I had a conversation once with Ray Authement on a bus on the way to a ball game in Hattiesburg way back in the Bustle days. From day one of the name change he said we never want to go by ULL or Lafayette by itself. He told me on that bus that when applying for federal research dollars University of Louisiana at Lafayette puts you in the same boat as University of Texas at Austin, University of Tennessee at Knoxville….. That was his motivation for the name change. Years later he said we were walking a slippery slope with the Louisiana branding. Take that for what it is worth.
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He knew stepping on Baton Rouge was politically counterproductive back then. We had almost no representation up there. Things have changed a lot since then, with regard to Acadiana holding political power. The problem is, there are no leaders willing to get their nose bloodied in Martin Hall. It was always going to be a fight.
That’s my interpretation of the whole thing, anyway.
To realize how far we’ve come, go back and watch some highlights from the early Hud years. Even that first NO Bowl. It seems so weird to have “UL Lafayette” on the scoreboard at the bottom of the screen.
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Louisiana State A&M and its lackeys in the capitol building want nothing more than to monopolize the entire state. That’s the major issue. Those people only want the ‘LSU’ brand to be recognizable nationwide. If it was up to them (and it kind of is), the entire state would be LSU-Insert City Here.
That’s why I don’t believe in the “Support all Louisiana schools!” rhetoric from TSAB fans.
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Ever has a very deep meaning. Give it time…we are Louisiana.
Schools in this state will NEVER EVER EVERRRRRR call us Louisiana.
I gave up a long time ago caring about in state schools calling us by our preferred name
We legally won the battle
However, as much as I love Tyree Skipper and his contribution to the school his twitter bio literally say @ University of Lafayette.
That can’t be ok for a leader of any sports team associated with our University and the school needs to educate all students on how we brand ourselves
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Yeah thats bad bruh. Buddy literally wears that Louisiana over his chest on saturdays.
The sad part about the University of Lafayette name usage is it isn’t the first time I’ve seen it from players or recruits. We don’t do enough to educate our own players or recruits on our brand.
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I really don’t care if anyone from in state tries to butcher our name on purpose. All I care about is winning. Glad we took it to Mickey Neese; hope we’re able to do the same to Lamar next year and Tulane in ‘27. Beat Tech when we play them again. And for god’s sake, never lose to Monroe.
When I was recruited by Hud one of the first things that was said to me by the coaches was this is “UL” or “Louisiana” not Lafayette or ULaLa.
That’s the difference between the Hud era is that he instilled pride in the school name the first day you walked in the door and he made us respect it
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Hud totally and completely understood the assignment
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I know I wanted the man fired from his HC position but I 100% would hire him back as a community/brand ambassador
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