Around lunchtime on a recent December afternoon, dozens of inquiring spectators crowded into the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge to hear from one of the city’s newest powerbrokers.
Dr. William F. Tate IVPhoto courtesy of LSU
Some were naturally suspicious.
While they frequently saw Dr. William F. Tate IV on the local news and marveled at how he had successfully recruited Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to become Louisiana State University (LSU)’s head football coach earlier that month, they really didn’t know him.
“He seems like a really smart guy,” one lawyer quipped about Tate, as he picked over his chicken, rice pilaf and a tossed salad during the rotary meeting luncheon. “But more than anything, I’m here really to find out what he’s all about. We just don’t know him.”
In this city of about 750,000, the person who helms Louisiana State University is of importance to the locals, even those who have never attended the public-land grant university.
During football season, local enthusiasts eagerly crowd into Tiger Stadium — an arena that can hold 100,000 people — to cheer on LSU’s football team. Former basketball titan Shaquille O’Neal is an alumnus, as is Olympian hurdler and bobsledder Lola Jones. There’s little question that LSU sports is important to the fabric of the city that hugs the Mississippi River. But so too is academics and the nearly 35,000 students currently enrolled at the state’s flagship university.
