59-Years Ago Today: The Runback That Started a Saints Franchise

A personal perspective from that momentous day on the Tulane campus.

Sep 17, 1967; New Orleans, LA, USA; FILE PHOTO; New Orleans Saints receiver John Gilliam (42) runs back a kick-off against the Los Angles Rams at Tulane Stadium. The Rams beat the Saints 27-13. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons- USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Rookie wide receiver John Gilliam was back to receive the first-ever kickoff for the expansion franchise New Orleans Saints on a bright Sunday. Old Tulane Stadium was at capacity for the Saints regular season, opening game against the Los Angeles Rams.

As Future NFL Hall of Famer Doug Atkins told me in the early 1990s when I was doing pregame and postgame for the Saints Radio Network on Sports 1280 and across the Gulf South, "That's the loudest sound I'd ever heard in all my life." Atkins was chosen by the Saints in the expansion draft from the Chicago Bears. "When we walked out onto that turf (Tulane Stadium was still a natural grass turf, at least for the next four years), the sound was deafening. All those crazy Cajuns stomping on those steel stands."

I was there.

The How and Why of Seeing Games

My next door neighbor, Mr. Hill, was in charge of getting Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) members to help sell concessions. Even though I was 11 (the regulations said high school-aged), I was really tall for my age and passed muster. Mr. Matt helped "convince" the people there that I was of age. That man could have sold ice cubes at the North Pole.

Like the rest of the CYO kids, we were stationed under the stands to collect what we would be selling for the day. Over the years, I sold various products: soft drinks, peanuts, programs. Though programs made me the most money (and allowed me to be done by the 1st quarter so I could sit in the stands and watch the rest of the game), my favorite were peanuts, where I could toss bags of the snacks behind my back or like a hook shot and sometimes people would tell me to "keep the change" when they bought a couple of bags.

On this date, in 1967, I was assigned to walk the stands selling Coke and 7-Up. A heavy wire rack with twenty slots for the wax paper cups was hanging from a webbed strap around my neck. Each of the cups was covered by a heat-sealed piece of plastic film. Well, it was supposed to be. The heating machine that was supposed to pull across a piece of the sheet of the thin, clear plastic sheeting sometimes didn't catch the whole thing, and one or two cups would spill while I traversed the steep steps of the old stadium. I would be charged 10-cents for each empty or half-empty one I returned.

I was in the stands by the end zone where Gilliam was lined up when the kick went into the air. I stopped, almost breathless, as I waited with the other 80-thousand-plus fans to see what would happen next.

September 17, 1967

In the #Saints' first regular season game in franchise history, John Gilliam returns the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown against the Rams at Tulane Stadium.

CBS Sports broadcast footage of Don Criqui's call — making his regular-season debut as an NFL… pic.twitter.com/8xECexEuQb

— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) September 17, 2026

Spillage Galore

Once the Saints 2nd round draft pick from that year arrived in the end zone opposite me, I realized I had been jumping up and down, with my rack of soft drinks still strapped around my neck, and at least half of them now empty as I was jostled and hugged by complete strangers who were jumping just as vigorously as I had, sans the rack of soft drinks.

Once I got back to the concession stand HQ where we get refilled, my leader was about to charge me for all the half-empty/empty cups that were still in my rack. Mr. Matt told him not worry about it, slipped the man a few dollars and sent me on my way.

Getting in Free to See the Saints

I got to see every Saints game at Tulane Stadium over the years because of Mr. Matt.

I was there for the game when Tom Demsey kicked the Saints into history. I didn't see it. I left early, thinking there was no way the Saints could win this one. I never left a game early again after that.

But the one moment I will always remember happened 59-years ago today, when 22-year old John Gilliam made an 11-year old spill countless soft drinks (at least it seemed that way) all over the front of his jeans.

Thank you, John, for the memories. And thank you, Mr. Matt for the chances of a lifetime to see, in person, my team. My New Orleans Saints.

John Gilliam is now 81-years old and lives in Atlanta, GA. Doug Atkins died in 2015 at the age of 85 in Knoxville, TN. Mr. Matt Hill died in 2007 at the age of 82.

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