At Quarterback Club, Menu Never Changes : Football: New Orleans lunch spot draws fans each fall who know they will always be served a little sympathy.

For 50 years Ben Weiner has known each autumn exactly where he’d be come lunchtime each Monday and exactly what would be on the menu.

“Football. It’s what we come for,” Weiner said as he lined up for the buffet at the New Orleans Quarterback Club. “I look forward to this every year.

“Where else can you go and find out what’s going on from team officials? Even if it’s a bad year, we get to find out why.”

Weiner concedes that members of the club have had more than their share of bad years. New Orleans is a town known for its love of football and its scarcity of winners. Weiner’s own team, Tulane, was 4-8 in 1989 and hasn’t finished better than 6-6 since 1981.

“We keep hoping for the best. Besides, if it’s a bad year you know you’ll get a little sympathy here. And when your team wins, there’ll be people here to congratulate you,” he said.

Founded in 1939 by Tulane, Louisiana State and Loyola fans, the club lost Loyola when that school dropped sports, but added the New Orleans Saints when General Manager Jim Finks agreed to be a regular guest.

Quarterback Club membership has gone up and down along with the teams’ fortunes, but has never dropped below 150, officials said.

“We’ve had as many as 500 members,” said George Kahlil, a member of the board of directors. “That was before Loyola dropped sports and when Tulane was more of a power. You’d be surprised, though. No matter how bad the teams are doing, you’ll find people at the Quarterback Club.”

LSU, a long-time Southeastern Conference powerhouse, went 4-7 last year, and is off to a 2-1 start this year.

“It’s not as much fun as when we’re winning,” said Dr. Abe Michaels, “but at least we can ask someone on the team what’s going on. We get to hear what the insiders have to say.”

Each week, Tulane Coach Greg Davis, Finks and a representative of LSU answer written questions.

Questions are asked by the very knowledgeable to inexperienced.

On Monday, a “Mrs. Shuster of the First Evangelical Church” sent Davis a list of questions, including asking who called the plays and when Tulane was going to do away with the zone defense.

“We’ve had people write poems for their teams. We’ve had people tell the coach to look for a new line of work,” Michaels, a former president of the club, said. “We don’t censor the questions. People can ask anything they want.”

Team loyalty still runs strong in the area, no matter what the records, according to Dave Dixon.

“Football fans can never get enough football talk,” he said. “They can come here and find others who want to talk about the same thing.”