
Northwestern head coach David Braun said he has reached out to his Tulane counterpart and cleared the air after the Wildcats denied the Green Wave’s request to wear white jerseys on Saturday to honor the 2005 team two decades after Hurricane Katrina.
After Tulane’s 23-3 win over Northwestern on Saturday, Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall revealed that Northwestern had denied the team’s request to wear their road white uniforms. Friday was the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans, which completely devastated the city and was one of the worst natural disasters in United States history.
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The storm forced Tulane to cancel its entire fall semester that year, and the football team played all 12 of its games on the road. To honor that team, Tulane players didn’t have the Green Wave logo on their helmets on Saturday just like the 2005 team.
Sumrall said the team wanted to wear white road jerseys for the game, but instead had to wear traditional green home jerseys. They sent Northwestern the official request on Aug. 17, but Northwestern was already prepared with its white uniforms and decals for the game and declined to make the change.
That decision led to some pretty pointed comments at Northwestern after Tulane’s big win.
Braun, though, insisted that Northwestern wasn’t trying to insult Tulane by its jersey choice. He reached out to Sumrall after the game, and the two spoke on Sunday. He spoke about a trip he made to the city in May 2006 to help rebuild with a group of teammates when he was playing at Winona State, too. The game on Saturday was his first time back in New Orleans since.
“I don’t pretend to understand what the city of New Orleans has been through, but what I can tell you is this university and myself have a tremendous amount of respect for the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans and that region,” Braun said, via ESPN. “I had an opportunity to see it firsthand … it was devastating.
“Having a chance to return to New Orleans for the first time since that trip, where that city’s at right now is a reflection of the people that call it home.”
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Tulane, led by new quarterback Jake Retzlaff, put up 20 points in the first half on Saturday to grab the season-opening win. Retzlaff had 152 passing yards and had another 113 rushing yards with two total touchdowns in his first game with the program after a late transfer from BYU.
The Green Wave will take on South Alabama next on Saturday before returning home to host Duke on Sept. 13. The Wildcats, who are fresh off a 4-8 campaign last season, will host Western Illinois on Friday night.
This news was originally published on this post .
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