Written for the LSWA
NATCHITOCHES – The lens through which much of the nation views Louisiana was on full display Saturday night inside the Natchitoches Events Center as the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame welcomed in its 12-person class of 2025.
“A lot of people look at this state through the athletic programs at LSU,” said seven-time national champion college football coach Nick Saban, whose first title came in 2003 at the helm of the Tiger program. “When we were there, we raised the bar and the standard.”
The standard raising and bearing celebrated Saturday night did not begin and end with Saban nor did it end with on-field or competitive accomplishments.
Joining Saban in the induction class was one of his first recruits – West Monroe offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth. Whitworth followed his national championship at LSU with a standout NFL career that culminated in a Super Bowl victory that came after he took home the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Saban lauded Whitworth as epitomizing what the coach wanted his players to become in their post-collegiate career.
Whitworth attributed that to his home state’s culture and what it instilled in him during his formative years in northeast Louisiana.
“Culture is shared belief and values,” he said. “When you have that, it makes it special. I always want to make things better than I found them, and I have been given the blessings and ability to do that. Anything I’m a part of, it will be better because I’m there. The people I do it with are what matters most. That’s our way of life.
“When I think of being at West Monroe, I think about my parents and my teammates’ parents. When we were really successful, they were feeding the whole team and the coaches are pouring into us. At LSU, it was the same thing. You’re just further away from home, but it was a new home. Moms were having us over to eat. Dads were taking us to lunch, asking us what we wanted to do after LSU. It was a support system. Once you get to the league, you have to be the support system. Could I share the values I learned from Louisiana? Making others feel valued. Can you spread that love? Making everyone feel special and feel a part of something sets you up to be successful. That’s our way of life in Louisiana.”
Being that support system for others came naturally to Whitworth and was on display long before his 16-year NFL career that saw him help redefine the legacy of left tackles at football highest level.
“He always poured into other guys,” West Monroe strength and conditioning coach Kirk Frantom said. “Whit was always in tune with his body and always wanted to perform at his highest level, but it wasn’t just the competitiveness. It was the servant’s heart he has.”
Whitworth’s legacy extended to his final NFL stop, winning a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams, a franchise that allowed him to lead almost in lock step with head coach Sean McVay. Whitworth’s relationship with McVay has been well documented, and the two remain close after Whitworth’s retirement from the game.
“Whit always said this is a blessing, not a burden, and that’s the approach he took every day,” McVay said. “He’s the only person to wear the Walter Payton Man of the Year patch and go out and win a Super Bowl to go out. He is the epitome of a special one and of a Hall of Famer.”
While at LSU, Whitworth shared campus with another transformative force – one that came in a much smaller package than his hulking, 6-foot-7, 330-pound frame.
For the second straight year, the Hall opened its doors to a female LSU student-athlete who changed the trajectory of program in Baton Rouge. One year after women’s basketball’s Seimone Augustus walked into the Hall, 14-time All-American gymnast April Burkholder gained entry into the state’s sports shrine.
Just as Augustus did, Burkholder’s presence turned the Pete Maravich Assembly Center into the place to be when LSU competed.
“It was the same time that LSU women’s basketball landed Seimone,” said Hall of Fame coach D-D Breaux, who coached Burkholder throughout her LSU career. “There was so much gain and so much reward with April. She brought a real professional, polished look, a style and a self-confidence in the kind of gymnastics she wanted to do. The program continued to grow. The crowds continued to grow. She was the start of that.”
The All-American honors and the 2006 NCAA beam championship almost never happened. Burkholder faced injuries that threatened her career starting at age 2 with a concussion and a fractured skull.
There were two compound fractures and three surgeries on one of her arms. Amputation of that arm nearly happened.
Yet, Burkholder pushed through and became the standard bearer for an ascendant program that reached a national championship peak in 2024.
“My parents said at one point, ‘We’re OK if you don’t want to do gymnastics again,’” Burkholder said. “I said, ‘What would it all be worth? What would it be for?’ That’s what makes it all worth it. Grit, perseverance, it teaches you throughout your entire life. It teaches you life skills you use forever.”
