Every Saturday after Thanksgiving, Jaguars and Tigers take the field.
They are stronger, faster, louder. They move more gracefully, evade more effectively. Some wear capes. Others, armor. All arrive outfitted with their weapon of choice:
Tubas, footballs, and unitards, mostly. Trombones and cymbals, too.
These are the stars of the Bayou Classic. College athletes, musicians, dancers. Gods and goddesses of an earthbound sort.
The rivalry between the Southern University Jaguars and the Grambling State University Tigers started – officially, at least – in 1974. The two historically black colleges have been taking it out on the fifty-yard line ever since.
