(This column appeared originally in the Sunday, November 3 editions of The Times and The News-Star.)

The oldest student at Louisiana Tech is also one of the coolest.

She is Sedonia Givens, who turned a tidy 100 September 26.

She’s old school.

But she’s not the same old story. Some of us are slowing down, not acting like we would if we didn’t know our age.

But Givens — they call her Mrs. Cee Cee — is a regular member of the Tech Department of Kinesiology’s Senior Water Aerobics Program in the Lambright Sports & Wellness Center’s indoor pool in Ruston. Weekdays at either 7 or 8 am, Mrs. Cee Cee and about 60 others age 55 and up ease into the water for aerobic and muscle resistance work, plus strength conditioning and flexibility.

“I do most of it,” she said. “It’s helped me an awful lot. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”

And, God love her, while seeing her receive a special proclamation from the University in the President’s conference room as both an honor and a ‘thank you’ to her for her example and inspiration, she kept the small crowd either laughing or admiring her for her independent spirit and optimistic attitude.

“Watch what you say and do it God’s way, and you can live as well as anyone,” she said, sporting royal blue Tech pants and a light white jacket over a white blouse. “Be loving and caring of God’s people — and all of us are God’s people.”

She was saying this to Tech president Dr. Les Guice, who in this case was the student, about 35 years the junior of the day’s guest of honor.

“You are impacting and influencing a lot of people,” Guice told her. “You’re an example for all of us that we should never stop learning.”

Always active and a walker, Mrs. Cee Cee took a fall when she neared 90, an incident that scared her; so her first step toward Tech’s senior fitness programs was a fall.

“I began to lose my equilibrium in my 80s, and for three years my doctor was telling me to find a place where I could exercise in the water,” Cee Cee said. “Nobody knew a place.

“Then my niece in Shreveport told me to go to Tech, that they have a class for 55 and up. She told me, ‘You could be the ‘up.’”

So she began water aerobics. That was 10 years ago.

Mrs. Cee Cee was born in 1919 and grew up in the Hilly community north of Ruston. In her mid-20s she left for the California shipyards and worked as a welder, a real-live World War II Rosie the Riveter. Then she worked in a West Coast hospital, caring for returning soldiers. By then with four daughters, she headed back home to Louisiana with no desire “to ever go back to the city,” she said.

She spoke quietly and articulately — and with great comic timing — about her love of reading, teaching her children, working in her daughter’s ministry, and helping young people find their way. And of overcoming her fears.

“I’m scared of water,” she said. “One of the first classes on a floatboard I remember shouting, ‘Get me somebody, I’m going down!’”

Instead, she remains one of the “ups,” and for her example she received a framed proclamation for providing “great inspiration and motivation to her classmates and instructors and to the Kinesiology students” and for being a living illustration of the Tenets of Tech.

After class on her birthday, the kinesiology faculty threw her a big party, complete with a money cake and a crown, the whole deal.

“She’d definitely queen of the class,” said Smiley Rogers, head instructor of the program.

“My doctor keeps telling me,” Mrs. Cee Cee said, ‘Don’t you ever leave that water.’”

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

In case you haven’t heard, this is LSU-Alabama week, which means there will be all sorts of pre-game analysis for you to digest. But if you are looking for how Alabama’s Cover 2 is going to slow down LSU’s passing game or the intricacies of the zone read, you’re in the wrong spot.

My distinguished DW co-founder has covered more of these games than I have, but I did cover one. Sort of.

It was 1979 and I was a sports editor of The Tech Talk. But through various connections (I had spent the previous summer as an intern at the Shreveport Journal), I was able to finesse a sideline pass to this game.

I did not write a Pulitzer prize-winning story about the 3-0 Alabama win. In fact, I didn’t write a word. I carried a camera to make it look good and there’s a really good chance there wasn’t even any film in the camera.

Here’s what I remember about that night:

** Before the game, I was standing in the end zone when Alabama Coach Bear Bryant, as was his custom, leaned against the goal posts and watched the warmup. As I stood 10 feet away from him, I wondered two things: (1) What would he say if I leaned on the other side of the goalposts and just started chatting him up? (2) how far could I get if I ran up, grabbed his hounds tooth hat and took off?

** It was raining the entire night and was more than a little bit miserable. Because of the conditions, it was one of only two times in my entire life I have worn boots. (The other time was in a Halloween costume situation). My brother, who was in law school at LSU at the time, figured it might be a better idea than the tennis shoes I had on. They don’t call them “counselors” for nothing.

** These days, you almost need to have top-level security clearance to get on a college football sideline, but back at that time, they just gave you an armband. Because it was wet the whole night, mine began to split in half during the first half. It was a moment begging for some college hijinks, so I spotted one of my best friends (an LSU student) in the stands and I managed to peel off one half of the armband, stick it to his sleeve and sneak him on the sideline. Only half of each of our credential was visible but no one in authority either noticed or cared. To this day, we still laugh about how two 20-year-old college students were on the sideline for a memorable game.

** It was Charlie McClendon’s last LSU-Alabama game. He was removed at Tigers coach in great part for his inability to beat the Crimson Tide. So he was one touchdown away from keeping his job?

** It was a year in which both the No. 1 (Alabama) and No. 2 (USC) teams in the final AP poll came to Baton Rouge. Even though I was not an LSU student, I managed to attend both games – and didn’t pay to see either game. (My Tech roommate was from Baton Rouge and his parents had season tickets. For some reason, they passed on USC.)

** It was the last national championship team for Bear Bryant, but give the Bama faithful a little more time and they’re sure to find a few more they can lay claim to.

** Tell me again about how that “it never rains in Tiger Stadium” thing works?