Homecoming: A Scandurro Story

BY TIM SCANDURRO 

“It’s got a vibrant culture, and it’s full of life.  This city’s got a whole lot of juice.”—Jon Sumrall at his introductory news conference in New Orleans, December 11, 2023.

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was in college.  Jesus, does anyone?” –Stand by Me (1986) (edited) 

Thursday night my wife and I hosted a dinner party at our house for four of my  Tulane friends, two women and two men plus their spouses.  Some I have seen occasionally over the years, but never often enough; others I hadn’t seen in decades.  The occasion was our 40th Class Reunion.

Tulane is a national university with an international reach, and our guests reflected that:  they came in from Oregon, Florida and Washington, D.C. by way of Hong Kong.  They’re all married with grown children now, but when I met them a lifetime ago Ronald Reagan was our President and Vince Gibson was our football coach.  All of them were unmarried young people in a strange new town, living away from home for the first time. 

I wasn’t from New Orleans but I grew up within an hour’s drive of it.  My dad was the first member of his family to attend college and had parlayed an undergraduate degree from Southeastern Louisiana into a ticket to Tulane Law School, of which he became a proud alumnus in 1966.  He drove a cab at nights to help make ends meet while in school, returning at night to his young family in an apartment on Hampson Street located within shouting distance of old Tulane Stadium.  By the time he graduated I was three years old, we were exiting the SEC, and I was already qualified as a long-suffering Tulane fan.  By default, when I enrolled here I was the nearest thing to an ambassador for the city, the university and its football program that my fellow students had.  Within the first month we had been to Audubon Park, City Park, Pat O’Brien’s, Camellia Grill, Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken, Hansen’s Snowball stand, Tipitina’s, and even Pancho’s Mexican Buffet.  And, of course, the Superdome.

It's become increasingly fashionable today for residents of the metro New Orleans area and especially for residents of its suburbs, when asked for recommendations on what to do or where to eat, to begin with a public safety lecture that sounds a lot like what a wide receivers coach would have told his position group before facing the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s:  Be careful.  Be aware of your surroundings.  Keep your head on a swivel.  Whatever you do, don’t let your route take you into this area or that one. 

Look, this city has problems.  Only a fool would deny that.  But it has magical qualities too, and sometimes it takes the eyes of outsiders to see them.   In Glasgow, Scotland, where Tulane’s Junior Year Abroad program sent me 40 years ago, the Scottish students were consistently interested in visiting four places in the United States:  New York, California, Florida, and New Orleans.  If you travel anywhere in the world or in this country today and tell people where you’re from, you’re very likely to see their eyes light up.  They’re usually either eager to visit or have fond memories of visiting and can’t wait to come back.  Like our head football coach, they know this town has juice.  There’s no place like it, certainly not in America.

My old friends were greeted on arrival this weekend by something far short of an ideal Chamber of Commerce weekend.  We had a November hurricane (!) in the Gulf that caused a combination of unseasonable heat, humidity, wind and rain to arrive in town the same day they did.  Half the streets are torn up and in the process of being repaired for the Super Bowl; the other half are just torn up.  Some traffic lights work, some don’t, and some can’t make up their mind and  take turns.

And nobody cared.  They loved it.  One couple is desperately hoping their son, who has lots of options, will enroll at Tulane next year; another’s daughter graduated recently and lives and works here.  They all adore Tulane and the city it’s in, and they all sing the praises of both.  The food, the architecture, the music, and the general vibe of the place and its people enthrall them.  It was so great to spend time with them around town and to have them at our tailgate, and to feel the love they have for this place.

There are parallels in the football program.  People who have been around it for a long time are aways a little wary.  Whether it’s facilities, conference affiliation, university funding support or any number of other concerns, there’s always plenty to worry about and a lot that needs fixing.   But let’s not miss the magic that others with fresher eyes can see.  The last rainy Homecoming my friends remembered was a dispiriting 7-3 loss to UConn.  Saturday’s dominating 52-6 win over Temple was a different experience in every way possible, and after it was over we found ourselves with a nation-leading 16 game regular season conference winning streak and a Top 25 ranking for the third year in a row.  The pride people have in their alma mater is multiplied exponentially by a winning football program.  I wouldn’t let my friends leave town without joining Fear The Wave, and they did so without hesitation.  Some will now be attending next weekend’s road game.

All over the city, similar scenes played out as proud alums returned and rekindled old friendships and the memories of youth while happily spending money and time in a place that is special to them in ways both old and familiar and, where consistent winning football is concerned, new and exciting. 

The most important set of fresh eyes cast on our city and program recently were those of Jon and Ginny Sumrall.  They remembered their earlier time in New Orleans and the people they met here with great fondness, and those memories along with our recent success played a big role in their decision to come here.  We are reaping the rewards of that decision daily.

As the poet Robert Burns said, “what a gift the Gods could give us, to see ourselves as others see us.”

And now it’s on to Navy, where we will be facing a big step up in competition with a place in the conference title game on the line.  Today is Veteran’s Day and we are all thankful for the Midshipmen, present and past, who have done so much to preserve and protect our nation.  We can honor them Saturday by fighting, clawing and battling as hard as we know they will for 60 minutes. 

As our coaches say, this is a Ring Game.  They all are, from here on out. This football team knows what’s at stake, and the expectation is we will bring everything we have to Annapolis Saturday.  We are, as our trademark says,  “NOLA-Built.”

Navy has everything at stake too, and they are at home.  It’s going to be a war, and victory will have to be earned.  But Navy is not the only team Saturday who will be proudly representing a unique, special place with a unique, special history.

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

 By Tim Scandurro