Proud LSU contingent provides half of Hall of Fame’s 2026 induction class
By JASON PUGH, Written for the LSWA
NATCHITOCHES – Like most Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductions recently, the Class of 2026 had plenty of LSU Tigers – half of the 12 people honored.
The foursome of competitors – basketball coach John Brady, women’s basketball great Sylvia Fowles, football All-American Todd McClure and baseball legend Warren Morris – all relished sharing stories of their days as Tigers. Two others inducted as contributors – Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award winner Kathy Holloway of Rapides Parish and journalist Gil LeBreton of New Orleans – earned degrees from LSU.
Brady had to rebuild a once-proud Tiger basketball program while following legendary coach Dale Brown.
Brady came to Baton Rouge from Samford University, a mid-major program in Birmingham, but the roots of his landing in Baton Rouge began decades earlier in Starkville, Mississippi, where Brady was a graduate assistant at Mississippi State.
“You go through life and you don’t know who you’ll meet and where they’ll show up later,” Brady said. “I went to Mississippi State as a GA and the other graduate assistant was Joe Dean Jr. We became great friends, and I’d go to Joe’s house and spend the weekend with the Dean family. (Future LSU athletic director Joe Dean Sr.) was the guy who helped get guys jobs, made calls for them. I had to be successful for the opportunity for Joe (Sr.) to hire me. The relationship I made with Joe Dean Jr. led me to knowing his father. Twenty years later, I’m the head coach at LSU. It’s funny how life works and the twists and turns along the way.”
Following a Louisiana legend like Brown was not an easy transition, but Brady did it his way, relying on his basketball mantra to mold an LSU team on probation into an SEC championship team.
“John had a saying, ‘Responsibility plus accountability equals success,’” said Brady assistant Kermit Davis, who eventually became a head coach at Middle Tennessee and Ole Miss.
That equation – and the signing of Shreveport prep standout Stromile Swift – ignited a turnaround on the court and helped Brady truly start building a program that dealt with the loss of six scholarships across a three-year period.
Despite the sanctions, the foundation was in place for the building that would crest with a magical 2005-06 season where a group of six players from within a 50-mile radius helped Brady take the Tigers to the Final Four – a joyride that included an upset of top-ranked Duke and came just months after Hurricane Katrina ransacked the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
“That team, the top six players were from within 50 miles of Baton Rouge,” said Brady, who led the Tigers to a pair of SEC championships and three NCAA Tournament berths, plus four more NIT appearances in 10 seasons. “They had grown up playing with each other or against each other, and they had a really special bond. Every one of them was touched by the tragedy of Katrina, and I think that brought them even closer together.”
A similarly close bond between siblings helped deliver a signature moment for the LSU women’s basketball team when it landed Fowles, a 6-foot-6 standout from Miami.
Brought to LSU by coach Sue Gunter, who promised nothing more than the opportunity to complete for playing time, Fowles teamed with fellow Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus to usher in a tremendous stretch of Tigers women’s basketball – one that included four straight Final Four appearances.
“In my home visit, (Gunter) told me she wasn’t starting me as a freshman, that I had to earn it,” said Fowles via a Zoom call from Chicago where her Portland Fire were preparing for a WNBA game against the Chicago Sky. “That motivated me to be around her. I was signed, sealed and delivered after hearing her say you had to work for everything you want.”
Fowles, who is now an assistant coach with the Fire, averaged a double-double at LSU before a prolific WNBA career with the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx where she averaged 15.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in her career.
Four Olympic gold medals, two WNBA titles and a spot of the WNBA’s 25th Anniversary Team only buttress a resume that came in a sport Fowles once regarded as “dumb,” thanks in part to her three older brothers.
“Growing up with them, I was allowed to play defense only,” she said. “I didn’t learn the rules of the game until eighth grade. I didn’t there were two ends of the court playing simultaneously. It was that moment I realized I was getting cheated. I didn’t think the sport was dumb after that.”
Although her brothers failed to share the full extent of basketball with their younger sister, Fowles never missed an opportunity to help someone else.
“She’s the best center of all time in women’s basketball,” said former Minnesota teammate Lindsey Whalen. “She had a relentless will to rebound and to get to her spot on the block. She had great hands. Then there were times you’d look over and she’s helping put towels away or doing anything she could to help someone else.”
Growing up in Baton Rouge, McClure dreamed of playing for the Tigers – in more than one sport.
A three-sport star at Central High School, McClure went to nearby LSU with designs on playing both football and baseball, where he would have teamed with his brother, Trey, an All-American on the diamond.
Instead, it took his Tiger football coach Gerry DiNardo all of three games to nix any idea of a McClure brothers tandem at venerable Alex Box Stadium.
“I had played mostly tight end and defensive end in high school,” McClure said. “I didn’t know how quickly I could pick it up. My sports background allowed me to pick it up so quickly. It helped to have Alan Faneca, an NFL Hall of Famer, teaching me the ropes. Coach DiNardo told me I had a chance to make the NFL. For a freshman, for him to put those thoughts in my mind, meant a lot.”
After a standout career anchoring the Tiger offensive line and twice earning All-SEC honors along with All-America recognition as a senior, McClure was a seventh-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons.
There, the man fellow Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Kevin Faulk referred to as the second smartest player on that Tiger team and a true leader, McClure overcame a season-ending knee injury as a rookie to become even more than a foundation player for the Falcons.
“Todd was our rock of Gibraltar,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said. “He’s one of the greats in the history of the Atlanta Falcons franchise. He’s an exceptional human being and leader in the NFL.”
A member of the Falcons’ Ring of Honor, McClure spent all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Falcons, a rarity in the current professional sports landscape.
“He dedicated himself not only to the team, but to his family,” said his father, Leo McClure. “He was able to keep them in one city. Sorry, Saints fans, once he was a Falcon, he was always a Falcon.”
McClure cited the meaning behind the Ring of Honor as the culmination of what he hoped for as a player.
“It wasn’t about awards or accolades,” he said. “You want to earn the respect of your teammates and coaches and the people you played against. For your owner to come out and show you that type of respect is why I played the game and why I loved the game.”