Whistle Monsta, Da Pope, Umbrella Man, Mack the Quack and Who Dat Clown are known for their elaborate costumes and unmistakable game-day personalities at New Orleans Saints games. But there’s one super fan who stands out for something else: her voice.
Lady Who Dat is a familiar name to listeners of NFL Radio’s “Movin’ the Chains Show” between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. each day.
About 15 years ago, Renee Sackett was listening in when the familiar voices of fans from around the league began taking over the airwaves.
Trucker Bob came on first, talking about traffic. Then came Doctor Falcon, who spent his time talking about his Atlanta Falcons. He was followed by Mr. Panther, who had plenty to say about his Carolina Panthers.
Then it was her turn.
“They asked who I was,” Sackett recalled. “And it just came out: ‘Lady Who Dat.’”
That spur-of-the-moment introduction quickly became the name by which her fans would come to know her.
“It started off as a joke, and it has grown legs,” Sackett said. The radio hosts “like my sense of humor. They like that I know what I’m talking about. I know far more about football than most men do.”
A native of New Orleans, Sackett credits the boy next door with teaching her about sports when she was a young girl.
“My very best friend was John. He was very athletic. He taught me how to throw a football, how to run slants and other patterns,” she said.
Sackett played football with the Lakeshore neighborhood boys, even though some of them didn’t want a girl on the team. But John, who played quarterback, wasn’t having it. He said if she couldn’t play, he wouldn’t play either.
John was good at quarterback, so Sackett played too.
Because Sackett’s parents were not into sports at the time, they didn’t even know New Orleans was getting an NFL team in the late 1960s. Sackett learned about the team from John.
Before long, her family was attending Saints home games at Tulane Stadium, where their favorite game-day fare was “burgers, dogs, Coca-Colas and Doritos.” And while many Saints fans like to say they were there on Nov. 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked his record-setting, game-winning field goal of 63 yards, Sackett actually witnessed it.
“We were behind 16-17,” Sackett said. “Most people thought we were going to lose, because we always did. So they went home early. There may have only been 10,000 people in the stands when he kicked the field goal.”
Sackett moved away from New Orleans and bought her first season tickets in her 20s. She eventually gave them up, but bought another set in 2007 while living in Maryland. Since then, she has attended every Saints home game and usually makes it to two away games each season. She even traveled to London when the Saints played there and plans to make the trip to Paris later this month.
“As soon as the Saints schedule comes out, I start booking flights to New Orleans,” said Sackett, who now lives in Boca Raton, Florida. She moved there after retiring in 2011 from a career in software sales.
She goes to home games with her 88-year-old mother, Rochelle, or her nephew, Justin.
Of course, Lady Who Dat went to the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami, when the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17. She almost didn’t make it.
Her flight was scheduled for Friday morning, but a friend urged her to leave Thursday because a major snowstorm was headed toward Maryland. Sackett took her advice.
“On Friday at 8 a.m., all flights were canceled until Sunday,” Sackett said. “I would have missed the Super Bowl!”
After the Saints won, Sackett and her family traveled by limo and “Who-Datted” through South Beach until 5 a.m.
Though radio listeners don’t know what Lady Who Dat looks like, they know the name. When they discover that Sackett is the woman behind the voice on the radio, they get almost as excited as if they were meeting a Saints player.
Sackett remembers meeting a Green Bay Packers fan when the Saints played the Packers in Jacksonville, Florida, because the New Orleans area was recovering from Hurricane Ida. During their conversation about football and NFL Radio, she mentioned that she was Lady Who Dat.
“He got so excited and shouted to his buddies: ‘Hey, this is Lady Who Dat! This is the one I was talking about!’”
Sackett laughed when she recalled the encounter. She may not wear the elaborate costumes or paint her face in black and gold, but after decades of following the Saints, Lady Who Dat has become a character all her own — known for her voice, her humor and her knowledge of the game.