Abe Mickal: When Huey had me elected to a state senators’ job as a student at LSU, I was not eligible. But I remember [Coach Lawrence] “Biff” Jones and Troy Middleton, “Don’t get involved because he just did it as a prank.” What he wanted to do was have me elected as state senator from Baton Rouge and he wanted me to come to the legislature and pass legislation benefitting the LSU football team.
So we had . . . You had those kind of people to fall back on and guide you, but Huey was a great guy. I had a beautiful relationship with him. Because here I was a country boy from Mississippi and here was this . . . the Governor of Louisiana, State Senator, who took a liking to me. He . . . When I got hurt in the Tulane game, he came the next day to the Infirmary and visited with me for over an hour; telling me what his dreams and plans were for LSU. He just . . . He aspired to be an athlete, but he never was. But he would have given . . . I think he would’ve almost given up his governorship if he could have been a good football player.
Abraham: Do you remember what he said that his hopes and dreams for LSU were when he was talking to you?
Mickal: Well, he wanted LSU to be a major university. He wanted LSU to have a first class medical school. And he wanted LSU to beat Alabama [laughs].
Abraham: [laughs] Did you beat Alabama that year?
Mickal: Well, we did not. Alabama was never on out schedule.
Abraham: Okay.
Mickal: We knew him as an individual. He’d come out to the practice and talk with us and at times he’d . . . I remember one time he came over to see me and he wanted to know how I held the ball, how I threw it and so forth. I gave him all the details. He walked over to Burt Gates and he said, “Burt, that’s not the way you do.” He repeated everything I had just told him, and then walked off as if, you know, he’d done a great . . . [laughing] He just loved to be part of the . . . part of the team. First thing he did when he hit the campus; he’d call out Castro Carazo and the band to meet him at the Greek Theater. And he’d ask the football players to come there. He’d lead the band and . . . He loved the band and he loved the football team.
I remember one time, he brought me . . . At that time, Liberty Magazine, which is now out of circulation, would always print the winning play of the week. Well, he would take that diagram and redesign it and bring it to LSU and ask me if he thought that we could work that play. [laughs] He just . . . Really, you know, that’s the part of him I got to know and appreciate. I knew what he was doing for the boys and girls of Louisiana, so I was not privileged to know about his political life.
-- Abe Mickal, interviewed by Jennifer Abraham, 1998