New Iberia Pelicans

The New Iberia Pelicans, based in New Iberia, Louisiana, carried the name of Louisiana's state bird during the stretches that best defined the franchise's legacy. New Iberia fielded a team in every Evangeline League season but the last, making it the second-most consistent city in the circuit behind only Alexandria. The city's teams appeared under several names, most extensively as the Cardinals, before the Pelicans banner flew during the franchise's finest era.

Pitcher Red Munger, who later reached the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals, went 19 wins for the New Iberia Cardinals in 1937 before moving up. Under the Pelicans name, the franchise claimed the 1954 Evangeline League championship, defeating the Crowley Millers four games to three in the finals. New Iberia was consistently one of the circuit's top attendance markets: in 1951, the city led the entire Evangeline League with 105,077 fans through the gates.

The Evangeline League was a Class D minor league (Class C from 1949) that operated primarily in southern and central Louisiana from 1934 through 1957, with a wartime pause from 1943 through 1945. Named for the Acadian folk heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1847 epic poem, the league was nicknamed the "Pepper Sauce League" or the "Tabasco Circuit" by fans and sportswriters, a nod to the Cajun country setting and the volatile brand of baseball played there.