La. legends inducted into sports hall of fame

NATCHITOCHES -- All roads lead to the banks of the Cane River as a new class of inductees joined the ranks of legendary athletes enshrined in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame on June 23. For this year’s 12 honorees, they all took different roads getting them to that point of their careers.

For Garland Forman, known as “The Country Journalist,” his road to the hall of fame as one of the recipients of the Distinguished Service Award in sports journalism began as an 8-year-old boy with a paper route. He then became a manager at Louisiana College and eventually became editor of The Bunkie Record. Over the years, he has received several hundred awards for his writing, photography, and layout. He is also the only person to serve as president of the Louisiana Press Association and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Today, he serves as publisher of the Ville Platte Gazette and oversees 13 papers across central and north Louisiana for Louisiana State Newspapers.

Forman said the community and sports intersect and form an important aspect in people’s lives.

For another inductee, Coach Claney Duplechin, of Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge, his road to Natchitoches began at the same time he was playing
drums at Fred’s Lounge in his native Mamou at the age of 16.

Duplechin grew up playing baseball and was a self-proclaimed “decent athlete” on his Green Demon squad. He then became a coach and got hired at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge.

He had the opportunity to learn from legendary Coach Pete Bourdreaux, who himself is inducted into the hall. “He changed my mind and made me start loving the sport of track and field,” said Duplechin. “I learned so much from him about how to coach people and not how to coach the sport. I think if you coach people first at any level and not the sport you’re going to be successful.”

After years at Catholic High, Duplechin then went to Episcopal. Since then, his teams won 64 LHSAA state titles in track and cross country and 15 runner-up finishes.

Also winning the Distinguished Service Award in sports journalism was Ted Allen, who has worked for the Shreveport Journal and The Times in Shreveport and for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans before founding DesignatedWriters.com.

Receiving the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award was Jay Cicero, the president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. The foundation is responsible for bringing major sporting events, like the Super Bowl and the Final Four, to the Crescent City.

Cicero’s road began on the baseball diamond in his native Shreveport and almost went a different route when he interviewed for a job in the front office of the San Francisco Giants in 1989. “I was there for the Earthquake Game,” he said.

“I said I cannot move to California after going through that experience,” Cicero said, “so I ended up moving to New Orleans the next year.”
Cicero’s secret to success down his hall of fame journey is surrounding himself with great people.

Opelousas native Steve Duhon entered the hall of fame as a steer wrestler, but, in doing so, took a page out of the Robert Frost playbook and took a road less traveled.

Duhon played a year of football at LSU. “I realized I was just a little too small to be able to play the game,” he said. “I got hurt playing a couple of times and broke my shoulder my freshman year.

"At the end of the year, I realized I had a different road I could go on.”

He then began competing in rodeos and claimed the PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year award. He also won three world championships (1986, 1987, and

1993) in rodeo as a steer wrestler and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo eight times. He twice won the steer wrestling NFR aggregate title and established a Wrangler NFR record run of 3.0 seconds in 1986.

Britni Sneed Newman was a pitcher on the LSU softball team from 1999 to 2002 and was a cornerstone of the school’s first team to make the Women’s College World Series.

She collected 10 no-hitters, six of which came during her senior season.

Fellow Texas native Susan Jackson finished her gymnastics career at LSU second in school history with 12 career All-America honors, including 11 first-team honors. In addition, she also won two national titles and the Honda Award as the nation’s best gymnast.

The highlight of Jackson’s road to the hall of fame was getting to the Super 6 for the first time in school history.

What Newman and Jackson did in laying foundations, two other inductees did the same on the football field.

On the offensive line, Jahri Evans was an anchor for the New Orleans Saints on their way to their first Super Bowl title in 2009.

Among his career accolades are six Pro Bowl appearances.

Kyle Williams, a Ruston native, was similarly a building block for the recent successes of LSU football. Williams was a member of the LSU football team to win the national championship in 2003, the school’s first since 1958. He was then drafted by the Buffalo Bills and played 13 seasons.

Justin Robichaux, son of the late Tony Robichaux, recalled his father’s struggles as a young coach at McNeese.

He used those struggles to motivate him on his way to becoming the winningest baseball coach in Louisiana.

At the time of his death in 2019, at the age of 57, he had the seventh winningest record in the NCAA with a mark of 1,177-767-2.

The late Eric Andolsek went into the hall of fame near the 30th anniversary of his death. In his final NFL season, Andolsek helped the Lions win the NFC Central title and advanced to the NFC championship game.

“He started off at a very young age being very competitive,” Andolsek’s brother, Andy, said. “Eric did not like to lose at anything. It pushed him to work harder.

"Even when he was at Thibodaux High and when he was a freshman at LSU he always thought he wasn’t good enough. That just pushed him to train harder
and harder.”

Also inducted was the late Dr. Eddie Flynn, who won an Olympic boxing gold medal in the welterweight (147 pounds) division at the 1932 Los Angeles Games, defeating Erich Campe of Germany in the final.

After the Olympics, Flynn fought professionally and compiled a 23-7-1 record until he entered military service and served through World War II.

All of the inductees thanked the many people who made their hall of fame journeys possible, including their families.