Burkholder’s place in LSU lore is secure while another set of skills endeared Metairie-raised Danny Granger to his NBA teammates – skills that weren’t the ones that led to him scoring 9,855 points and earning one NBA All-Star selection.
Those helped, but it was the family unit that aided some of Granger’s popularity in the Indiana Pacers locker room, especially when the team visited New Orleans.
“Everybody knew when we would play in New Orleans that I would need 50 tickets or something crazy like that for my family and friends,” said Granger, who could not make the ceremony but spoke via video from Scottsdale, Arizona. “My grandmother, I don’t know how she did it, but she got past security and would leave food on our bus. It was so common that when I left Indiana, one of my former teammates called me and said, ‘We’re going to play in New Orleans. Can you tell your grandmother to bring us some food? I wasn’t there, but she still brought the food.”
While the story brought a roomful of laughter, Granger’s multi-faceted game that took shape at Grace King High School before a stellar college career at New Mexico made life tough on opposing coaches and much easier on his own coach.
“He was that guy,” said Jeryl Fischtziur, Granger’s Grace King coach. “He was a quiet leader, but he always worked so hard. He had a 32 ACT and a 4.0 GPA. Yale was after him really hard. If every kid understood the work ethic Danny had, they’d be better off.”
Injuries scuttled Granger’s pro career and left questions about how many more All-Star Games were in his future. One thing hasn’t changed for Granger when he comes back to New Orleans.
“We try to go back and see my family as much as possible, but we have to fast for about five days before we go, because I know I’m going to eat,” he said. “We are planning to be back there in about four or five months, so I better start working out.”
Workouts were on the menu whenever George “Bobby” Soileau had the eyes and ears of his Sacred Heart football team, part of an impressive second act that rivaled a remarkable first.
A national championship boxer at LSU in the 1950s, Soileau coached Sacred Hart for 30 seasons, winning 159 games, at least a share of nine district titles and a Class B state championship in 1967.
“He goes to LSU and wins a national championship as a sophomore,” journalist Raymond Partsch III said. “Then they killed the program. Now, he doesn’t have the thing he’s most passionate about. The great thing about coach Soileau is he reinvented himself.”
He instilled a toughness in his Trojan teams that helped the Ville Platte-based school compete until the very end – just as he had in the ring.”
“He was a disciplinarian and loved conditioning,” said Soileau’s son, Robert, who spoke on behalf of his father. “That went back to his boxing. He’s stay in the ring and throw and take punches. He brought that to the football field. He had some of his players who went and played at McNeese, and they said, ‘We didn’t do as much conditioning there as we did with coach Bobby.’ He was determined they would win in the fourth quarter.”
Soileau’s legacy lives on in his son, who is Sacred Heart’s head track and field coach and an assistant football coach. As for the elder Soileau, he’s still throwing punches as he battles dementia.
During his son’s speech, a video showed father and son sparring with Bobby Soileau showing he still had the hand speed that wowed Billy Cannon during the two’s shared time together at LSU.
“His hands were super fast,” Robert Soileau said. “He could throw three jabs, and you’d think it was one. Billy Cannon was bragging about my dad and how good a fighter he was. The legend’s telling me he never missed a fight, telling me how great my dad was. When I heard that, I thought he must have been pretty dang good.”
Unlike Robert Soileau who heard stories of his father’s prowess, Neil Weiner had a front-row seat to his father’s construction of a prep football power at Baton Rouge’s Catholic High School.
Four games into his Catholic career, however, it did not appear Dale Weiner was on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
“My very first year as a principal we were 0-4,” said Lisa Harvey, who currently serves as Catholic High’s President. “I remember saying, ‘Dale, if you don’t win this next game, they’re going to run you and me out of here.’”
The wins soon followed – 317 of them to be exact along with a state championship in 2015. Along the way, the Bears went from being the featured opponent for other schools’ Homecoming games to the team no one wanted to face.
