48 Fun Facts About LSU

In which Louisiana city is LSU's main campus located?

LSU's main campus is in Baton Rouge, on a 650-acre plateau beside the Mississippi River just south of downtown; the school moved there in the 1920s from the old garrison grounds where the State Capitol was later built.

Which LSU quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2023?

Jayden Daniels won the 2023 Heisman Trophy, throwing 40 touchdown passes and rushing for 1,134 yards in his second season at LSU after transferring from Arizona State.

What is the nickname of LSU's Tiger Stadium?

Tiger Stadium's nickname is Death Valley. Bear Bryant called Baton Rouge 'the worst place in the world for a visiting team,' saying it was 'like being inside a drum.'

How many football national championships does LSU claim?

LSU claims four national championships, from 1958, 2003, 2007 and 2019; the 2007 team was the first two-loss team to win the BCS title.

Which LSU quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2019?

Joe Burrow won the 2019 Heisman Trophy and then led LSU to a 15-0 season, beating Clemson 42-25 in the national championship game.

Who was LSU's first Heisman Trophy winner, in 1959?

Billy Cannon won the 1959 Heisman Trophy, the same autumn his 89-yard punt return on Halloween night beat No. 3 Ole Miss 7-3 in Tiger Stadium.

How many College World Series titles had LSU baseball won through the 2025 season?

LSU had won eight College World Series titles through 2025: 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2023 and 2025. The first two ended with wins over Wichita State.

Which Civil War general served as the school's first superintendent when it opened in 1860?

William Tecumseh Sherman, the seminary's first superintendent, resigned in early 1861 as Louisiana left the Union; he later gave LSU two cannons that had been fired on Fort Sumter.

According to legend, why did LSU end up with purple and gold as its colors in 1893?

The first team wore makeshift uniforms with purple and gold ribbons for a 34-0 loss to Tulane in New Orleans, the only game LSU played that year.

What is the seating capacity of Tiger Stadium?

Tiger Stadium's official capacity is 102,321, reached when the 2014 south end-zone expansion added nearly 10,000 seats to the previous 92,542.

Which coach led LSU to its 2003 national championship before leaving for the Miami Dolphins?

Nick Saban, hired from Michigan State in late 1999, won the 2003 BCS title with a 21-14 Sugar Bowl win over Oklahoma, then left for the Miami Dolphins after the 2004 season.

Which coach's second-string 1958 defensive unit was nicknamed the 'Chinese Bandits'?

Paul Dietzel's three-platoon system rotated whole units: the White Team, the Go Team and the Chinese Bandits, whose third-down stops helped LSU go 11-0 and win the 1958 national title.

The 1988 LSU-Auburn 'Earthquake Game' got its nickname because the crowd's roar registered on what?

The demonstration seismograph sat about 1,000 feet from the stadium in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex and was there for school groups. The winning play was a Tommy Hodson touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller.

The 2002 'Bluegrass Miracle' was a last-second LSU touchdown against which team?

Marcus Randall's heave was tipped by a Kentucky player into the hands of Devery Henderson, who scored as time expired. Kentucky's players had already doused their coach with Gatorade.

Which LSU guard averaged 44.2 points a game over three varsity seasons from 1967 to 1970?

Pete Maravich scored 3,667 points at LSU from 1967 to 1970, averaging 44.2 a game with no three-point line or shot clock; his men's record stood when Caitlin Clark passed the overall mark in 2024.

LSU's 2023 women's basketball national title came with a 102-85 win over which team?

LSU beat Iowa 102-85 in the 2023 final, the highest-scoring championship game in tournament history to that point; Angel Reese was named Most Outstanding Player.

Who coached LSU's women's basketball team to that 2023 national championship?

Kim Mulkey, hired from Baylor in 2021, won the 2023 title in her second LSU season, becoming the first women's Division I head coach to win national championships at two schools.

In which year did LSU's women's gymnastics team win its first national championship?

LSU gymnastics won its first national championship in 2024 under coach Jay Clark, edging California, Utah and Florida in the final; Haleigh Bryant also won the all-around title that year.

Whose walk-off home run beat Miami 9-8 in the 1996 College World Series final?

With two outs and LSU trailing 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Morris swung at the first pitch and lined the ball inches over the right-field fence.

Which coach won five national titles with LSU baseball between 1991 and 2000?

Skip Bertman, hired away from Miami before the 1984 season, won five College World Series titles (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and later served as LSU's athletic director from 2001 to 2008.

Where does LSU play its home baseball games?

Alex Box Stadium is named for Simeon Alex Box, a 1942 LSU letterman and Distinguished Service Cross recipient killed in North Africa in 1943; the ballpark that replaced the original opened in 2009.

In 2023, which two LSU teammates became the first pair from one school to go 1-2 in the MLB draft?

Skenes, a transfer from Air Force, went first to Pittsburgh and Crews second to Washington, weeks after they had won the College World Series together.

Which pitcher was the first LSU player taken first overall in the MLB draft, in 1989?

Ben McDonald, the 1989 Golden Spikes Award winner, went first overall to the Baltimore Orioles; he had pitched for the gold-medal US team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics the year before.

Which opponent did LSU beat 56-0 in its first game outside the United States, in 1907?

LSU beat the University of Havana 56-0 on Christmas Day 1907 in Havana, Cuba, in a game later remembered as the first Bacardi Bowl.

How was the first Mike the Tiger paid for in 1936?

