Long before NFL training camps became polished productions surrounded by corporate sponsors and controlled access, the New Orleans Saints spent three unforgiving Mississippi summers from 1971-73. Sleeping in college dormitories, practicing beneath the Hattiesburg sun and trying to build a franchise around a young quarterback named Archie Manning.
The heat is what Jake Kupp remembered.
Not the playbook. Not the crowds gathered beside the practice field. Not even the sound of shoulder pads colliding beneath the pine trees at the University of Southern Mississippi.
The heat.
“Our training camp was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi,” the former Saints offensive lineman and grandfather to Rams All-Pro wide out Cooper Kupp, recalled years later. “It was 100 degrees and 100 percent humidity.”
To Kupp, who was in his 5th season on a Saints roster, it felt as though the team was being forced to begin again. Several recognizable players were gone. A demanding head coach was tightening control. Everyone from the players fighting for jobs to the coaches trying to save theirs understood that the Saints had to improve, after coming off a dismal 2-11-1 record in 1970. In fact, the Saints had won just 14 games in their first four years (1967-1970).
“It was tough,” Kupp said. “I remember how difficult it was for the players. We had lost most of our stars. The players and coaches were feeling pressure to win.”
That pressure settled over Hattiesburg during the summers of 1971, 1972 and 1973, when the New Orleans Saints held training camp on the Southern Miss campus.
For three years, an NFL franchise temporarily became part of the Pine Belt. Professional football players occupied campus dorms, ate in the Vann Hall cafeteria and worked through two-a-day practices on Southern Miss fields. It was a different NFL then, smaller, rougher and far less insulated. And at the center of it all stood the most famous athlete in Mississippi.
Archie Arrives in Hattiesburg
When the Saints arrived at Southern Miss in 1971, the franchise was only four years old and still searching for an identity. New Orleans had never produced a winning season. Its first four years had delivered memorable personalities and occasional miracles, including Tom Dempsey’s record-setting 63-yard field goal in 1970, but not sustained success.
The Saints had finished 2-11-1 in 1970, earning the second selection in the 1971 NFL Draft. With it, they chose Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning.
Manning was more than another prized prospect. In Mississippi, he was already a statewide figure, a red-haired quarterback from a small town in the Delta town whose performances at Ole Miss had transformed him into something approaching folklore. Roughly 10,000 people gathered in his hometown of Drew, MS for “Archie Manning Day” only weeks after his college career ended.
Hattiesburg became the setting where Manning began learning how to survive in the NFL.
He appeared in 12 games as a rookie and started 10, sharing time with third year quarterback Edd Hargett, who was drafted by the Saints in the 16th Round of the 1969 Draft. In the regular-season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, Manning passed for 218 yards and scored on a two-yard run on the game’s final play, giving the Saints a 24-20 victory before more than 70,000 fans at Tulane Stadium.
It was the first opening-day victory in franchise history.
Four weeks later, Manning helped the Saints stun the Dallas Cowboys 24-14. Dallas went on to win Super Bowl VI. New Orleans finished only 4-8-2, but the flashes Manning first sharpened beneath the Hattiesburg sun offered hope that the franchise had finally found its quarterback.
A New Coach and an Unforgiving Camp
The 1971 camp also represented the beginning of J.D. Roberts’ attempt to remake the Saints.
Roberts had taken over during the 1970 season after Tom Fears was dismissed. His first victory came in the game forever associated with Dempsey’s 63-yard field goal. By the following summer, Roberts had been given the opportunity to run his own team and establish his authority.
He did so forcefully.
Kupp remembered Roberts feeling the need to “come down hard” on the team. Practices in the combination of heat and humidity became a test of physical endurance as much as football ability.
These were the days before air-conditioned indoor practice facilities, carefully calculated hydration schedules and GPS monitors measuring every player’s workload. Players practiced outside, often twice a day, and returned afterward to basic campus housing.
Manning later compared the college camps of his early career with the far more comfortable facilities the Saints encountered at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida from 1974-1986. “The training camps we had been to before (Dodgertown) were small college football settings,” Manning recalled. “Our other facilities (at USM) were dormitories.”
At Dodgertown, players lived two to a room in hotel-style accommodations, something Manning remembered as luxurious compared with the dorm life that had preceded it at Vann Hall in Hattiesburg.
