Written for the LSWA
You know, when Louisiana Sports and College Sports Communicators Hall of Famer Dan McDonald wrote the feature piece on Herb Vincent when our friend joined Dan in the CSC Hall of Fame in 2021, he opened with three simple words:
“Where to start?”
Now, four years later, Vincent joins us in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as this year’s Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award as part of the class of 2025. The Induction Celebration is June 26-28 in Natchitoches, with details at LaSportsHall.com.
By definition of the award we have found the perfect recipient.
“The Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award has been presented annually by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s 40-member Hall of Fame selection committee to an individual who has played a decisive role as a sports leader or administrator benefiting Louisiana and/or bringing credit to Louisiana on the national and international level.”
It is named in honor of the 1999 LSHOF inductee, an entrepreneur and innovator who is credited as the key figure in bringing an NFL franchise to New Orleans, and the development of the Caesars Superdome, highlighting an array of sports-related endeavors.
So with that said, I again must ask the question:
“Where to start?”
Or better yet, who to start with? Who couldn’t tell you something about Herb Vincent? People like media members, longtime athletics staffers, legendary coaches and just plain friends. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t met Herb, or known of Herb, since many here this weekend have worked alongside or in some form of media that Herb has helped oversee for decades.
The legendary Paul Manasseh hired him when he was an unpaid writer for The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student newspaper. Soon, he became one of Manasseh’s guys, a large group of sports information personnel that has gone on to distinguished heights in the media profession in their careers.
“Herb has been one of my best friends ever since I got to know him back, early in college,” said Jimmy Manasseh, Paul’s youngest son, who is now a successful trial attorney in Baton Rouge who has argued multiple times before the U.S. Supreme Court. “I was still in high school. He was the one of the first people, and really the only person, that my dad ever let work in the sports information department as a freshman. So there was something that my dad spotted that was special about Herb.”
Paul Manasseh was very fond of Herb from the very beginning. He knew that he was someone that could go a long way in this business. He took this youngster from Little Rock under his wing and taught him. Everything. When you have someone like him who will do that, it’s easy for this business to get into your blood.
Before passing away in 2000, Paul got to see some of Vincent’s success, including Herb’s return to LSU as Sports Information Director, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
But before returning to his alma mater he joined Manasseh in the days of the United States Football League’s inaugural incarnation with the 1984 New Orleans Breakers, and later the Los Angeles Express. Both good training ground locations, but teams that were never going to be called the most stable of a soon unstable league.
And, that led to the first of several great partnerships of Vincent’s career.
McDonald was the sports information director at Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana Lafayette) and ran a small office, but there was an opening for the only full-time assistant position. When the USFL folded, he offered a chance to get back in the game.
“I was really lucky, the one year that I was around him on really a day-to-day basis,” said McDonald. “He basically was looking for someplace to land after the USFL went away and we happened to have a job opening. And I said, ‘this is great. This is going to be spectacular’. Now, I knew all along that this was very much a short-term thing, that there was going to be somebody in the SEC or somebody from a larger school or something that was going to come calling, or maybe even a conference office, which is where he eventually wound up.
“I knew that was going to happen, but every day that I was around him, I learned something. I picked up something from him. I hope he picked up a little bit, something from me too. But we had such a great relationship during the time he was here. It was just amazing. I really enjoyed coming to work every day, and a lot of it was because he was there and we were going to do some pretty impressive things for a school the size of USL that didn’t have the resources a lot of these other places had.”
The SEC communications department came calling in 1985-86, and in 1988 he joined the staff at LSU and advanced from an assistant all the way to associate vice chancellor for university relations for the entire LSU campus before rejoining the SEC staff in 2013.
And as Jimmy Manasseh points out, “There’s nobody that has more respect in the circles that he lives in than Herb Vincent.”
“Herb Vincent was one of the best guys I’ve ever hired,” said former LSU baseball coach and athletics director Skip Bertman, who brought Vincent back to LSU again after a couple years away from the school working for a regional sports network. “What a guy. He was so good at everything that he worked. He did things for the university, and he did things for the athletic department … He’s excellent. Well deserving of the Hall of Fame. I love him, and I am so happy for him. He’s a great one.”
“Well, Herb’s experience on campus is invaluable in the SEC office right now,” said Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey. “And the relationships he’s built, I think, are the foundation for that Hall of Fame contribution and the ability to know people, to talk to people, to slow them down when they need to be slowed down. That includes myself. And when we hired him, the number of messages that came into our office, recognizing his credibility with the media, I think, underscores why he deserves that Hall of Fame recognition.”
But have we really told you what makes Herb Vincent a leader that everyone respects and is able to work with so well?
Let me get one of this year’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism winners to speak on this subject, Glenn Guilbeau. In his own way I might add.
“He’d go out with the writers after the game and we’d always have fun,” said the long-time LSU and SEC beat writer. “But even when we did that, he was always professional. He was very communicative with writers. He’d tell you what he could tell you on the record but also give you background. He was the best at that.
“He studied damage control from other SID’s and he was really smart with that. The 30-year anniversary of Billy Cannon’s run (an iconic moment in Tiger football history) was during 1989 when LSU was horrible. To divert people, Herb brought Billy to the weekly press conference that week, and instead of everyone talking about the football losses, everyone was suddenly doing all these Billy Cannon stories. He was so smart about that.”
One of those Herb worked with and got to know over the years was another Hall of Fame Class of 2025 member, Joe Scheuermann, the baseball coach and athletics director at Delgado in New Orleans.
“Herb and I first met each other as students,” Scheuermann recalled. “He was a student in the sports information office at LSU and I was a student in the sports information office at Tulane. I think the first time we might have met was at a women’s basketball game. Believe it or not. But, I mean, I think that’s like 1982, ‘83. That’s how far we go back. So, you know, we’re talking, what, 42 years ago, which is quite a relationship. I mean, he’s been a friend for a long time.
“We had a situation where I was in charge of the PR of the Sugar Bowl and we used to bring in visiting SIDs to help us work the week of the Sugar Bowl. Herb was always there, and we really got to be great friends. That’s really where our relationship really bonded. He’d come in and work and we’d spend a week together and really got to be really close.”
So now the personal truth. I was a grad student at LSU in journalism when Herb was an undergraduate and like everyone else became good colleagues and great friends. I was covering LSU for the Shreveport Times and Paul Manasseh had me work on a few special projects for the office, so I was there a lot. I would eventually return to Shreveport and Herb would graduate and start his journey.
But in the summer of 1988, I got a call from the LSU Sports Information Director. A guy named Vincent called offering me a job as the men’s basketball media contact. I interviewed and was offered the position. It didn’t really take long to say yes. So if you media types want to blame anyone for the 37 years I’ve at times made your life miserable with basketball or football credentials or a myriad of other things, this guy is the man to blame.
But along the way, we’ve shared good times and bad. Athletic achievements of the highest form and some lowlights as well. I’ve watched him marry a lovely woman in his wife, Jamey, and all of us got to watch a smart, personable kid named Kennedy turn into a kind and beautiful lady.
To have him in our Hall of Fame is a must. To receive the Dixon Award is perfect. I’m still not sure what to write, but hopefully this does justice.
Shreveport native Kent Lowe, a 2020 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee as a recipient of the LSWA’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, was the first-ever person awarded the Marty Mule’ Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Hero Award recognizing remarkable impact on the LSHOF.
— LaSportsHall.com —
