For decades, from the late 1930s through 1987, Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State met annually on the neutral turf of State Fair Stadium in Shreveport, now called Independence Stadium. With the game folded into the larger spectacle of the State Fair of Louisiana.
There was the crowded midway with rides and exhibits, stock-car races at the racetrack, corn dogs and cotton candy, and the livestock barns parked right next to the football stadium. There were fireworks by the end zone before kickoff, and a flag called “The Rag” that went home with the winner. A smaller scale Red River Shootout Showdown, but actually on the Red River.
The series between the two programs went as far back as 1907, when they were still “Louisiana Industrial” and “Louisiana State Normal” and the Bulldogs won the first meeting 43-4. But the series’ beating heart was those State Fair games, and the best of them happened on October 19, 1968.
It was the era of Terry Bradshaw at Louisiana Tech, but on that October evening in Shreveport, the Blonde Bomber had gone much of the game looking like anything but a future #1 overall pick.
Northwestern State came into the 1968 meeting riding a two-game winning streak in the rivalry and looking for something that had happened only once before: three straight wins over Tech. Their 1966 team, one of the best in Demon history, had gone undefeated and thumped the Bulldogs 28-7. In 1967 they’d won a dull one, 7-0.
Tech, meanwhile, arrived at State Fair Stadium (possibly via Sky-Lift) in 1968 at 2-2 on the year, having opened with a signature win at Mississippi State but losses to McNeese State and Southwestern (now Louisiana-Lafayette).
For a half, it looked like a third straight victory was in the cards for the Demons. Tech scored first to go up 7-0, but after a Northwestern State safety, the Demons returned the ensuing free kick for a touchdown. Bradshaw was 2-for-12 through the air. But while NSU’s Don Guidry wasn’t much better (3-for-14), he did throw two first-half touchdown passes allowing the Demons to carry a 19-7 lead into halftime.
Then the second half turned into a track meet. Both offenses suddenly couldn’t be stopped. Tech ran off 404 of its 523 total yards after halftime and Northwestern piled up 373 of its own. Tech scored the first two touchdowns of the third quarter to grab a 21-19 lead, and from there the thing seesawed with five lead changes in all.
It became the wildest, highest-scoring State Fair Game the rivalry ever produced. 81 total points in a game is almost routine now. But in 1968, it was almost incomprehensible.
But it wasn’t just the large numbers on the scoreboard that made this an all-timer. Northwestern State led 39-35 with the ball and the clock inside the final minute needing a single first down to effectively end the game. But Tech caught a break: on a third-down run that looked like the clinching first down, an NSU back was flagged for aiding the runner, forcing the Demons to punt instead. The kick was fair-caught at the Tech 18 with 25 seconds still remaining on the game clock. Across the field, the NSU crowd was unphased by Tech’s small sliver of hope, already chanting “We wrecked Tech.”
The Shreveport Times, looking back years later, described the Tech goalposts as “a gallows” and Bradshaw as a man standing on the trapdoor. Bulldog fans were streaming out toward the midway and the parking lot, either trying to beat the traffic or drown their sorrows in funnel cakes.
But 25 seconds is more than zero.
Northwestern State, for some unknown reason, was only in a partial prevent, with its defensive backs playing close to the line of scrimmage. Bradshaw stepped up into a clean pocket and let fly one of his signature high, whip-armed throws, about 45 yards in the air. Demon safety Kenny Hrapmann, who’d already intercepted Bradshaw once that night, broke on the ball and went for the pick.
He missed.
Bulldog receiver Ken Liberto gathered it in just across midfield in full stride, and now he was just about gone. Only a single Demon had an angle: the linebacker Dick Concilio, chasing from behind. Concilio threw himself at Liberto’s feet around the NSU 20 and made contact. But all he was able to bring to the ground was a single shoe off Liberto’s foot.
Louisiana Tech only needed 12 of the 25 seconds allotted for the 82-yard pass play to give the Bulldogs the 42-39 lead that would be the final score.
There was bedlam on the Tech sideline. The story goes that Tech president F. Jay Taylor vaulted the railing of his box seat and led an impromptu band concert. The funnel cakes outside could now be eaten out of joy instead of sorrow.
And this game was truly a turning point for both Bradshaw and the Bulldogs. Tech won out the rest of 1968 in dominant fashion and reeled off 11 straight wins overall, launching a run that made the Bulldogs a small-college power for the next decade. The run solidified the second-year Maxie Lambright as a true successor for Joe Aillet. And Bradshaw (though not without some hiccups), as we know would become the #1 overall pick in the NFL Draft and go on to win four Super Bowls in Pittsburgh. He threw 251 touchdown passes as a pro. But perhaps none of them topped this one he threw to Liberto.
The series never quite matched that evening, though it kept producing tight ones including a 5-0 rock fight in 1984 and a 13-13 tie in 1986. Then in 1987, Tech shut out the Demons 23-0 in what turned out to be the final State Fair Game. The Bulldogs were moving up to Division I-A (now FBS), the Demons were staying in I-AA (now FCS), and the annual Shreveport tradition quietly ended after decades. They’ve met only a handful of times since, including which considering the cursed 2014 game, may be for the best
For Saturday’s meeting, there’s no State Fair, no midway, and no Rag to play for. Just the Demons coming to play a buy game at Joe Aillet Stadium.
And Terry Bradshaw won’t be suiting up for the Bulldogs. Neither will Ken Liberto. But if Tech ever finds itself down four with the clock inside 25 seconds and 82 yards to go, well, there’s precedent. Even if it’s not the kind of precedent you hope to need to lean on when facing a Northwestern State team coming off a different kind of historic loss.