• The team returned 14 lettermen, the most in the Catholic league.
• Ten squadmen from 1960 along with Eddie Loustaunau, who missed the season because of injury, added to the depth. Another player expected to contribute was T Raymond Fink, a transfer from Holy Name of Mary.
• Taking a page from Army's playbook, the Saints would employ the "Lonely End" offense with Loustaunau taking the role of the "foreign Knight" just as Bill Carpenter played the flanker for Earl Blaik at West Point in 1958.
• Douglass: The "foreign Knight" is pretty similar to the lonesome end attack Army made popular. The "foreign Knight" is our version of that offense. On Loustaunau: This boy is an outstanding pass receiver ... we'll throw a lot to him and I know it's going to be hard for only one defensive man to cover him.
• Another good pass-grabber, Don Delatte, would play in the slot be­tween Loustaunau and the T. HB Eddie Desporte and FB Randy Oddo, a sprinter during track season, would be ready to run with the ball when the defense spreads. Oddo commented on the new offense: It's the best passing offense as it is hard to stop if you haven't seen it in action before.
• HB Hal Stump figured to play extensively at HB but he withdrew from the squad, as did FB Pete Milliet and lineman John McGregor. In addi­tion, HB John Giambelluca, one of the leading ground gainers in 1960, was no longer in school.

Aloysius and De La Salle were expected to fight it out for the district champ­ionship.

• Jesuit had graduated 21 lettermen, including the incomparable Pat Screen.
• The closest player to Screen for 1961 would be Cavalier junior RB Mal­colm "Butch" Coco.

A few minor rules changes would take effect.

• When ejecting a player for unsportsmanlike conduct, officials will tell him to leave and go over and inform the coach without making overt signals.
• When a player receiving a kickoff or free kick touches the ball and it goes out of bounds, the receiving team puts the ball in play at that spot. Pre­viously, the ball was put in play at the 40.
• A receiver making a fair catch need only raise his arm without having to wave his hand back and forth.
• No lime or caustic material of any kind may be used to mark the field.
• The rules committee recommended that face masks have multiple bars and that each player wear a fitted flexible mouthpiece. The latter will become mandatory in 1962.

• Babe Gendusa's Eagles deployed an all-lettermen backfield as well as five lettermen on the line. But only two more returning monogram win­ners backed up the starters.
• Burns would start for the Crimson while Jim Thriffiley replaced Desporte on offense. On defense, Jim served as the roving LB who always played the strong side.
• Defensively, Aloysius would make these changes:
  T Jeff Houin for G Arthur Caron;
  T John Gomila for G James Cash;
  T James Brennan for WR Loustaunau;
  E Billy Blanchard for Burns, and
  DB C. J. Hebert for Delatte.

• Octave Tournillion began his first season as head coach of the Tar­pons, replacing former Aloysius coach Roy Ary.
• The Aloysius-Fortier series had resumed in 1959, with the Saints out­scoring the Tarps 67-0 in the two games.
• Three backfield starters would miss the game for Aloysius. Also T Marty Gomila, injured against Easton, would miss the game, replaced by Mar­ty Rudolph.

• Second year Lumberjack coach Lewis Murray fielded one of the lightest and youngest teams in school history.
• The Jacks would be fired up to end their five-game losing streak to the Crusaders.

Aloysius headed southwest to Houma the following Friday.

• Terrebonne featured an excellent passing attack built around the arm of QB David Bourgeois.
• The Tigers would attempt to do something Bogalusa had been unable to do - end a losing streak to Aloysius, in this case, just two games.

The teams completed 23 passes between them, but 348y of total offense propelled the home team to victory.

Continuing their pre-district schedule, the Crusaders took on Behrman on the West Bank.

• The game marked the resumption of a series that had lain dormant for twenty years.
• John Brown's team had just lost a thrilling 28-25 battle to West Jeffer­son because of missed PATs.
• Victors over Fortier, the Bees posed a threat to the injury riddled Aloy­sians.
• The game was televised on channel 8 (public station WYES) with Mel Leavitt at the microphone - the first time a Crusader football game had ever been on live TV.

• The game marked the final tune-up for both sides before they began district play.
• The schools had met every season but one since the consolidated school in Metairie began in 1955, with the Crusaders victorious in all five outings.

• The Blue Jays had won the last three meetings between the long-time rivals after losing five of the previous six to the Crusaders. Not coinci­dentally, Superman, otherwise known as Pat Screen, had directed the attack those last three years. However, he now called signals for the LSU Freshman Team.
• Like Douglass's boys, Ken Tarzetti's troops had an open week to get ready.
• Both teams entered the fray with 4-2 records having played two com­mon opponents. Jesuit bested Terrebonne 14-6 while the Tigers up­ended the Knights 25-13. Both clubs downed Fortier, Aloysius by 26-0 and the Jays by 20-0.
• Sophomore Pete Schweigart took Screen's spot at QB in front of stal­wart FB Walt McCoy.

