BATON ROUGE – Eighty-seven years ago this week, LSU turned football into a “nocturnal spectacle” - as Tiger Stadium hosted its first night game.

The Morning Advocate – now The Advocate – highlighted what was to sports writers at the time a bizarre time change. The Tigers faced the Springhill Badgers of Alabama.

The Oct. 4 headline in the paper detailed the unusual night match: Fans Taste Rain and Not Sun as Louisiana State Launches Night Match. Reporters wrote about the vibrant colors used on the jerseys so light would reflect and illuminate the players.

“Bright purple jerseys on which were white numerals, so white they seemed almost to shout,” wrote Advocate reporter Orene Simmons.

A Facebook post from “Today in Baton Rouge History” highlighted reporters’ frustration with such a “late” game.

“… You can have your night football. The entire night layout has demoralized our office. But if the fans take to it, we will be in there to suffer.”

And, as they say, the rest is history.

LSU fans expect a night game. They relished in last week’s 8:15 p.m. kick-off.

In 1931 there was no Dan Borne echoing through the stadium announcing “it’s Saturday night in Death Valley.”

Borne’s line is etched into the history of LSU Football.

Perhaps the sports writers of 1931 knew what was coming:

“Night football on LSU’s gridiron presented a picture far different from the ordinary idea of the game… against a dark, murky sky… seeming to symbolize the spirit of LSU in these new surroundings… tonight’s...game [is] a new atmosphere.”

LSU scored 7 in the first quarter, 7 in the second, none in the 3rd and 21 points in the fourth to win 35-0.

The game was played October 3, 1931. The accounts were published the next morning in the newspaper, October 4.

The Advocate made pages available to WBRZ.  Click HERE to read the story on page 1A, then continued HERE on page 13A

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