A captivating induction ceremony June 22 that enshrined 12 new members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame will be the centerpiece of a two-hour program premiering Thursday evening at 7 statewide on Louisiana Public Broadcasting.
The “Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame: 2024 Celebration” show will also be streamed live at lpb.org and on the LPB app. It will have an encore showing Sunday afternoon at 1 on LPB and the other platforms. It will be archived for viewing any time at lpb.org/lshof.
This LPB special, produced in partnership with the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, captures highlights from the June 22 induction ceremony in Natchitoches and many of the festivities leading up to it. Included in the program will be exclusive induction interviews and profile stories on the honorees, plus a look at the new memorabilia added to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches.
Baton Rouge native and LSU, WNBA and USA Olympic basketball great Seimone Augustus headlined the 10 sports greats involved with the June 20-22 induction celebration, which included seven different events, among them a Friday night riverbank concert and fireworks show over Cane River Lake in downtown, historic Natchitoches.
Grambling icon Wilbert Ellis, baseball coach for 30 years with 13 more as an assistant, drew the most rousing cheers of the induction ceremony with nearly 200 supporters among the sellout crowd of 812 at the Natchitoches Events Center. Ellis was the second-ever recipient of the Louisiana Sports Ambassador Award, presented only occasionally to a person who has made long-term deep influence as a sports figure bolstering the state’s profile and culture.
New Iberia native and McNeese football great Kerry Joseph, Sunset native and renowned jockey Ray Sibille, and Opelousas sports journalist Bobby Ardoin provided plenty of jovial and poignant moments for an audience including big contingent of admirers from Acadiana.
River Parishes high school coaching legend Frank Monica, who also spent 12 seasons on two football staffs at Tulane, and highly-successful former Green Wave basketball coach Perry Clark were interrupted by cheers and laughter during their inductions.
Along with Augustus, LSU fans – including Tigers’ women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey, a 1990 LSHOF inductee – embraced three-time All-America Tiger wrestler and two-time USA Olympic wrestling coach Kevin Jackson, and acclaimed LSU graduate and Baton Rouge-rooted sportswriter Ron Higgins. Louisiana Tech graduate Tom Burnett, a former Sun Belt Conference administrator who served over two decades as the commissioner of the Southland Conference that includes five state colleges, received the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award as an inductee.
Two prime-time sports figures were inducted remotely – New Orleans Saints quarterback hero Drew Brees, and Lafayette native Daniel Cormier, an All-American and USA Olympic wrestler who became a multiple-time Mixed Martial Arts champion and remains one of that sports’ premier figures.
“The contributions that these Louisiana superstars have made to the world of sports is legendary,” says Clarence “C.C” Copeland, LPB President and CEO. “Our partnership with the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame allows us to relive and share those stories with a wide audience statewide and also nationally and internationally with our digital stream.”
“LPB’s commitment to quality, and the longstanding ability to deliver superior content around Louisiana to its four million-plus citizens, is second to none,” says Doug Ireland, chairman of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. “The stories about the Hall of Fame and its inductees that LPB produces go far beyond the games they play; they speak to the unique and powerful culture in our state and celebrating excellence not only in competition, but in the deeply positive influence teams and sports heroes have in their communities and around Louisiana on people of all ages.”
Louisiana Public Broadcasting, launched in 1975, includes stations in Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Monroe, and Shreveport. LPB is also affiliated with WLAE-TV in New Orleans. LPB affiliates are available over the air and on cable, satellite and streaming platforms.
The museum in Natchitoches is open Tuesday-Saturday from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., with two floors of exhibits showcased in a world-renowned building that was named the top new architectural project on Earth when it opened in 2013. There are now 491 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductees featured in the museum since the Louisiana Sports Writers Association was born and created the Hall in 1958, inducting the first class a year later.
It also includes an exhibit of photographs of legendary LSU basketball player Pete Maravich. The “Showtime: LSU’s Pistol Pete” exhibit including many never-seen-before backstage photos of Maravich during his LSU career by Baton Rouge photojournalist John Musemeche is open through mid-October.