New LSU nonfiction: Huey Long coached football, led the band, wrote fight song

Louisiana history buffs and LSU fans, need a Father’s Day or graduation gift? Have I got a rollicking recommendation for you, a new nonfiction book that shows how much the beloved university owes to larger-than-life Louisiana governor and U.S Sen. Huey P. Long.

“Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU,” by political author Robert Mann, is filled with little-known facts about how Long devoted his last years to turning a small, undistinguished state school into an academic and football powerhouse and helped make LSU synonymous with Louisiana. Under Long’s leadership, the school’s budget mushroomed, its physical plant burgeoned, its faculty flourished and its enrollment tripled—with a focus on football and a flashy band.

In “Kingfish U,” published in hardback by LSU Press, we learn that from 1931 through September 1935, Long was basically the president of the school — and the de facto football coach. He hired and fired several band directors and football coaches. He operated as an assistant football coach. He attended team practices. He prowled the sidelines during games. He devised plays. He poured money into a larger band, which he sometimes led himself, supervised the hiring of two directors and even co-wrote the fight song “Touchdown for LSU,” still played at games.

Political consultant James Carville, who grew up in Louisiana and is an LSU grad, “often says that no state university is more important to the cultural and economic life of a state than LSU,” Mann says. “I once wondered if that was really true. Now, I believe it. And I think Long’s incredible influence on the school was responsible for this.”

A professor and the birth of a book idea

In February 2020, a friend asked Mann if he knew how Huey Long, a former Shreveport resident, recruited LSU’s drum majors. Mann says he vaguely recalled something about it from “Huey Long,” T. Harry Williams’ famous biography, so he re-read a short chapter on Long and LSU and was “gobsmacked.” “And I knew at once what I’d be doing for the next three years. I never regretted taking on the project. It’s been the most interesting and fun book I’ve ever written.”

While Long rarely meddled in academic affairs, he insisted that no faculty member criticize him publicly. Ironically, Mann, who praises his students in the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU, is vocal about what he describes as the “embarrassing disrepair” of the school’s library and other facilities. He believes Long would wonder why legislators don’t take better care of “his university.”

Did writing the book shift Mann’s angst about modern-day LSU? “This book helped me resolve some of that. As I wrote in the book, I have always bemoaned the undue influence of sports on this campus, especially in relation to academics. What this book taught me is that Long recognized that one way to bring attention and funding to the university was to raise the profile of the football team.”

Other results of Long’s reign

“Long’s support for LSU did not come without consequences,” Mann says. “His unrelenting involvement almost cost the university its accreditation. And after his death, several of his allies—including his handpicked university president, James Monroe Smith—went to prison in a scandal that almost destroyed LSU.”

More about the author

Mann, a member of the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame, worked as a senior aide to Huey Long’s son, U.S. Sen. Russell Long, and wrote his biography, “Legacy to Power.” “I spent many dozens of hours talking with Russell Long about his father. This felt like I was returning to spend time with an old acquaintance.” He has also written political histories of the U.S. civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, American wartime dissent, Ronald Reagan and the 1964 presidential election. Mann’s next project is a nonfiction book about the late Gov. Jimmie Davis, another former Shreveporter, and his iconic song, “You Are My Sunshine.”

Local writer offers perspective on war in Ukraine

Lindsay Blessing moved to Ukraine at the age of 11 as a missionary kid with her parents and two sisters. She ended up spending 24 years of her life there and now lives in Shreveport, where she works with children and speaks on Ukraine whenever she has the opportunity.

At 6:30 p.m. June 1 at Rhino Coffee, 721 Southfield Road, Blessing will launch “Lives Interrupted: 365 Days of Russia’s War on Ukraine Through The Eyes of Missionaries,” her new book about Russia’s war on Ukraine. The book—with contributions from her parents, Rhonda and Mark Blessing—offers an inside look at the experiences, thoughts and emotions of long-time missionaries and explores how this war affects the entire world. Woven throughout is a focus on faith in Christ.

“As one who has a deep connection to Ukraine, I hate what they are experiencing through Russia’s war on their nation,” she said. Her book tells stories of displaced Ukrainians, Ukrainian soldiers and international volunteers with portrayals “of what it felt like in the moment to have missiles hitting your city.” “Lives Interrupted” is available in paperback and as an e-book through Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and Westbow Press.

Columnist Judy Christie is the author of 18 books, including the fictional “Gone to Green” series and the nonfiction “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society.” Co-authored with Lisa Wingate, it is the true sequel to Wingate’s bestselling novel “Before We Were Yours.” For more about Christie, see www.judychristie.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: New LSU nonfiction: Huey Long coached football, led the band, wrote fight song