Whether it was teams that featured high-wattage stars like Warrick Dunn, Travis Minor and Major Applewhite or more balanced outfits where quality depth was a calling card, Catholic’s surge went hand in hand with Dale Weiner’s faith-based beliefs.
“He saw coaching as a calling,” said Neil Weiner, the head coach at Baton Rouge’s Dunham School. “He wanted to reflect Christ’s love to his players and his school. When Dale Weiner and that mission and Catholic’s mission came together, you got 30 years of excellence.”
The Dale Weiner people who filled Baton Rouge’s Memorial Stadium saw was the same one who drove Neil Weiner to school every day. Dale Weiner attended Saturday’s ceremony after being released from the hospital earlier in the week.
“He was rock steady all the time,” Neil said. “My dad’s my hero. He just never makes mistakes. I wanted to be just like him. Even when I could screw everything up, unconditional love was poured out. Watching him and the way he loved my mom, loved my sisters and raised us is an absolute inspiration.”
The father-son connection between the Soileaus and Weiners was taken even deeper when Delgado baseball coach Joe Scheuermann became a Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer.
With his selection, he joined his father Rags Scheuermann to become the fourth father-son duo in the Hall.
A New Orleans native, Scheuermann has spent 35 seasons following his father as Delgado’s coach, winning more than 1,200 games and taking the Dolphins to five NJCAA World Series appearances. Seven years into his tenure, Scheuermann’s father died a week shy of his 74th birthday. That marked a turning point for the younger Scheuermann.
“I wasn’t a very good coach the first 10 years,” he said. “My father was there, and I was worried about impressing him and not embarrassing him. Once he passed, I started doing it my way. He’s laughing at me right now, but he used to send me notes through our official scorer. I didn’t need them to know I screwed up.”
While Joe Scheuermann may have fretted about embarrassing his father, those who knew baseball could have assuaged those fears.
“When I came to Louisiana, I met a young kid whose father coached the team,” legendary LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman said. “Ultimately, a few years later, he was the coach. I could tell there’s something special about this guy. He’s been a superstar for Louisiana baseball and certainly a Hall of Famer.”
And he has done it by keeping things in the family.
His son, Tyler, is his father’s right-hand man, handling operations, media relations and whatever else is needed.
“That’s a part of the Scheuermanns’ creed,” Tyler said. “The expectation is there is a pass-it-on mentality. My grandfather said, you don’t raise your family for yourself. You raise it for others. There is a mantra that is unspoken and it is a servant leadership that has been a steady presence not just in my dad’s career but generationally.”
Family forged Vickie Johnson’s rise from small-town sensation in Coushatta to Louisiana Tech standout and WNBA trailblazer.
Initially, Johnson’s brother did not want her playing basketball with him and other family members. Johnson took the initiative and found an opening to exploit.
“One Saturday they were playing two-on-two but they only had three players,” she said. “I was lurking in the wings. I secretly practiced for five or six months, because I knew the opportunity would present itself again. When it did, he allowed me to play. From that moment on, he put me under his wing and helped me get there.”
That snub-turned-protector and nurturer began the push that led Johnson to become the first WNBA player to score 4,000 points, grab 1,000 rebounds and hand out 1,000 assists in a career. What it also may have birthed was a pretty effective forearm.
“My first memory of Vickie was her forearm in my hip,” said current Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, a six-time WNBA All-Star. “It was a reality check. I thought, ‘Oh, man, she’s really strong.’ I did get a lot of my points off her assists. I like to say I helped her in the assists category and she helped me in the points category. She’s one of a kind. They don’t make them like V.J. anymore.”
Johnson fought back tears when speaking about her late mother, who passed away in 2016. It was her mother who “allowed me to dream and dream big.”
It was her mother who also may have allowed Louisiana Tech to keep its nascent star.
“There was a moment at Louisiana Tech when coach (Leon) Barmore got on me good,” Johnson said. “I called my mom and said, ‘This guy is crazy. I need to leave.’ She said, ‘I’m going to ask you three questions. You wanted to go to Louisiana Tech?’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ‘You signed a scholarship?’ Yes, ma’am. ‘You at Louisiana Tech?’ Yes, ma’am. ‘Then stay your (butt) there.’”
