Published: June 01, 2023
By: Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) — He paced the Tiger Stadium sidelines, gave rousing locker room speeches and traveled with the football team. But this unofficial coach could not leave Louisiana without temporarily giving up his gubernatorial powers.
In a new book, “Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU,” LSU professor Robert “Bob” Mann documents the intense relationship between former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long and the university he helped build into its modern form.
An unofficial football coach, Long also acted as the university’s de facto co-president and a member of the LSU Board of Supervisors. Though he never attended LSU, and was once its opponent, Long set the university on a new path to national recognition.
Long helped expand the campus and bolster enrollment, increasing state funding for the university and opening its doors to students from more economic backgrounds. (Though, at the time, still only those who were white.)
Read more at KLFY
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 