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Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame: Weekend to remember-Stars relish Hall of Fame induction for the agesJason Pugh, Daily Advertiser, July 1, 2013
NATCHITOCHES — Shaquille O’Neal certainly knows how to put his stamp on things. When he arrived here Friday, a day ahead of induction ceremonies for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, O’Neal made sure to welcome the media to “Shaq-itoches, Louisiana.” The comment was simply a matter of Shaq being Shaq. Hours before his induction, O’Neal showed his true grasp of the honor of being one of nine athletic inductees who officially joined the state athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday night at the Natchitoches Event Center. “It’s not all about me,” said O’Neal, who announced his plans to partner with Our Lady of the Lake Hospital to start a free children’s hospital in Baton Rouge. “There are some other great athletes (being inducted). This is a great event, a great town, a great state.” O’Neal, who said he created his Shaq persona during a three-year career at LSU, was joined by former LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson, former LSU and NFL offensive lineman Kevin Mawae, standout tennis player Chanda Rubin, legendary high school basketball coach Ed “Skeets” Tuohy, jockey Ronald Ardoin, former UNO and NBA player Ervin Johnson, former Grambling State basketball standout James Jones and decorated female athlete Anna Koll. The athletes were joined by Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award winner Milt Retif and Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism honoree Bob Marshall of The Times-Picayune in the Class of 2013. Despite their varied backgrounds, the members of the first Hall of Fame Class to be enshrined in the new Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum found common ground. Rubin, who grew up in Carencro and learned to play tennis at Red Lerille’s in Lafayette, was unaware of Koll’s accomplishments, but Rubin vowed to learn more about Koll, whose Hall of Fame bio describes her as New Orleans’ “Greatest All-Around Female Athlete.” “It is a great honor to be among those great athletes,” said Rubin, who playfully dodged O’Neal’s claims that she proposed to him prior to their joint news conference. “Louisiana just has some of the greatest athletes you’ll find in any state. It really is a tremendous joy and honor to be here this weekend.” What the honor meant to Rubin and O’Neal was made clear by what they did to travel to Natchitoches. Rubin left her television commentating post at Wimbledon to travel back to Louisiana for the event. O’Neal, whose post-playing career has seen him carve new niche as an NBA analyst, worked around a busy schedule that includes a meeting next week about the hospital to attend the ceremonies. “It’s something about Louisiana, like Shaq said in his interviews, that you don’t get anywhere else in the world,” Rubin said. “Once you have roots here, once you feel a connection, it’s always there. Those roots are deep, but they kept me grounded as well, through the ups and downs of a professional career. I always came back to Louisiana, and I always called it home.” For O’Neal, Louisiana wasn’t his birthplace or even a childhood home. Instead it was a place he became a transcendent player and where his larger-than-life personality began to take shape. It also was a place he quickly learned to love, and, in return, it loved him back. “The state lifted me to greatness,” O’Neal said. “LSU lifted me to greatness. The people of Louisiana lifted me to greatness.” Friday’s ceremonies christened a 27,500-square-foot building honoring Louisiana’s athletic and cultural history. “When I walked in, my eyes just got big,” said former Grambling basketball star Aaron James, a 2012 Hall of Fame inductee. “The first thing I saw was that Grambling jacket. My wife and I took a picture in front of it. It’s amazing that people are going to be able to come through here for years and see Aaron James or something from Aaron James or something from Grambling. It’s just a tremendous accomplishment.” Upon walking in, guests are greeted by a high-tech, interactive area in which the current year’s induction class is celebrated with exhibits depicting their careers. Along the wall of honor are names of past inductees and across the room a video recounting some of Louisiana’s greatest sporting accomplishments is shown on a loop. Among the visuals that are projected on some of the 1,056 machine-pressed stones that make up the building are LSU second baseman Warren Morris’ walk-off home run in the 1996 College World Series, highlights from Willis Reed’s injury-riddled performance in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals and clips honoring major golf championships won by Shreveport’s Hal Sutton and David Toms. “It’s just phenomenal,” former Ruston High and LSU quarterback Bert Jones, another Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer, said. “We have such wonderful heritage in Louisiana. It’s truly a phenomenal place, a wonderful museum and a lot for people to see.” James and Jones were two of the numerous Hall of Famers to see where their exhibits now stand. “It’s a remarkable experience,” said Trey Trahan of Trahan Architects, the firm that designed the building. “It’s exciting to see people fill a space that, for the last five years, has been on paper and in computers and boxes. As architects, we, at times, forget it’s about people. It’s really impressive and moving to see.” Doug Ireland, the Hall of Fame’s executive director and point person for the project, was able to put Trahan’s spatial analogy into a measurement. “I could see Shaq and (6-foot-11) Ervin Johnson eye-to-eye right now,” said Ireland, who stands about 5-7. “That’s absolutely how high off the ground I am. What’s fun is watching everybody’s reactions. It’s like when you give gifts on Christmas morning.” Athletic Network Footnote posted by Ed Dugas:
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