No one has had to convince Danny Broussard to stay at St. Thomas More, although there were – like many first-time coaches – questions about whether he was fit for the job upon his hiring.
A state championship in his first season helped answer those inquiries emphatically and gave rise to a 42-year career that has netted five more state championships for the Cougars. Those, however, came long after Broussard’s first title of any kind.
“I was a high school senior, and they say, ‘We’ve got a 4-H tournament for sixth, seventh and eighth graders,’” Broussard said. “I said, ‘Maybe, I’ll get a team together.’ I practiced them a couple of weeks, go to the tournament and we win it all. I went to school on Monday morning, carrying that championship trophy to our principal. I thought I could make a career out of it.”
Broussard’s trademark high-intensity style has funneled its way through generations of Cougar basketball players.
“He was high-strung and energetic,” said Lyle Mouton, a player on Broussard’s first state championship team before becoming a national champion baseball player at LSU and a major leaguer. “It always showed in his teams. If you’re energetic, your team will feed off it.”
Broussard’s 1,162 career victories are sixth all-time national. He is 171 victories away from setting a national record. If he does, his thank you list will be larger than the throng of people who made the trip from Lafayette to celebrate their coach.
“Tommy Lasorda said he bleeds Dodger Blue,” Broussard said. “I bleed St. Thomas More maroon and blue. We’re a family. That’s what it’s all about.”
Though it wasn’t a family business, a journalism career just made sense to Glenn Guilbeau, one of the two Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism honorees.
The son of a devoted LSU sports fan and an original New Orleans Saints ticketholder whose wife was an English teacher, Guilbeau’s DNA prepared him for a career that has seen him win national awards while allowing him a front-row seat to some of the top moments in Louisiana sports history.
“I got to cover the greatest baseball coach of all time in Skip Bertman,” Guilbeau said. “I covered the greatest football coach in Nick Saban. I covered a great basketball coach in John Brady. I enjoyed covering John, and Skip and Nick were really, really special because they’re both teachers. They left a lasting impression on me.”
The same can be said in reverse. Never one to shy away from an opinion or to doggedly latch onto a breaking news story, Guilbeau left his mark on those he covered.
“He’s probably the top journalist I’ve been around in my life in sports,” former LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said. “It wasn’t always bells and whistles, but I always respected Glenn. I always thought he was fair.”
Some accusations lobbed at Guilbeau involve a perceived negativity for which the versatile journalist has an explanation.
“I’ve never spoken to a psychologist or an analyst about this, but I was a Saints fan from age seven on, and they didn’t have a winning season until I was 26,” said Guilbeau, who was able to cover the team’s Super Bowl championship. “I remember when I was 14 in 1975, the Saints moved into the Dome and went 2-12. That same year, my baseball team – the (Houston) Astros – finished 40 games out of first place. Ask me why I’m negative.”
Joining Guilbeau, a New Orleans native, in the DSA category Saturday night was New Orleans television institution Ed Daniels, who died of a heart attack in 2024.
A champion for high school sports – not just football – Daniels was a voice for those who may have been overlooked.
“He liked the purity of (high school sports),” said Ro Brown, himself a DSA winner. “He recognized people who would not have been recognized for doing something good. He provided a service to the community. People don’t think about sportscasters doing that. He knew why we do what we do.”
Daniels was represented throughout the weekend by his wife, Robin, and his daughter, Erin. Daniels’ larger-than-life presence was an adjustment for Robin.
“I was comfortable staying in the background,” she said. “It was an adjustment being with someone who is so big and magnanimous. He had the greatest personality and sense of humor. It was eye-opening and humbling. There have been many awards, but he would be so honored by this one.”
Daniels’ reach wasn’t limited to the prep scene.
“I consider him like a Nick Saban,” longtime John Curtis football coach JT Curtis said. “His work ethic was unbelievable. Prep, college, pro, it didn’t matter. Ed was going to be there.”
The same could be said for Herb Vincent, especially as it pertained to the LSU campus.
