Always known as a bastion of academic excellence, Tulane University did in fact play very good football quite some time ago. With its inaugural mission as a medical college and expansion as a comprehensive university community, Tulane has had a position of prestige dating to the mid-1800s. After the founding of its football program in 1893, they were fortunate to engage the services of two of the outstanding football minds of the Twentieth Century as they built a national reputation. Both College Football Hall Of Fame inductees, Clark Shaughnessy, “The Father Of The T-Formation” and Bernie Bierman who later won acclaim and five national championships as the head coach of the University Of Minnesota, planted the Green Wave of Tulane firmly on the football map between the pre-World War I and pre-World War II era. Tulane defeated Temple University in the 1935 inaugural Sugar Bowl match-up and enjoyed a reputation of excellence in the classroom and on the gridiron.

The post-World War II period, despite featuring stars like Max McGee, Richie Petitbon, and Tommy Mason, was not as kind and the program amassed but thirty-seven victories between 1952 and 1965 with the 1962 contingent getting washed out at 0-10. The proud Green Wave had been a part of the Southeastern Conference since its inception in 1933 but in the 1950s, was part of a group of private, academically oriented southern schools that considered the formation of a Magnolia Conference. Unable to keep up athletically with the large state supported universities of the vaunted SEC, and with much higher academic  standards, Tulane was all in for a conglomeration of Vanderbilt, Duke, SMU, and Rice with the intent to seek play with regional schools and the established northern Ivy League Conference. This never came to pass and the university realized it needed to leave the SEC, beginning Independent status prior to the 1966 season. The program began its foray as an Independent with new head football coach Jim Pittman, a former Mississippi State stand-out player and assistant coach who remained on Darrell Royal’s staffs at MSU, Washington, and Texas during the Longhorns’ superb years of the early 1960s. A great choice for Tulane, he utilized a newly instituted Physical Education major, a bit of admissions leniency, and excellent coaching and took them back to respectability. By 1970, the locally anointed “Year Of The Green,” he achieved an 8-4 mark and Liberty Bowl victory over Colorado, the Greenies first bowl appearance since 1939. Not surprisingly, he was courted by major schools, signed with Texas Christian University for the ’71 season, but tragically suffered a fatal heart attack on the sideline during the October 31^st game against Baylor. Tulane meanwhile called upon Bennie Ellender, its own former starting quarterback to maintain the level of improvement the squad had attained under Pittman. Ellender had been recruited as a multi-sport star by Tulane out of Sulphur, Louisiana and made his mark as a tailback and wingback on the 1943 and ’44 teams. He entered the United States Navy, serving part of his time on the submarine force, and returned to Tulane after the War, playing quarterback and safety in 1947, and starting at both positions in ’48.

As a successful high school coach in Westlake, Louisiana and at his Sulphur High School alma mater, he entered the college assistant ranks at Tulane and then Arkansas State. Named the head coach at ASU in 1963, his eight year tenure brought the Small College National Championship in 1970 with an 11-0 record, two Pecan Bowl titles, six national rankings, three Southland Conference Coach Of The Year Awards, and the College Division Coach Of The Year in 1970. A strong disciplinarian that was highly regarded, respected, and beloved by his players and assistants for his honesty and fairness, Ellender was a popular choice to take Tulane to stability at the much higher level of play that Pittman had established. He made a number of changes for 1971, installing a 5-2 Rover Defense in place of Pittman’s 4-4 and as many new coaches do, also altered the uniform with a new helmet design. For years Tulane had worn a white helmet shell with player identification numerals on both sides of the shell. For the 1970 season, Pittman had located the numerals beneath a “T” that was within a football shaped oval but many felt that the new decal was poorly visualized from the Tulane Stadium stands. Ellender introduced a one-inch green center stripe with a “Tulane representative T” on each side of their standard white shell which provided an immediately recognizable appearance. The green player identification numerals were moved to the rear of the shell, flanking the center stripe.