The $750 raised bought a tiger originally named Sheik from the Little Rock Zoo. He was renamed for athletic trainer Mike Chambers, and handlers found he would still roar when someone called 'Sheik!'

Which rival school's fans kidnapped Mike I in the 1950s and returned him sprayed green?

He and his cage were found in New Orleans painted Tulane green before the game. The LSU-Tulane series was the program's defining rivalry for most of the 20th century.

What happened on the morning of November 28, 1981, involving Mike IV?

Mike IV escaped early on November 28, 1981, after pranksters cut the locks on his cage; he roamed for hours and was cornered in the track stadium before three tranquilizer darts brought him home.

By legend, what did Huey Long have built inside Tiger Stadium in 1936 to fund seats through the back door?

Huey Long had dormitories built beneath new stands in 1936, so money earmarked for student housing paid for the seats above them; the expansion raised Tiger Stadium's capacity to about 46,000.

How many seats did Tiger Stadium have when it opened in 1924?

Tiger Stadium opened in 1924 with 12,000 seats in two sideline grandstands; it grew to a 67,720-seat bowl when the south end zone was enclosed in 1953.

Which Garth Brooks song is played at every LSU home football game?

'Callin' Baton Rouge,' written by Dennis Linde and first recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys in 1978, became a Tiger Stadium singalong after Garth Brooks's 1993 version.

The 'Geaux' in 'Geaux Tigers' comes from a spelling common in what?

'Geaux' borrows the -eaux ending of Cajun French surnames such as Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, so it is pronounced 'go.'

Which LSU big man was twice SEC Player of the Year and a first-team All-American before becoming an NBA legend?

Shaquille O'Neal was SEC Player of the Year in 1991 and 1992 and a consensus first-team All-American in 1991 before going first overall to Orlando in the 1992 NBA draft.

What is the name of the arena where LSU plays basketball and gymnastics?

The Pete Maravich Assembly Center, opened in 1972 and nicknamed the 'Deaf Dome,' was renamed for the LSU star after his death in 1988; it served as a field hospital after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Which LSU running back set the school's single-season rushing record with 1,953 yards in 2015?

Leonard Fournette ran for 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2015, breaking Charles Alexander's 1977 LSU single-season record, before going fourth overall to Jacksonville in the 2017 NFL draft.

Which professor, known for his research on sugar, organized LSU's first football team?

Coates, a chemistry professor who had played at Johns Hopkins, coached only that single game. The chemistry building on campus bears his name.

LSU's 'Tigers' nickname, adopted in 1896, was reputedly taken from what?

The 1896 squad, LSU's first to be called the Tigers, went undefeated and won the school's first conference championship in the SIAA.

LSU's 2019 championship team was known for which two 1,000-yard wide receivers?

Ja'Marr Chase (1,780 yards) and Justin Jefferson (1,540) both topped 1,000 receiving yards for the 2019 champions; Chase won the Biletnikoff Award and both became first-round NFL picks.

How many touchdown passes did LSU's 2019 Heisman-winning quarterback throw that season?

LSU's 2019 quarterback threw 60 touchdown passes, breaking Colt Brennan's FBS single-season record of 58, with 5,671 passing yards over the Tigers' 15-0 season.

Which coach was hired from Oklahoma State in January 2005 and won LSU's 2007 national title?

Les Miles, hired from Oklahoma State in January 2005, won the 2007 BCS title by beating Ohio State 38-24 in the Superdome; Hurricane Katrina had forced a 2005 home game to Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium.

Under what name was LSU founded in 1860 near Pineville?

LSU opened in 1860 near Pineville as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy; it took the Louisiana State University name in 1870 and absorbed the state's A&M college in 1877.

Roughly how many live oak trees shade the LSU campus?

LSU's campus has roughly 1,200 live oak trees, many of them planted under landscape architect Steele Burden beginning in the 1930s.

A 2022 study dated the older of LSU's two campus mounds to roughly what age?

An LSU-led study published in 2022 dated the older campus mound to about 11,000 years, which its authors said made the pair the oldest known human-made structures in the Americas.

Which LSU president, appointed by Huey Long, was charged in 1939 with embezzling half a million dollars?

James Monroe Smith, LSU's president since 1930, fled in June 1939 after embezzling about $500,000 of university funds; the wider scandals also sent Governor Richard Leche to federal prison.

Which of LSU's live tigers reigned for 18 years after arriving from Seattle just before the 1958 title season?

Mike III came from Seattle in 1958 and reigned until his death in 1976; LSU won the 1958 national title in his first season and SEC championships in 1958, 1961 and 1970 during his 18 years.

What is the name of LSU's student newspaper, in print since 1887?

The Reveille has been LSU's student newspaper since 1887; in 1934 seven student journalists, the 'Reveille Seven,' were expelled after clashing with Huey Long over a censored letter.

LSU's main campus buildings are built in the style of which Italian Renaissance architect?

Architect Theodore Link's 1920s campus plan borrowed the style of Andrea Palladio, the 16th-century Venetian master, giving LSU's core buildings stucco walls, arched loggias and red Ludowici tile roofs.

Which Oscar-winning actress majored in drama at LSU?

Joanne Woodward studied drama at LSU before moving to New York; she won the 1957 Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve.

Because of its military-academy origins, LSU is nicknamed what?

LSU is nicknamed 'The Ole War Skule' because it opened in 1860 as a military academy whose students drilled as cadets and whose early leaders were titled superintendents.