08/30/2026
A short history of NOSE PICKS
by Preston L. (Godfather of NOSE PICKS) Kennedy
When I was but a wee lad, growing up on the mean streets of Woodview Subdivision in Zachary, Louisiana, I was enamored of the pick ‘em game that was published in the Morning Advocate. In those days of yore, the Morning Advocate was a real newspaper with a stable of sportswriters. In
the afternoon, a whole separate paper, The State-Times, was printed and distributed all over the Capitol region. It, too, was a very good paper. Both papers would have extensive high school, college, and professional sports coverage.
In 1976, before the first game of that football season, I wrote down the top 20 games on a sheet of college-ruled paper on the dining room table in my Tiger Plaza apartment, and made the LSU-Nebraska game the tie-breaker. I pitched the game idea to four friends living together in Stadium Square: Mike Lofton, Marty Massey, Kell Munson, and Steve Smith. We agreed to pay $2 each to the person who predicted the most winners each
week. Thus was born NOSE PICKS.
Many have asked – why “NOSE” PICKS? To which I answer, “Why not?” My older brothers tormented me about my prominent snout, telling me that I shouldn’t worry, I would grow into my nose one day (they were wicked). And everybody picks their nose, don’t they? So, NOSE PICKS it became and NOSE PICKS it remains.
The first three years of our existence were handled from that same cheap dining room table in Tiger Plaza. It was a home game ritual for the PICKers to get together to grill steaks before heading to stand before those chain links guarding the student section, and we never failed to claim our seats in Section 23 of the northwest corner of Tiger Stadium.
After I obtained my diploma from the College of Business of Louisiana State University, Agricultural and Mechanical College together with all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining, the Master Sheet began to grow (reaching an all-time high of 33 sometime in the 1980s). Beginning in 1979, the NOSE PICK Report was mailed, which made it necessary to put out the weekly slate of games a week ahead of time. A wonderful invention – the fax machine –
helped with logistics for some lucky PICKers.
In those heady pre-war days, we Packed Mac, gasped when Bo Rein’s plane went down, sent the Right Reverend Stovall back to the pulpit, fell in love with PaPa Arnsparger, got burned with Archer, and lost our collective s**t over Curley Hallman. The hiatus between 1994 and 2002 saw both the worst years in LSU football history – and the beginning of an amazing rebirth when Mark Emmert hired Nick Saban in 2000.
The Modern Era of NOSE PICKS was ushered in that magical season of 2003. Even more magical was the ubiquity of the internet – communication through email made the Modern Era possible. The e-NPR was born.
We eventually recaptured the majority of the pre-war PICKers, and added others who quickly immersed themselves into the alternative universe that exists for twelve weeks, plus either a PreSeason ShootOut (like this year) or a NOSE PICK Overtime (like last year), plus the bowl season.
There have been some heartbreaks along the way. T Smith passed away during the War Years, and we lost Doug, Roundy, The Big Man, and our G.O.A.T. We salute them this and every year.
Enough history. Time to PICK.