In Hattiesburg, there was little luxury and even less escape.
The Saints were together from the breakfast table through meetings, practices and evening curfew. Veterans with established careers shared the campus with rookies whose professional dreams might disappear after one missed assignment.
Training camp was not a fan festival. It was an elimination tournament, under the harsh Hattiesburg summer sun.
The Fall of a Folk Hero
Tom Dempsey arrived at the 1971 camp as one of the most recognizable kickers in football. Less than a year earlier, he had kicked the 63-yard field goal that defeated Detroit and established an NFL record that stood for 43 years.
Dempsey was unlike anyone else in the league. Born without toes on his right foot and without fingers on his right hand, he kicked straight-on with a specially designed shoe. His record-setting kick had made him a national symbol of perseverance and a beloved figure in New Orleans..
Dempsey reportedly reported to Hattiesburg at approximately 265 pounds—20 pounds above the weight Roberts wanted. His kicking was inconsistent during camp, and he made only one of eight preseason field-goal attempts
It was a small rebellion, more humorous than historic, but it offers a revealing glimpse into training camp life. The players had status in public, but inside camp they lived under strict rules, fixed schedules and the authority of coaches who controlled their careers.
At the end of Training Camp that year, the Saints released him.
The decision demonstrated the unforgiving nature of camp. One summer, a player could be responsible for the most celebrated moment in franchise history. The next, he could be packing his belongings inside a Southern Miss dormitory. Dempsey continued his career with Eagles, Rams, Oilers and Bills. His legacy in NFL record books remained secure, but his Saints career effectively ended in Hattiesburg.
The Pizza Rebellion
The most colorful surviving story from the Hattiesburg years began with something as ordinary as dinner. According to an account later included in Jeff Duncan’s Tales from the New Orleans Saints Sideline, Saints players grew dissatisfied with the food and conditions surrounding camp. At one point, a group decided to skip the Southern Miss cafeteria and order a mountain of pizzas instead.
Veteran tight end Dave Parks reportedly handled the order.
The request was enormous: anchovy pizzas, mushroom pizzas, pepperoni pizzas, combination pizzas, and, according to the retelling, one sardine pizza. One can imagine the reaction from the teenager or young employee answering the telephone at a Hattiesburg pizza shop and discovering that the New Orleans Saints were attempting to feed an NFL roster.
Nearly everyone participated.
The exception was punter Julian Fagan, an Ole Miss teammate of Manning’s, who apparently worried that skipping the team meal would result in a fine. While the others staged their carb-loaded protest, Fagan ate alone in the university cafeteria.
Despite the players hating Hattiesburg, the Saints returned to Hattiesburg in 1972 and 1973
The Men on the Fields
The rosters that passed through Southern Miss contained several players who would eventually become fixtures in Saints history.
Manning became the face of the franchise and remained New Orleans’ starting quarterback through one of the most difficult stretches any highly regarded passer has endured. He was selected to two Pro Bowls and later entered the Saints Ring of Honor.
Danny Abramowicz, an original Saint, had led the NFL in receptions in 1969 and became one of the franchise’s earliest stars.
Kupp anchored the offensive line and later entered the Saints Hall of Fame. His son, Craig, played quarterback in the NFL, and his grandson, Cooper Kupp, became a Super Bowl MVP with the Los Angeles Rams.
Safety Tom Myers arrived as a rookie in 1972 and eventually became one of the finest defensive backs in Saints history. He spent his entire 10-season NFL career in New Orleans and earned a Pro Bowl selection in 1979.
Among the other recognizable Saints of the period were running backs Bob Gresham and Jess Phillips, defensive linemen Joe Owens (from nearby Columbia) and Richard Neal, linebacker Jackie Burkett, defensive back Delles Howell and punter Fagan.
Manning, Abramowicz, Kupp, Dempsey and Myers would all eventually be honored by the Saints Hall of Fame.Before their careers could be measured in records and honors, however, they were simply players trying to make it through another practice in Hattiesburg.
Archie’s Difficult Second Summer
The Saints returned to Southern Miss in 1972 believing Manning’s second season might push the franchise forward.
