Landry High Tigers Celebrate The Golden Anniversary Of Their 1965 State Football Championship
By Angie Kay Dilmore
RICKY STUTES
Dickie Tanous sat in the bleachers at Mansfield High School Stadium, surrounded by anxious fans of Landry High School’s 4-A football team. Landry High hadn’t won a state championship since 1942. Both the team and their classmates were eager for a win.
That evening of Dec. 17, 1965, was cold and wet. Rain dripped off Tanous’ hunting cap and drizzled down his parka. But like all the other spectators in the stands, he took no notice.
Their eyes were riveted on the field. With only minutes left in the fourth quarter, the score was 20-19 — Landry Tigers over Mansfield Wolverines.
Ricky Stutes, a junior half-back that year, says he remembers those final moments like it was yesterday. “After a timeout, we came back to the huddle. Coach said all we got to do was hold onto the ball and you got this one. First snap, we fumbled. But then we held them to win the championship.”
With seconds left on the clock, Mansfield attempted a field goal but missed. Tanous and the Landry crowd cheered in celebration.
Landry Memorial High School was located at the present location of St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles.
JAY DELAFIELD
It was a private Catholic boys’ school. The girls went to St. Charles Academy, which is now Immaculate Conception Cathedral School. The two schools combined in 1970 to form St. Louis High School.
Celebrating The Big Win
During Oct. 8-11, 2015, alumni and friends of Landry High’s classes of 1965, 1966 and 1967 will celebrate reunions in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the championship win.
The weekend events will include St. Louis High School’s Homecoming Parade, where the 1965 football champs will ride on a float as parade marshals. Following the parade, they’ll have a jambalaya tailgate party before the football game.
During halftime, the 1965 team will be recognized.
Friday afternoon, team members will meet for a social at Seafood Palace, followed by a banquet at the Pioneer Club that evening. On Sunday, there will be a mass at the school with an alumni brunch to follow.
Tanous expects approximately 150 people to attend, which is impressive considering there were only 30-some students in each grade at the time.
MIKE PAPANIA
FRIENDS FOR LIFE
The teammates have kept in touch over the years for the most part. A handful of them still live in Southwest Louisiana, but many are spread out across the country. A few members are deceased.
Bill Sappington, a senior offensive tackle and kicker in 1965, lives in St. Augustine, Fla. and looks forward to attending the reunion. “Winning that championship was a big deal in our young lives. Not everyone is lucky enough to win [a state football championship]. I love those guys. When I get a chance to go back and see them and
reminisce, that’s a fun thing for me.”
Mike Landry is coming all the way from Connecticut. He may win the award for “Farthest Traveled.” Denny Lavoi, a fullback on the 1965 team, played the same position as his father who played 23 years earlier and won the championship in 1942. He lives in Arkansas now and unfortunately won’t attend the reunion.
The Underdogs Rally
DENNY LAVOI
The Landry High Tigers weren’t expected to do particularly well that year. The previous year’s team had gone to the district level, losing in the quarter-finals, and several star players had graduated.
But coach Carl Blanchard had faith in the team. Stutes describes his former coach as a good guy and very motivational. “I remember when we were at practice, if we weren’t doing well, he’d call us over and say ‘Hey, y’all want to go home?’ We’d say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want to go home!’”
The coach had high expectations of his team. Sappington says the night of the championship game, he pulled them all over to the sidelines in the rain for a pre-game pep talk. “I was ready for a rah-rah-sis-boom talk,” says Sappington. “But instead Coach said, ‘No one is ever going to remember who was
second.’ I’ve always remembered that.”
Leadership With A Heart
Coach Blanchard, now 83, lives with his wife in Sunset, La. He will attend the reunion and is looking forward to seeing the “kids” again. While the team fondly remembers his motivating style, Blanchard says, “I really didn’t have to motivate this bunch.”
RICKY STUTES
When asked his philosophy on coaching, he says, “I tried most of all to get the kids to love each other. That worked out really, really well. They knew I loved them. I knew they loved me. And they loved each other. That was the easy part. I tried to get them to understand that football is like life. You get out of it what you put into it.”
The Road To Victory
Led by quarterback Sidney Jones, the team performed well that year. Heading into the playoffs, they were at 8 wins and 2 losses. This humble team had lost only to AA teams.
“We got beat a couple times during that season — beat up pretty bad,” says Stutes. “But we hung together all year long. We had a lot of heart and good teamwork.”
Sappington recalls playing DeQuincy that season and winning. “That was a big deal for us, to beat DeQuincy. DeQuincy also went to the playoffs that year and lost to Mansfield the week before we played them.
“The next big game for us was against Lutcher. We weren’t supposed to win that game; they were supposed to kill us. Somehow [coach] Carl got in our heads and we beat a good football team that night.”
Landry won both their playoff games; then went on to the championship. “We never gave up. We kept fighting,” says Lynn Foret, star defensive linebacker and a junior that year.
LYNN FORET
Stutes attributes their championship win in part to their game plan, especially with the wet, slippery ball that night. “We were mostly a running team. We did throw some passes in that game, but we mostly ran the ball.”
Sid Jones was the shiniest star on the team in 1965. He was a senior and first-time quarterback.
Jones had played defense the year before. News reporters loved him. They called him “the Tiger in Landry’s Tank.” One reporter said he was “a twisting, charging bull of a runner.” He was also known for being “quiet and reserved.”
Jones won the 1965 American Press’ award for Outstanding Football Player of Calcasieu Parish. He was MVP at the championship game, as well as at several other games throughout the season.
His teammates still speak fondly of Jones, who lives in North Carolina and won’t make it to the reunion. “He was hard to bring down,” says Tanous. “He was quiet but he loved to compete,” adds Sappington. “The tougher it got, the tougher he got.”
Blanchard says Jones would do whatever he asked him to do. “He moved from playing end to playing quarterback. He’d never had any quarterback experience, and yet he set a state record for most yards gained in a year.” Blanchard is quick to add there were several good players on the team, and Jones could not have accomplished what he did that year without the other 10 guys.
TOMMY TUMINELLO
Blanchard fondly remembers and honors both his assistant coaches, Tony Bourgeois and Roland Barras. They have both recently passed away and will be missed at the reunion. “They loved the kids, too,” says Blanchard. “Everything I screwed up, they straightened out along the way.”
Foret and Jones were co-captains in 1965. Foret won Outstanding Lineman of the Year, Jones won Best Quarterback and Blanchard won for Best Coach — awards given by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. Foret and Jones were the only two players on the team who moved on to college football. Foret played for Louisiana State University and Jones played for Tulane.
Foret says, “Winning that [championship] game proved to us that we could do things and reach beyond the unknown.” He recalls the post-game scenario. “After the game, we gathered in the Mansfield gym. We were all soaking wet and tired. Coach Blanchard said, ‘Boys, you just won the state championship.’”
JOHN WILKINSON
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