, and they’re always great matchups, so we couldn’t be more excited to actually be in conference with them and get to play the three-game series.”
The renewed rivalry comes at a time when the landscape of college athletics has increasingly pushed schools outside the power conferences to look closer to home.
Local radio talk show host Sean Fox believes that makes the return of Tech-ULM as conference rivals important for reasons extending beyond wins and losses.
“I think right now with the state of college athletics, at this level, it’s all about survival,” Fox said. “And I think regional rivalries are what makes college athletics special. You’re not getting the TV money like you do at these big-time conferences. So from a business standpoint, it just makes sense.”
But Fox said the appeal goes beyond economics.
“Rivalries, local rivalries, local bragging rights, going to church, the same people, work, friends, being able to talk smack — that’s what college athletics is all about,” Fox said.
Tech’s move to the Sun Belt also renews conference relationships with other regional programs, including Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss and Arkansas State. But none is as geographically close as ULM.
The Radiance Technologies I-20 Showdown will encompass 12 sports, with each worth one point toward the yearlong competition.
Football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and women’s soccer will be decided through head-to-head competition. Cross country, men’s golf and men’s and women’s track and field will be determined by the schools’ finishes at Sun Belt championship events.
The first school to reach 6.5 points will claim the I-20 Showdown championship. If the schools finish tied, the winner of the football game will serve as the tiebreaker.
The format provides something tangible to measure the competition between the schools throughout the athletic year. But the people who have lived around the two programs say the competition itself never needed a name to make it matter.
Allen believes returning to the same conference will bring some of the old energy back to both campuses.
“I just think it’s wonderful,” Allen said. “The Sun Belt’s the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time, in my opinion.”
For Fox, the renewed rivalry is about two universities and two communities that share much more than the same stretch of interstate.
“Yes, there’s bragging rights, but this is great for the region,” Fox said, “and great for both Ruston and Monroe.”
A new name. A new trophy. A new conference chapter.
But not a new rivalry.
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