Individually, he developed rapidly. Manning led the NFL in pass attempts and completions and led the NFC in passing yardage. He completed 230 of 448 passes for 2,781 yards and 18 touchdowns—substantial numbers in an era when passing statistics were far more modest than they are today.
The team around him could not match his progress. The Saints finished 2-11-1. Manning was forced to throw constantly, often while playing from behind and operating without consistent protection. The pattern that would define much of his Saints career was already becoming clear: remarkable ability, occasional brilliance and far too much responsibility placed upon one player.
The young quarterback who had arrived at Southern Miss surrounded by hope in 1971 returned in 1972 knowing how difficult the rebuilding process would be.
Still, fans in Hattiesburg could watch him closely, his footwork, quick release and ability to improvise when a play collapsed. They were watching the beginning of a career that would become increasingly admired because of what Manning endured rather than what his teams accomplished.
The Final Hattiesburg Summer
The Saints returned for a third and final Southern Miss training camp in 1973.
By then, the pressure surrounding Roberts had intensified. New Orleans had won only six regular-season games during the previous two years, and another difficult preseason placed his job in jeopardy. The breaking point came after a 31-6 exhibition loss to the New England Patriots on August 25. Owner John Mecom Jr. fired Roberts with two preseason games remaining and promoted assistant John North.
Roberts had arrived in Hattiesburg trying to impose a new culture. He drafted Manning, ran three punishing camps at Southern Miss and attempted to transform one of the NFL’s youngest organizations. Before the final preseason ended, he was gone.
North guided the Saints to a 5-9 record in 1973, tying the best mark in franchise history at that time. The team repeated that record in 1974.
But it never returned to Hattiesburg.
Beginning in 1974, the Saints moved training camp to Dodgertown in Vero Beach. Except for a one-year stay in Thibodaux in 1975, Vero Beach became the team’s summer home through 1984. Official Saints records list Southern Miss as the franchise’s camp location from 1971 through 1973, following earlier stays in San Diego and Bowling Green, Ohio.
When the NFL Felt Close Enough to Touch
Today, an NFL training camp is an extension of the franchise’s brand.
Practices are streamed online. Highlights appear on social media within minutes. Fans enter through designated gates with digital tickets. Team stores sell jerseys beside sponsor displays. Every interview is recorded, clipped and distributed.
The Saints’ Hattiesburg camps belonged to another world.
The players slept in dormitories. They ate in the Southern Miss cafeteria. A future Saints icon showed photographs to teammates between practices. A record-setting kicker fought for his job. Players ordered enough pizza to feed a small army. Careers began and ended beneath the Mississippi heat.
Life during camp centered around a small corner of the Southern Miss campus. Players were housed in Vann Hall, a residence hall that once stood where the Century Park residence halls are located today. Looking out from the dormitory, players overlooked the old Southern Miss baseball field while making the short walk to another day of meetings and practice.
According to the Saints’ 1971 media guide, the team’s primary workouts were held on three practice fields immediately east of M.M. Roberts Stadium. It was on those fields that head coach J.D. Roberts put his roster through grueling two-a-day practices in the sweltering Mississippi heat. Today, that same section of campus has been transformed into Scianna Hall and the Trent Lott National Center, leaving little physical evidence that an NFL franchise once trained there.
The Saints also utilized the old Southern Miss baseball stadium for additional drills, walkthroughs and conditioning sessions. Long before Pete Taylor Park became one of college baseball’s premier venues, the university’s baseball field occupied the ground where Southern Miss’ current football practice fields now stand. Nearly every aspect of training camp, from the players’ dormitory to the cafeteria, football practice fields and baseball stadium, was concentrated within a short walk of one another, making Southern Miss the perfect home for an NFL training camp.
The three camps did not produce a championship team. The Saints went 11-28-3 over the corresponding regular seasons, and the organization remained years away from its first winning record.
More than half a century later, the Saints are opening another training camp as they prepare for another NFL season. The facilities are better. The organization is larger. The team now boasts division championships, Hall of Fame players and a Super Bowl trophy.
Yet buried beneath that history are three sweltering Mississippi summers when the road to an NFL season ran directly through Hattiesburg.
For a brief time, Southern Miss was not merely the home of the Golden Eagles.
It was the summer home of the New Orleans Saints.
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