LAKE CHARLES – It's been nine years since McNeese and Louisiana-Lafayette last played on the football field, and 30 years since one of the most storied and heated rivalries in all of college football came to a halt.
 
But all of that gets re-energized on Saturday when the Cowboys visit the Cajuns at 6 p.m. at Cajun Stadium in Lafayette. And despite every player on both teams weren't even born when the yearly series came to an end in 1986, there's enough "older" blue and gold along with vermilion and white blood in Lake Charles and Lafayette that remember the good ol days when the two teams battled it out.
 
"It's hard to explain how thoroughly we despised USL back in the 70s and 80s," said longtime McNeese fan and booster Chris Buchanan. "To this day, I won't wear red."
 
Thirteen times in the series a game was decided by a touchdown or less with two of those being tie ballgames but in the prime of the series, the 1970s and early 80s, that's when the most heated and memorable games occurred.
 
For example, in 1976 McNeese quarterback Jim Morvant scored from 1-yard out to lift the Cowboys to a 20-19 win in front of what is still a Cowboy Stadium record crowd of 27,500. That win not only gave McNeese its first of 14 Southland Conference record championships, it also locked it up for a spot in the very first Independence Bowl, which the Cowboys won 20-16 over Tulsa.
 
"That was one of the classics," said Buchanan of that 1976 game against the Cajuns. "The level of noise in Cowboys Stadium was unbelievable. I've been in stadiums with 90,000 fans and that didn't approach the bedlam in 'The Hole' that night."
 
Obviously one of the driving factors in the rivalry has to do with location. Only 70 miles separates the two schools therefore both are not only recruiting a lot of the same players, but also the same students.
 
"I was recruited by both schools," said former Cowboy player Butch Alsandor (1977-80). "My introduction to the rivalry was on my recruiting trip to McNeese in 1976. I got to Lake Charles late so I didn't see much of the campus. I remember standing on the sideline with the other recruits thinking to myself 'I won't be coming here' but once the game started the atmosphere in the stadium was electric.
 
"USL had a quarterback named Roy Henry. I remember because there weren't many African-American quarterbacks at that time. He was fantastic, moving his team up and down the field through the mud. But the Cowboys just played harder, coming up with big play after big play. It was a thriller."
 
The 1977 game was just as thrilling. McNeese tight end Alan Heisser caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Morvant with 19 seconds to play to tie the game at 9-9. McNeese's chance to win the game faltered when the extra point failed.
 
"My son was born well after the Cowboys and Cajuns quit playing football," said Buchanan. "But his freshman year at McNeese was in 2007 when the series restarted for one game. He was amazed at the level of venom at the game, and that he finally understood what I always said about missing the meanest rivalry of all." 
 
Saturday's game will be the 38^th meeting in the series that began back in 1951 and was played yearly through 1986. McNeese holds a 20-15-2 lead and beat the Cajuns 38-17 back in 2007 in front of 33,828 fans, the largest to witness a McNeese/ULL game. 
 
Kickoff is set for 6:04 at Cajun Field.