• Redemptorist boasted a 6-1 record, having lost only to Vigor of Mobile AL. But this would be the Rams' first Catholic league game.
• Aloysius had won the last three contests against the Irish Channel school, including two straight by 7-0.
• Joe Galliano's outfit boasted a solid defense that had yielded only 19 points against six local foes. Included was a 7-6 victory over Easton and a 31-0 shellacking of Fortier, the other common opponent with the Cru­saders.
• HB Paul Boudreaux ranked second in the league in rushing despite weighing a mere 135 lb. Hard-driving 204 lb FB Michael Maggio also stood in the Top Ten in yardage.
• Douglass: The Rams have the best team I have seen them have in my ten years of coaching and could be tough competition to De La Salle.

• In only his third season at the helm, Buck Seeber had made the Cava­liers the team to beat in the district. The Cavs had one league game under their belts, a victory over Holy Cross.
• Seeber boasted the state's top AAA scorer in QB John Anderson plus the city's leading ground gainer in HB Malcolm Coco. If that weren't bad enough, Earl Griffin ranked as the #2 pass receiver in New Orleans in terms of TDs (five) and yardage (231, just 5 short of Gunalda of Re­demptorist).
• Loustaunau ranked right behind Griffin in yardage but led the district with 14 receptions.
• De La Salle's one weakness seemed to be pass defense since they allowed the most aerial yardage of any team in the league (574y). On the other hand, the Cavs ranked first in rushing defense (445y).
• Unfortunately, despite Loustaunau's high ranking, passing was not the Crusaders' strong suit.

Wicker: Holy Cross' Tigers came up with another one of their Frank Merriwell finishes and scored with six seconds remaining to break a 7-7 deadlock and down a never-give-up fighting St. Aloysius Crusader eleven, 13-7 ...

• Q1: The Tigers took the opening kickoff and marched 64y, the last 8 of which Brousseau covered. DiBetta booted the conversion. After that, the Crusaders dominated the action until the final two minutes.
• Q2: Aloysius lost the ball on a fumble inches from the goal line.
• Q3: Thriffiley broke through and smeared Brousseau on the HC 9 when the QB was in punt formation. But Aloysius could gain only 5y and sur­rendered the ball on downs.
• Q4: The Saints finally scored at the end of a 42y drive. Burns plunged over from a half-yard out, and Callihan split the uprights to tie the game with 3:56 remaining. On the first series after the kickoff, Delatte recov­ered DiBetta's fumble on the HC 35. After the Knights gained a first down at the 24, Burns took to the air only to have DiBetta make amends for his miscue by intercepting at the 5 and returning it to the 24 with 2:02 on the clock. With a tie eliminating them from the district race, the Tigers hit the air waves. Four completions by Brousseau and one by DiBetta moved HC into position to win. Bobby Burrison made two beau­tiful catches, the first for 39y to the SA 21 and the second at the 2. Brousseau bucked over from there with 0:06 showing on the stadium clock.

The victory was the Tigers' second straight in the last minute after they scored on the last play to upend Redemptorist.

De La Salle defeated Easton 13-0 for the City Crown in what also served as a state semifinal game. The Cavs then lost to Istrouma 20-7 in the championship contest at City Park Stadium.

Item in Wicker's "What's What" column December 17:

There'll be no change in the head coaching job at St. Aloysius next fall. Lots of rumors have been circulated among members of the St. Aloysius Athletic Association and others connected with the Crusa­ders. But Brother Felician, C.S.C. [sic] of the local Sacred Heart Brothers school, informed this writer at one of the Knights basket­ball games during the past week that Andy Douglass would be back as head coach. He gave Douglass a vote of confidence.

Just one year after coaching Aloysius to the best gridiron season in school history, Andy had to endure calls for his ouster.

The Crusaders whiffed on the Times-Picayune All-Prep squad for 1961. Injuries prevented Oddo from repeating as a member.

A bright spot for 1961 was the performance of the junior varsity.

• The Baby Crusaders of new coach Don Perret captured the Catholic crown with a 3-0-1 record: Redemptorist 13-0, De La Salle 0-0, Jesuit 14-0, and Holy Cross 13-0.
• You will notice that the team didn't allow a point in any of the league games.
• HBs Richard Falati and Kenneth Nicolosi were the team's high scorers.

The Athletic Association sponsored the All-Sports Awards Banquet May 6 at Holsum Cafeteria. The football award winners for 1961 were:

• MVP: Don Delatte
• Sportsmanship: Bruce Bermudez
• Most Improved: Glenn Gray
• Most Conscientious: Robert Burns
• Outstanding Defensive Player: James Thriffiley
• Most Unheralded: William Blanchard

• The Foreign Knight offense proved to be a dud as Aloysius scored just 92 points in nine games. In league play, they tallied just 21 in four games with no more than seven in any game.
• The passing attack was inconsistent at best with eleven INTs, some of which came at crucial times deep in enemy territory. By his own admission, Burns didn't have a strong enough arm to zip passes to the lonesome end.
• Aloysius missed three offensive linemen lost to graduation. Compare the 1960 and 1961 averages for the games in which rushing statistics are available.
  1960: 157.7 yards per game on the ground
  1961: 101.25 yards per game
  
• Having one less coach with Ernie Smith concentrating on basketball had to affect the team's improvement during the course of the sea­son.
• We must also cite injuries as another factor in the disappointing campaign. In particular, Randy Oddo's presence for all ten games would have enhanced the running attack.

St. Aloysius would never win more than six games again in the seven remain­ing years of the school's existence.

1962 Season