Louisiana Sporting Firsts
Learn about some of the accomplishments of Louisiana athletes.
Additional “Firsts” for New Orleans and Louisiana are available for research at City Archives and Special Collections.
New Orleans Lawn Tennis Club was the first in Louisiana and one of the first to be founded in the nation.
Source: Davis, Edwin Adams. Louisiana: A Narrative History. Baton Rouge, Claitor's Book Store. 1961, p. 278.
First New Orleans Southern League Baseball team founded in 1887. Abner Powell, manager, inaugurated the terms "rain check" and Ladies' day."
Sources: Gisclair, S. Derby. Baseball in New Orleans. (Images of Baseball) Charleston SC: Arcadia. 2004, p. 12.
Writers' Program, Louisiana. Louisiana: A Guide to the State. (American Guide Series) New York: Hastings House. 1947, p. 147.
The first football game played in New Orleans took place on Christmas Day, 1888, at Sportsman's Park, situated at City Park Avenue and the New Basin Canal. The game was promoted by Thomas Livingston Bayne, "The Father of Louisiana Football," a New Orleanian who had played quarterback for Yale during the early 188's. Tulanians, members of the Southern Athletic Club, and "students of Princeton, Brown, Yale and other Eastern colleges, home for the holidays, took part. The participating teams took the names of the 'Red and Blues' and the 'Orange and Blacks,' the proceeds of the contest going to Charity Hospital for the purchase of two horses for the hospital's ambulances.
Source: Times Picayune, Aug. 22, 1934, p. 3, c.6.
Louis Nuckels and Charles Carroll engaged in the first contest in America in which gloves were worn-Crowley's Lane in St. Bernard Parish.
Source: Writers' Program, Louisiana. Louisiana: A Guide to the State. (American Guide Series) New York: Hastings House. 1947, p. 147.
First fight to determine "heavyweight championship under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules." On Sept. 7, 1892, Corbett won over John L. Sullivan in New Orleans.
Source: Menks, Frank G. Encyclopedia of Sports. 2nd revised edition. New York: A . S. Barnes and Co. 1960, p. 258.
Purple and gold first worn by LSU in the Spring of 1893.
Source: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two Years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge, Otto Claitor, published 1936, p. 73.
Longest bout in history of prize fighting-7 hours and 19 minutes-110 round draw between Andy Bowen and Jack Burke in New Orleans on April 6, 1893.
Source: Writers' Program, Louisiana. Louisiana: A Guide to the State (American Guide Series) New York: Hastings House, 1947, p. 147.
The first game of inter-collegiate football in Louisiana sports history, which marks also the first attempt made to bring together teams of equal prominence, was played in New Orleans, in Sportsman's Park, on November 25, 1893: the competing schools were Tulane and LSU T. L. (Thomas Livingston) Bayne of Tulane Law School "found the park, erected goal posts, made up the yells, selected the colors, equipped the team, persuaded 2,000 spectators to attend, coached both teams, and umpired the game at which Tulane beat LSU 34-0." Appropriately, T.L. Bayne is called "the Father of Louisiana Football." Hugh Bayne, T.L.'s brother and a student at Tulane was captain of that University's first football team and scored its first touchdown against LSU. This game also featured the first Football Special Train was that used between Baton Rouge and New Orleans "The party from Baton Rouge, which numbered from three to four hundred, reached the city at 11 in the morning on a special train. They did not linger to indulge, like their opponents, in the satisfaction of exulting cries. Immediately after the game they returned to their train, and by 9 o'clock were speeding homeward."
Sources: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge: Otto Claitor, 1936, p. 17.
Times Picayune, November 13, 1893, p. 9, c. 1-2.
Times Picayune, November 26, 1893, p. 9, c.1.
Times Picayune, August 22, 1934, p. 3, c. 6.
Times Picayune, August 22, 1963, p. 19, c. 2.
First touchdown by an LSU man made by S.M.D. Clark (fullback)
Source: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge, Otto Claitor, publisher 1936, p. 18.
First home game for LSU on Dec. 3, 1894. Played "Ole Miss." Coach Simmons, with the consent of the visitors, played in the backfield.
Source: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two Years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge, Otto Claitor, pub. 1936, p. 18.
First undefeated team for LSU.
Source: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two Years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge, Otto Claitor, pub. 1936, p. 19.
First American college to play football on foreign soil: LSU played Havana University there.
Source: Taylor, H. Warren. Forty-two Years on the Tiger Gridiron. Baton Rouge, Otto Claitor, pub. 1936, p. 31.
John C. Donovan, businessman and fishing enthusiast of New Orleans, sponsored the first Grand Isle Tarpon.
Source: Dept. of Commerce and Industry. Do You Know Louisiana? Louisiana Document 353. Pub. by Tourist Division. Rex Laney, ed. 1938, p. 281
First All-American selection from Louisiana was Dalrymple (end) of Tulane in 1930. The selection was made by Grantland Rice.
Source: Menke, Frank G. Encyclopedia of Sports. 2nd revised edition New York, A.S. Barnes and Co. 1960, p. 399.
First Sugar Bowl game January 1, 1935, between Tulane and Temple (20-14).
Source: Writers' Program, Louisiana. Louisiana: A Guide to the State. New York: Hastings, 1947, p. 703.
Act 279 of 1936 created the first Athletic Commission.
Source: Dept. of State. Act 279 of 1936, creating State Athletic Commission. La. Document 733. Issued by Sect. of State, New Orleans. 1936.
First Lafitte pirogue races in 1936.
Source: Dept. of Commerce and Industry. Do You Know Louisiana? Louisiana Document 353. Published by Tourist Division. Rex Laney, ed. 1938, p. 293.
LSU becomes the first Louisiana team to be National Champions.
Source: Menke, Frank G. Encyclopedia of Sports. 2nd rev. ed. New York, A.S. Barnes and Co. 1960, p. 415.
First Season tickets for the New Orleans Saints are available for purchase.
Source: Times Picayune, August 22, 1967, s. 2 p. 9.
First Bayou Classic, the Grambling-Southern football game, is played.
Source: Grambling yearbook.
The Zephyrs play their first game on the newly constructed Zephyr field.
Source: New Orleans Zephyrs Inaugural Season Souvenir Program 1997.
The New Orleans Saints go to their first Superbowl and win against the Indianapolis Colts on February 7, 2010 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Source: World Champs: The Official Behind-the-Scenes Perspective of the Super Bowl XLIV Champion New Orleans Saints.