It’s quite fitting UL will be unveiling the new Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday with the Rice Owls as the opponent.
In 1982, the Ragin’ Cajuns decided to leave the Southland Conference, which opted for Division I-AA status.
So the Cajuns’ season opener at Rice was the program's first game as a Division I-A independent.
It was also the football world’s introduction to wide receiver Clarence Verdin.
The former walk-on from South Terrebonne returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to ignite a 21-14 road win over the Southwest Conference opponent.
“I’ll never forget it,” Verdin said.
Instead of staying in the Southland Conference, the program had chosen an uncertain future and no one knew what to expect.
“Everybody was excited about us stepping up and playing a pretty good team in Rice,” Verdin remembered. “People were saying, ‘Just keep it close. Don’t go out there and embarrass us, just keep it close.’ I was like, ‘Man, you must be out of our mind. This is showtime … and we went out there and performed.’”
That’s the goal for the 2025 Cajuns, who will christen the new stadium Saturday with hopes of making a statement as well.
Prior to that memorable kickoff return, no one knew of Verdin’s speed, dynamic personality or professional football potential until that fateful night.
The Cajuns suffered through a 1-9-1 season with a run-first offense in 1981 with Verdin catching four passes for 42 yards.
During the offseason, coach Sam Robertson brought offensive coordinator Lynn Amedee to town from Tennessee. They called the new offense ‘Air Amedee’ and the result was a much more explosive offense that illustrated the talents of Verdin and quarterback Dwight Prudhomme.
“When he (Amedee) came in, I think everybody knew things were going to be different offensively,” Prudhomme said. “Our defense was playing solid ball, but we had a new lease on life offensively.”
Prudhomme split time with dual threat Donnie Wallace at quarterback. In the matchup against Rice, Wallace played most of the game, securing the win with a 8-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
Verdin added a 21-yard TD reception on a screen. Defensively, Fred Dejean’s stop on fourth-and-1 from the then-USL 21 and a Chris Jacobs interception iced the win.
“That game set the standard for an exciting year offensively,” Prudhomme said. “We had bigger wins later that season against Northeast and Tech, but Rice set the mood for the season.”
Prudhomme was one glad to see Verdin finally be able to show his talents. Listed as 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, Verdin also had a 42-yard kickoff return to set up a scoring drive for the Cajuns in the win.
“That was a great game for him,” Prudhomme said of Verdin. “I’ll never forget that opening kickoff.”
Verdin credits then-special teams coach Brad Roll for inspiring the unit.
"Coach Roll was so hyped," Verdin said. "I never saw a special teams coach like that in my career in the NFL. He made you believe you were the best in the country."
These days, Verdin knows how important that game and that 1982 season was to his 11-year professional football career.
“Every now and then, I put on an old video and watch it,” Verdin said. “It was a special moment for me.”
Verdin was a small running back at South Terrebonne from the small bayou town of Dulac.
“Guys down there didn’t play football,” he said. “They worked on boats or worked offshore. I had that dream to get off the bayou.”
His dream at the time was to play at Nebraska because of his hero Johnny Rodgers, but really what we wanted was a chance.
“All my life, I just went out and proved myself,” he insisted.
But first, Verdin needed someone to open a door.
One day, Verdin and his father were speaking to a South Terrebonne assistant coach, who declared if Verdin was 6-foot, 190 pounds “every school in the country would want him.”
For Verdin, it was more than just a passing comment. It was the genesis of a carefully crafted scheme.
He went home and asked his sister to type up a questionnaire letter that listed him at 6-foot and 190 pounds, and he sent it to a bunch of schools.
Incredibly, his artificial bait caught a fish.
One day at school, Verdin was called into the coaches' office where he saw an assistant coach wearing a USL Ragin’ Cajuns shirt. It was defensive assistant Don Lockwood.
“This ain’t the Clarence Verdin I’m coming to see,” Lockwood said.
“I said, ‘Yes sir, I’m so sorry, my mother made a mistake on the questionnaire,” young Clarence responded.
“Yeah, she made a big mistake,” retorted Lockwood, who followed by saying since he made the trip Verdin could come for a one-week walk-on tryout.
In Verdin’s mind, he probably could get a chance to play at Grambling or Southern, but didn’t want to because “so many guys like me are there – fast and short,” so he accepted the offer.
In his first two seasons in Lafayette, the Cajuns were running the veer and Verdin didn’t get much action. Then came 1982 and that season opener against Rice and a passing offense led by Amedee and Prudhomme’s passing ability.
Ask Verdin today and he’ll tell you if Amedee had coached the Cajuns for four years, “they’d have a statue of me in front of Cajun Field."
That may not be far from the truth.
“No doubt, he was that good,” said former teammate Gerald Broussard. “We didn’t know what to do with him.
“He was just so fast. He was tough, quick and consistent catching the football.”
In nine NFL seasons mostly with Redskins and Colts, Verdin caught 82 passes for 1,329 yards and seven touchdowns. As a punt returner, he had 178 returns for 1,650 yards and four more scores and returned 237 kickoffs for 4,930 yards and a touchdown.
That followed two USFL seasons right out of college with the Houston Gamblers, where he caught 100 passes for 1,319 yards with 12 touchdowns from future Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Prudhomme said of Verdin’s success. “I was in camp with him with the Gamblers and nothing surprised me. He was an exceptional athlete with exceptional speed. As he developed, he started catching the ball more and became a receiver.”
A big reason Verdin got that opportunity with the Gamblers is the defensive line coach for Houston was Ray Alborn, who happened to be Rice’s head coach that night in 1982.
As Alborn later told Verdin, when he saw Gamblers general manager didn’t have Verdin high enough on their draft list, Alborn exclaimed, “You better get this kid. He single-handedly beat me.”
Now 62 and living in New Orleans, Verdin is very grateful he got the opportunity thank Amedee later in life for his enormous contribution to his career.
Verdin remembered Amedee pulling him aside one day at practice and saying, "I’m going to get you to the next level."
Unfortunately, after that turnaround season in 1982, Amedee announced he was leaving the program.
“I’ll never forget the day he left,” Verdin revealed. “When he announced he was leaving, I went in a room and just cried. I was thinking my career was over. (Head coach) Sam Robertson wanted to run the ball. That’s just the kind of coach he was.”
With a lot of time to reflect on his life during Covid, Verdin was burdened to “find this man to tell him thank you and that I loved him for what he did for me.”
Amedee, who died May 20 earlier this year, called him back and the two reunited.
“It was great talking to him,” Verdin said. “I hadn’t spoken to him in a long time. He put me on the map. For some reason, he had a love for me. He would feed me the ball.
“We had a great conversation. He told me he loved me and I told him likewise. When I later heard he passed, I was crushed.”
While Verdin hasn’t spent much time back in Lafayette over the years, he hopes to attend Saturday’s big opener against Rice and another new beginning for the program.
“It’s an exciting time for the program,” Prudhomme said. “ I remember when there was Cajun Field and a very small athletic complex and it was surrounded by cattle farms out there. The whole area has changed and it looks great. They’ve done a great job.”
And no one knows what great things can come out of an historic season opener against Rice than Clarence Verdin.