LOYOLA, THEY STAND BAYOU : From L.A. to La., the Lions Have Scored Big Points With the Fans in Baton Rouge

It has taken awhile, but the Loyola Marymount basketball team has finally created a loyal following--in Baton Rouge, La.

Between bites of jambalaya, crawfish pie and file gumbo, some folks down on the bayou have adopted Loyola as their Cinderella team for the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament. Sonnuva gun, gonna have big fun.

The blossoming relationship is the result of a sports-talk show on radio station WIBR in Baton Rouge. Host Bob Brodhead began to notice Loyola’s high-scoring totals and recent top 20 ratings. He was aware that nobody in the South knew much about Loyola, so he called Loyola sports publicist Barry Zepel a few weeks ago.

The next thing anyone knew, Zepel and forward Mark Armstrong were doing live interviews on the 4-to-6 p.m. show, and Baton Rouge had taken to this group of non-Cajun cagers.

“I had been watching this team, and got interested,” Brodhead said from Baton Rouge. “My daughter, Mindy, who produces the show, said, ‘Let’s get in touch with them.’

“It’s been a lot of fun. The U.S. loves a Cinderella. Everybody loves an underdog. We talked to Mark Armstrong, and we started getting a lot of calls. Then we got a chance to see them play on ESPN Monday. We told people there would be a pop quiz on Tuesday, and we got a lot of calls. They all knew what the score was.”

Brodhead is a former athletic director at Louisiana State, so he was aware of Loyola from the 1986 College World Series, when both LSU and LMU were involved. But his daughter said her interest was less educated.

“It was just a matter of seeing the box scores, this team nobody ever heard of scoring 120, 130, 140 points,” she said. “Then we heard Paul Westhead was the coach there, so we got more interested. When they scored 80 points in a half, we said, ‘We’ve got to get in touch with them.’ It’s an emotional thing. It’s fun to get caught up in a team that puts the ball up every seven seconds, and see if they’re going to get their 110.7 points.”

The Brodheads said that a following of several hundred fans has developed.

“It’s probably the biggest (Loyola) fan club outside L.A.,” Bob Brodhead said.

And maybe inside L.A., as well.

Mindy Brodhead took time from a crawfish bake Saturday to call the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate for a score from the West Coast Athletic Conference tournament. The sportswriter who answered asked her, “What’s with this Loyola Marymount? We’re getting calls from all over for scores.”

Mindy said: “We’ve got a little cult that’s taken with this team. We really love ‘em. We can’t wait for the NCAAs to start. We kind of hyped it as an Everyman’s hard-working team.”

The Brodheads and others at the station regularly don Loyola sweatshirts, and may offer the Lions more than just moral support. Bob said: “We’re gonna get a voodoo in the swamp and send it to the team.”

For opponents it could be Goodby, Joe, me gotta go. Me-o-my-o.