Gateway

Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

An unidentified man stands in front of a destroyed home in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, Sept. 2, at the scene where two people were killed when a tree crashed through the home they were visiting as Hurricane Gustav moved through the city. (Tom Pennington/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT) [Click to enlarge]

BATON ROUGE, La. (UWIRE) - LSU senior defensive tackle Marlon Favorite said he has "vivid memories" following Hurricane Katrina.

He recalled one man in particular, whom he described as "scratched up from the storm" after losing his house.

"He almost didn't make it out," Favorite said. "I remember he had on an LSU T-shirt. He was like 'Go Tigers.' I remember seeing him, and that made me really think, 'Man, let's do this for the state.' There [are] a lot of people who lost everything but still have faith in this program."

Favorite is one of 22 LSU football players who were on the team when Katrina hit three years ago.

Five of those players are from the Greater New Orleans area.

Favorite, a Harvey, La., native, called Katrina an "extremely emotional event" that became a learning experience for the team.

"It made us work harder because not only were we playing for ourselves, we were playing for ... Louisiana," he said. "A lot of people had lost a lot of things during that event. … We know a lot of people that were LSU fans were just really leaning on us to keep the state up."

Football players, along with many other LSU athletes, helped evacuees that came to the LSU campus, moving supplies and patients as they packed into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Sophomore safety Chad Jones was not on the team in 2005 but attended St. Augustine High School in New Orleans when Katrina hit.

Jones, a 2007 graduate of Southern Lab in Baton Rouge, said he remembers when he first heard he needed to evacuate.

He said his team's jamboree was canceled the day of the game.

Continued...

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