Archive | Historical RSS feed for this section

All-American Jimmy Taylor on Football

Whole Foods at Towne Center is the closest thing Baton Rouge has to Main Street.  If you go to the coffee shop and sit long enough, you will see just about everyone you know or want to know.  One day last month, I was having coffee when I saw former Baton Rouge High, LSU, and […]

Read more

50 Years Ago: North Baton Rouge Journal — Predecessor of Capital City News

BATON ROUGE — In July 1966, I was a 19-year-old student at the LSU School of Journalism. For the past two years, I had the privilege of having worked as a newsman and disc jockey at WLCS, the No. 1 radio station in Baton Rouge and then as a television announcer and newsman at the […]

Read more
Was Istrouma’s 1955 Team Greatest Ever?

Was Istrouma’s 1955 Team Greatest Ever?

Was the 1955 Istrouma High football team the greatest in Louisiana history?  As long as football is played in this state, that will be debated. Louisiana has only had one Heisman Trophy winner — Billy Cannon — and he starred on the 1955 team, which went undefeated and won the State Championship. 2015 is the […]

Read more

Helen Fairchild Celebrates 100th Birthday

This interview was conducted at the home of Mrs. Helen Fairchild across from Greenwell Springs Baptist Church.  She is in good health but has to use a walker to get around. Question: What was life like growing up in the early part of the 20th century? Miss Helen: My father was born in 1861 while […]

Read more
Istrouma’s Nawaganti Returns to Public View

Istrouma’s Nawaganti Returns to Public View

Just as East Baton Rouge Parish School Supt. Warren Drake has promised to re-open historic Istrouma High School on Winbourne Avenue, the school’s mascot, Chief Nawaganti has been given new life. The Istrouma High Class of 1964, which donated a statue of Nawaganti to the school, retrieved the chief from the vacant building and gave […]

Read more
Foundation for Historic Louisiana Recallsthe Battle of Baton Rouge on Aug. 5, 1862

Foundation for Historic Louisiana Recallsthe Battle of Baton Rouge on Aug. 5, 1862

Baton Rougeans often forget that the older parts of their city were a Civil War battlefield.  The Battle of Baton Rouge, which was fought on Aug. 5, 1862 left 48 Union and 48 Confederate soldiers dead. Some of the most intense fighting occurred on the grounds of the Historic Magnolia Cemetery at the corner of […]

Read more