
Alvin Dark--three-sport superstar at LSU in the early 1940s who received a scholarship to play basketball and baseball, and then ended up trying out and making the football team as well. He lettered in all three sports, and on the football field he led the 1942 team in both rushing and passing yards and was also a heck of a punter. In the Tigers’ 21-7 homecoming victory over Ole Miss in 1942, Dark ran for touchdowns of 70 and 46 yards. However, according to his Louisiana Hall of Fame bio, his most vivid memories of that game were his four punts--a 75-yarder and three coffin corner kicks that pinned the Rebels inside their two-yard line.
Before one punt, Dark asked the referee where the ball would be placed if he hit the flag, and the official replied, “Right on the one-foot line.” Dark proceeded to hit the flag and later recounted that it was one of those things that couldn’t be repeated in two lifetimes of punting.
In 1943, Dark helped lead the LSU baseball team to an SEC title, but then, because of World War II, joined the Marine Corps’ V-12 program and was assigned to a unit at the Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette, where he continued to excel in baseball and also quarterbacked the football team to an undefeated season and a New Year’s Day Oil Bowl victory. After serving in Asia during the war, he returned home and chose to pursue a long and successful professional career in baseball, first as a player and then as a manager.

