‘Knights’ show their support for Conquerors

Houma’s indoor football fans waited nearly five years for the sport to return.

So an additional two hours for the Houma Conquerors’ home opener on Sunday was not going to dampen their spirits.

For one group of fans in particular, the gap between the defunct Bayou Bucks and Conquerors was far too long a wait.

From 2002-04, they ruled Section 202 of the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center as the “Rat Pack.” Today, they are reunited and reincarnated as the “Knights of the Crawfish Table.”

“It’s been rough – really, really rough,” said Shawn Pellegrin, 41, Knights of the Crawfish Table president. “We’ve been checking the papers to see if there would ever be a team back here again. As soon as the Conquerors were announced, everybody was calling everybody else ready to get the booster club back together again.”

About the booster club’s name, the Total Pharmacy Services technician said, “We wanted something that would fit with the Conquerors and was local. We went through a few names before settling on it.”

While the core majority of the 27-member “Knights” are from the old “Rat Pack,” they have a few newcomers to their ranks.

Terry Turner, 50, joined the “Knights” a month ago when club vice president Carrie Logan asked him. As the owner of Tall T’s Tees in Houma, he designed the club’s distinctive purple shirts.

“I never went to a Bayou Bucks game,” Turner admitted. “I got into this because of what coach (Franklin) Thomas is doing. The way he talks about giving back to kids and donating proceeds to cancer, that’s part of the reason I did this.”

The booster club does everything it can to help the team. Two members – Pellegrin and Charlie Breaux – were at the Civic Center until 1:30 a.m. Sunday preparing the field and painting the goal posts.

While the crowd waited to get inside for Sunday’s game, Turner made purple and gold balloon figures for the kids: a sword, a flower, and a crown. He also donned his medieval-inspired fiberglass helmet, an aluminum shield and wooden sword, all of which he constructed, and helped get the crowd into the action before and during the game.

“I decided to make that stuff to push this team, and see that they would make it through the season,” Turner said.

After the five-year absence, the homecoming of professional indoor football to Houma almost never happened. However, the Knights of the Crawfish Table came to the rescue.

The game, originally scheduled for a 5 p.m. kickoff, was delayed because the team did not have enough protective padding to encircle the wall.

Southern Indoor Football League officials threatened to cancel the contest if the matter was not resolved by 6:30 for a 7:00 start time.

The booster club was able get floor mats from South Terrebonne High School transported to the Civic Center before the deadline. They went to work with duct tape and Velcro to secure the mats to the wall, and the game went on.

“It’s just a few first game hiccups,” said “Knights” member Buddy Halford. “You got to expect some growing pains with a new team.”

“It’s great to have fans that you can count on backing you up like that,” Thomas said.

Unfortunately, the Conquerors could not give the “Knights” or the other approximately 1,000 in attendance a better performance for their efforts.

For the second straight game, they dug themselves into an early hole they could not overcome in a 64-32 loss to the Austin Turfcats.

Despite the multitude of Conquerors’ penalties and turnovers, Section 202 stayed raucous throughout the game with their chanting and shaking homemade Cajun noisemakers – loose Mardi Gras beads inside a Kentwood water jug.

“You have to be optimistic,” Turner insisted.

“It was still worth the wait,” Halford said. “They’re going to get better. Our hearts are still in it. They’re going to play a first half soon. I can feel it.”

With Sunday being a bye week and the next home game not until June 6, the Conquerors have time to correct their issues. Meanwhile the “Knights” need to do something to occupy their time.

“For the bye week, we’re probably going to cry a lot,” Pellegrin said.

Club members plan to travel to the Conquerors road games that are close by such as Lake Charles and Lafayette. Pellegrin and Halford made the trek to Houston for the team’s first game on March 19.

“The players and coaches are thrilled. They seem excited to have a core group of fans that’s going to cheer for them,” Pellegrin said. “We had a good rivalry with Lake Charles when the Bucks were around. I’m hoping the rivalry can pick up where it left off.”

To join the Knights of the Crawfish Table, call Terry or Nora Turner at (985) 594-5741 or (985) 856-0249. Members must purchase a tee shirt, which is $10 each in all sizes, and give contact information: name, phone number, physical and email addresses.

Knights of the Crawfish Table member Terry Turner makes a balloon sword for 5-year old Riley Sorensen. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF