History Class: Edgar Wingard Era (1907-09)

LSU University Archives Print Materials CollectionDoc Fenton, Edgar Wingard, and W Hillman; excerpt from Arkansas vs. Louisiana 1908 football program“I saw Jim Thorpe, but Doc Fenton was better.” – Troy Middleton

LSU fired coach Dan Killian after a dismal 1906 season. It’s not that the team was terrible, LSU was a respectable 2-2-2, but the style of play was dreadful. Still trapped in the thrall of the flying wedge which had killed 20 people in 1905, LSU won by scores of 5-0 and 17-0 and the two ties? Both scoreless draws.

Change came in the form of Edgar Wingard, a “notorious hell raiser”, who quickly installed a fast-paced offense which relied on deception, speed, and the newly invented…