Fast Eddie Looks at Tulane vs Army
In this story:
By now, you're probably used to my acquaintance Fast Eddie. If not, welcome to my world.
I really don't remember how we first met. I don't even know his real name. The moniker he goes by reflects a nickname given to a former governor of Louisiana. It's one he chose, not me. And he tends to show up out of nowhere when I least expect it. Whether it's eating lunch or driving New Orleans streets, Fast Eddie just has that knack of finding me, which he did again this week.
"Good morning, Douglas," Fast Eddie begins, relatively out of breath as he walks to catch up with me. I am making my way toward the Lafitte Greenway. "Where you heading?"
"One of my extended family is performing at The Broadside, so I thought I'd walk to give a listen," I answered. "Wait a minute, what happened to your ride from last week?"
"It's the bane of classic cars," Fast Eddie says of his 2001 Toyota Corona. "Sometimes they work, and other times they don't want to."
At least he still had car. There were times I wondered if Fast Eddie had put up his belongings in the past to help him make some of the wagers he spoke about on a weekly basis.
"Last week was one of those, 'if we were playing with horseshoes or hand grenades,' kind of games for me," Eddie begins. He had decided to take East Carolina and the 6-and-a-half points against Tulane. The Green Wave won by seven.
We are just about at the Greenway where I make my turn, when Fast Eddie reaches out to grab my arm and give me his weekly advice, requested or not.
"This is a payback game for the Greenies," Fast Eddie says, puffing a bit from the tempo I had set with our walk together. "Not everybody on this team was there last year when Captain American and Army spanked the Wave, but there are plenty enough still around, coaches and otherwise, to let the newbies know. This is going to be a blowout. I'm taking Tulane and giving Army the 9-and-a-half."
With that, I turn onto the Greenway and Fast Eddie takes a bench to catch his breath. Probably for our conversation next week.
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Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.