Hitler, not Hussein, was the world's recently deceased despot.
TV was a novelty, not a necessity. Families gathered around the radio in the evenings.
People wrote letters. They grew their own vegetables behind the house in a garden. Not every home had a telephone. Water came from a well, not in a plastic bottle.
It was 1948, not 2008.
And Monday, Jack Huckaby wanted to be sure we knew that Coach Harry Turpin's 1948 Northwestern State College Demons didn't tie Louisiana College 13-13 as he saw listed in the game program at Saturday night's football game -- played in Turpin Stadium at NSU.
Nor did they finish their 1949 battle against the neighboring Wildcats knotted at 7-7, he added, proudly.
"I had to fight too hard in those games to have them go down as ties," he laughed. "We won those suckers. I want to get this fixed before I'm gone."
He understood that somehow, typographic errors happen. He had a 1985 Demon football media guide with the right score. Somewhere along the way, with computers and typesetters and dozens of different editors, scores which were once correct got twisted around.
"Hey, that was some kind of tough. That little ole Baptist school had some rough customers playing down there," said Huckaby, who was an offensive tackle and nose guard for the Demons.
"I had to deal with the Rudd brothers from over in east Texas in those two games, and I want credit for beating those guys," he said.
The Demons prevailed 13-0 in 1948, and 7-6 a year later.
Huckaby also expressed pride in the three-man coaching staff he played under -- Turpin and his assistant coaches, Walter Ledet and Alvin "Cracker" Brown.
"We didn't have 13 guys coaching us like they do nowadays," he said. "Those fellows did a lot for us. I guess we only had about 40 players at best, 33 one of my years, but our coaches were just great."
He was surprised to learn that today's football staff members -- not all of the 13 folks pictured in the game program fit into the "coach" job title -- are working 12-15 hour days throughout the season.
"It's a whole different world, a whole different game," he said. "I had no idea they put in those kind of hours."
He said one thing hasn't changed in 60 years.
"Our boys play hard," he said. "We did, too. We loved it so."
Doug Ireland, SID
(A reminder - if you see something that needs corrected in an NSU athletic publication, call us at 318-357-6467 or e-mail me at ireland@nsula.edu ... in this case, we will make the correction right away, but it won't show up until next year's media guide is printed. Many of the pages in the game program are printed in bulk before the season begins, including the school records pages.)
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