Year of the Saints: The 94-Yard Run That Started Six Decades of New Orleans Football
Before the Superdome, before Drew Brees, before Who Dat became a national football language, New Orleans received its first regular-season Saints memory in one explosive play: John Gilliam taking the opening kickoff 94 yards to the end zone.
New Orleans enters September 2026 looking backward and forward at the same time. The Saints are beginning their 60th season, the organization has built a yearlong celebration around six decades of Black and Gold football, and one of the first historical images worth revisiting requires almost no setup: No. 42 running.
On September 17, 1967, the expansion Saints played the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium in the first regular-season game in franchise history. Rookie John Gilliam received the opening kickoff and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown.
It was not simply the first Saints touchdown. It happened on the first regular-season play the franchise had ever run. For a few seconds, a completely new NFL team had a perfect history: one play, one touchdown and a stadium exploding around it.
New Orleans did not ease into NFL history. Its first regular-season play went 94 yards into the end zone.
John Gilliam Gave a New Franchise an Impossible Opening Scene
There is a reason the moment still survives nearly sixty years later. Expansion teams normally begin with uncertainty: unfamiliar rosters, borrowed veterans, new coaching staffs and fans learning what the franchise will become. The Saints began with instant mythology.
Gilliam found the lane and accelerated through the coverage while more than 80,000 people filled Tulane Stadium. The return gave New Orleans a 7–0 lead before the franchise had ever run an offensive play.
Reality arrived later. Los Angeles eventually won 27–13. But the final score has never had the same cultural power as the opening kickoff. The return remains the image people use when telling the story of how Saints football began.
The 60th Season Makes the First Play Matter Again
This history has unusual relevance right now because New Orleans is deliberately building the 2026 season around memory. The organization has introduced commemorative branding, historical storytelling, special fan experiences and tributes covering the entire sixty-year arc of the franchise.
The season also intersects with other major anniversaries. It is twenty years since the Saints returned to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. Drew Brees entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer. Historic players and defining moments are being brought back into the current conversation rather than treated as material for an offseason museum.
John Gilliam naturally belongs near the beginning of that story because his moment is literally the beginning.
The Saints have said the 2026 celebration will feature historic storytelling, commemorative branding, fan experiences and an interactive franchise timeline. That makes a design built around the first regular-season touchdown unusually aligned with the team’s current cultural mood.
In 2026, History Almost Repeated Itself
One of the strongest reasons to revisit Gilliam appeared during this year’s preseason. Against Jacksonville, Ty Chandler received the opening kickoff at the Superdome and burst for 86 yards before being tackled at the nine-yard line.
The Saints themselves immediately made the comparison to 1967. For a few seconds, a 60th-season preseason game looked as if it might begin exactly the way the franchise had begun almost six decades earlier.
Chandler did not reach the end zone, but the near-repeat demonstrates how deeply Gilliam’s run remains embedded in Saints memory. A modern kickoff return only had to approach the same shape before the historical reference became obvious.
Why “Year of the Saints” Works Better as an Archive Graphic
The artwork avoids trying to place sixty years of players on one shirt. That restraint is important. A franchise anniversary can easily become a crowded list of dates, logos and championship references.
Instead, this design chooses the beginning. Gilliam appears in motion wearing No. 42, while “YEAR OF THE SAINTS” occupies the opposite side in large weathered lettering. The sand-colored base, muted gold, black shadows and old-program typography make the composition feel closer to a rediscovered 1967 football poster than a modern digital anniversary badge.
Speed lines reinforce the kickoff-return movement. The player and typography partially overlap, which gives the illustration the imperfect physicality of an older newspaper advertisement or stadium program.
The Saints Story Has Always Been Bigger Than Its Win-Loss Record
The inaugural Saints lost far more often than they won, yet New Orleans adopted the franchise quickly. That helps explain why the opening kickoff matters more culturally than the 27–13 defeat attached to it.
Football became another civic ritual in a city already overflowing with public ritual. The team accumulated its own vocabulary, colors, heartbreaks and eventually championship memory. Tulane Stadium gave way to the Superdome. Archie Manning became a local icon. The Dome Patrol arrived. Brees and Sean Payton transformed expectations. Super Bowl XLIV permanently altered what Saints fans believed was possible.
But every later chapter can still be traced backward to Gilliam crossing the goal line before the Saints offense had taken a single snap.
Why This Moment Fits the Exact Mood of September 2026
The Saints officially begin their 60th regular season on September 13 against Detroit. That timing gives historical graphics a purpose beyond nostalgia. Fans are not simply remembering because an old anniversary date appeared on a calendar; the franchise itself is actively asking New Orleans to view the current season through six decades of memory.
The New Orleans Saints collection becomes useful in that context as a visual archive of different eras, personalities and fan phrases, while the broader NFL collection places the anniversary inside the larger landscape of football history and current fan culture.
Because this article centers on one historic player, readers can also continue through the John Gilliam product search without mixing his story into unrelated current-player releases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who scored the first touchdown in New Orleans Saints regular-season history?
John Gilliam scored it by returning the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams on September 17, 1967.
Was John Gilliam’s touchdown really on the first play in Saints history?
Yes. Gilliam’s 94-yard kickoff return came on the first regular-season play of the franchise’s inaugural game.
Did the Saints win their first game after Gilliam’s touchdown?
No. New Orleans took the early lead but ultimately lost to the Los Angeles Rams 27–13 at Tulane Stadium.
Why is John Gilliam especially relevant again in 2026?
The Saints are celebrating their 60th season with extensive historical storytelling, making the player who scored the franchise’s first regular-season touchdown a natural part of the anniversary conversation.
What does the Year of the Saints design represent?
The graphic connects New Orleans’ 2026 60th-season celebration with Gilliam’s No. 42 and the 94-yard kickoff-return touchdown that opened Saints regular-season history in 1967.
The Year of the Saints design preserves John Gilliam’s place on page one of Black and Gold history, while the New Orleans Saints archive follows the decades of players, slogans and city memory that came after No. 42 crossed the goal line.
Year of the Saints Shirt celebrates New Orleans’ 60th season through John Gilliam’s legendary No. 42 and the 94-yard opening-kickoff touchdown that started Saints regular-season history in 1967.