It made too much sense not to finally happen.
Louisiana College started playing football in 1908, a year after up the train tracks in Natchitoches, Louisiana Normal had kicked off the sport.
They teed it up in LC’s first year, and 58 times afterward, pausing for a couple years during World War II, until the Wildcats shut down the football program following the 1968 season.
Louisiana College, looking to bolster male enrollment figures, relaunched the sport almost three decades ago, competing in the NAIA ranks.
By then, Louisiana Normal had long since become Northwestern State University, had produced dozens of pro players including some of the NFL’s biggest stars, and was playing at the lower end of the NCAA’s Division I.
Almost 20 years ago, when Dennis Dunn was the Wildcats’ head coach, he let the right people at NSU know his team would love to head up Interstate 49 to play at Turpin Stadium. Of course, there was the matter of how much LC would be paid to make the visit – game guarantee fees are paid in non-conference games to the visiting team if the home team isn’t going to return the visit. Not really a big obstacle to making a deal with the Demons, but NSU wasn’t interested in taking on an NAIA opponent.
So Northwestern-LC football was a quaint memory. Meanwhile, there were occasional contests in every other sport the Wildcats played – nearly every one, except for a rare baseball game in Pineville, taking place in Natchitoches. That’s the way the college athletic world tilts – NCAA Division I teams host non-Division I foes.
Louisiana College rebranded as Louisiana Christian University a few years back, to the dismay of no small number of alumni, supporters and followers. That shift didn’t impact athletics other than ordering new uniforms.
The football program had flipped from the NAIA to NCAA Division III, and a few years ago, back to the NAIA again, even though the rest of LCU sports remains in D-3.
But Northwestern was still not open to reviving its football series with the Wildcats. Not even as their peers, first in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA) and more recently around the Demons’ Southland Conference neighborhood, began scheduling home games with NAIA and D-3 football teams.
Southland schools like Stephen F. Austin, Lamar and Houston Christian were playing guarantee games against teams that played LCU – North American and East Texas Baptist come to mind.
Two years ago, the Wildcats traveled to play at Houston Christian. Last fall, it was a shorter trip to Lake Charles for a game at McNeese.
LCU picked up a nice paycheck each time, and got to play in bigger stadiums with brighter lights. But there was still not interest from Northwestern – until recently.
The news popped out in December when LCU used social media platforms to trumpet a season-opening 2026 visit to Natchitoches. It became official a week ago when NSU announced its schedule.
Credit third-year Demons’ coach Blaine McCorkle – who rebuilt the program at a longtime LCU sports foe, Belhaven in Jackson, Miss., and is doing the same for Northwestern – for advocating games against LCU and other area small colleges. He knows the value from LCU’s perspective, and it goes beyond the $40,000 or so that NSU will pay. It’s about the experience, and exposure, that comes as part of the package.
He also knows the football game is much like the Demons’ 2027 visit to LSU – a game whose outcome is as predictable as humidity in August.
Doesn’t matter. It’s a win-win. Like the Demons and their fans will enjoy so much of their visit to Tiger Stadium, as they did going against Joe Burrow and company in 2019, and the Honey Badger and Les Miles a few years earlier – the Wildcats and everybody present will embrace the experience on Aug. 27, in Turpin Stadium.
And all who are there that Thursday evening will be home before midnight. Can’t say that about any other football game that Northwestern or LCU can play.
That makes it an occasion worth repeating frequently for years to come.
Maybe one time, LCU might even travel by train. Now THAT would be cool.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com