Vincent, the 2025 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award winner, graduated from LSU and spent two separate tenures working at his alma mater.
As Saban said, Louisiana often is viewed through the lens of LSU sports. Part of that image was built by Vincent, which caught the attention of the other side of the Baton Rouge campus during his second stop in the state capital.
“The chancellor called me and said, ‘I want to stop by your office,’” Vincent said. “I said, ‘You’re the chancellor. I should come to your office.’ He came by and said, ‘I really like what you’re doing with the marketing of the athletic department. We want you to do that for the university.’”
Said LSU athletic administrator Verge Ausberry: “He knew the message to put out there. He knew how LSU needed to look.”
And he had known it for a long time. Legendary LSU sports information director Paul Manasseh allowed Vincent to work in his office as a freshman – a stunning development – sensing something special in Vincent.
Others knew too. After the USFL folded when Vincent was working for the LA Express, Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Dan McDonald seized on the opportunity to add him to his staff at the then-University of Southwestern Louisiana, knowing full well it was not going to last long.
“Herb was basically looking for some place to land, and we had a job opening,” McDonald said. “I thought, this is great, but I knew all along it was a short-term thing.”
Vincent matriculated down I-10 to LSU for the first time and added to a Hollywood-esque time as a Tiger.
“I feel like the Forrest Gump of LSU,” Vincent said. “I was behind the goal posts in the Earthquake Game. I saw the Bluegrass Miracle. I was on the concourse behind home plate for the Warren Morris home run. All that makes for great memories at LSU.”
Saban can understand Vincent’s feelings.
In five seasons, Saban took a 3-8 team and turned it into a national championship, securing LSU’s first national crown in 45 years in 2003.
His first recruiting class included Whitworth with whom he shared induction Saturday. The pair was instrumental in helping broaden the horizons and setting new standards at LSU.
For that, Tiger fans can thank – in large part – Terri Saban.
“We had just gone 10-2 at Michigan State, and I was disappointed in our administration because of their lack of commitment to what we wanted to do,” Saban said. “I was interested in the LSU job. (The LSU contingent) met me in Memphis secretly to interview me for the job. They offered me the job. I said, ‘I can’t take the job. I haven’t been to Baton Rouge.’ I couldn’t go for an interview because if (Michigan State) found out publicly, they’ll absolutely crucify me. So I sent Mrs. Terri – this is the truth – to interview. Mark Emmert’s wife showed her around for two days. There were billboards of who LSU wanted to hire, and my name wasn’t on there.
“She spent two days, and I called and said, ‘What do you think?’ She said, ‘Man, this place needs a lot of work. The stadium is in bad shape. They have no academic support and no academic facilities. The players are not doing well academically. You have to get on the bus and ride to practice from campus because the facilities are separate. The coaches’ offices are in a bank building. I don’t know how you are going to recruit here, but I went in the weight room, and they have some damn good-looking players. ‘ That’s ow I took the job.”
The good-looking players continued to find their way to Baton Rouge under Saban in large part because of the coach’s personality.
“You can’t recruit the type of players he did without the ability to connect,” said former LSU and Dallas Cowboy standout Marcus Spears. “Moving from tight end to defensive end was difficult at 17, 18 years of age. I trusted him blindly and he turned out to be right. There are hundreds of those stories. He has had consistency in his work and elevated people.”
Saban elevated the LSU program to that 2003 national champion, which he said gave him the best feeling in his professional life to that point.
What has transpired in the 21 seasons since also has made Saban flush with Bayou State pride even as he stood across the gridiron from the purple-and-gold clad Tigers.
“I’m proud of the fact that we contributed to the iconic brand LSU has and the state of Louisiana has,” he said. ‘All of us, when we get rid of the self-imposed limitations and accomplish something of significance, it establishes a new horizon. The next time you accomplish it, it’s a new horizon. Then, it becomes the standard, the example for other people. Transformational leadership helps other people reach those horizons as well. I’m really, really proud every time I see LSU. It was a great rivalry (with Alabama), but I’m always proud because we did something to raise the bar and the program has been outstanding ever since.”
