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Athletic Network: Featured in Community ChroniclesUL Athletic Network
By: Dwayne Fatherree, June 8, 2017
When Ed Dugas retired from teaching at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2001, he could have taken some time off and gotten away from the day-to-day struggles of life on campus.
Instead he took on a project, as a volunteer, that has tied him even more closely to the campus – athletic network.net, a website dedicated to the Ragin’ Cajun athletes who have made their mark and moved out into the world to leave a larger stamp.
Dugas spent 34 years in the Health and Physical Education Department at USL and ULL, eventually retiring in 2001. During that time he would get requests to put on reunions for former athletes, often to honor the coaches they played under. It was at one such reunion for former USL basketball coach Beryl Shipley that an idea started kicking around in Dugas’ head.
“With the internet taking off, we saw that we could do things a lot better,” Dugas said.
The result of that thought became athleticnetwork.net, a no-frills site that hosts a hoard of information about the university’s athletes, programs, and students.
“We realized we had lost touch with a lot of our players and coaches,” Dugas said. “We had been approached by two other athletes to do reunions for their people, so we had been doing that stuff a lot. I said, ‘If I ever do this again, it will be something to benefit everyone."
“It’s amazing the amount of work he has put into it,” said John Dugas, the Associate Director of Athletics for Internal Operations at ULL. He would be in a position to know – he is Ed’s son and helped him in getting the site started. “He will work on it six, seven hours a day.”
According to its mission statement, the Athletic Network exists "to identify, locate, and communicate with former athletes and their support groups." The website serves as a repository for information on former athletes and their support groups, placed in one useable location, and made available to all who want to communicate with them.
The site is not limited to athletes. Anyone can create a profile on the site and, if you were a student at the university, you can probably find a mention or two of yourself.
“We used the yearbooks to populate much of it,” said Ed Dugas. “So if you were in the yearbook, you can find those references on the site.”
The profile also allows users to expand on their experiences, adding a timeline of their journey after leaving college. The profile for former Ragin’ Cajun quarterback Jake Delhomme, for example, includes all of his professional career stats as well as his record while at USL.
“The unique thing about it is it costs the university nothing,” Ed Dugas said. “We have one of the largest databases of information about our programs because former athletes add their own information.”
One current effort, beyond the treasure trove of data already collected, is to capture the stories of student athletes and their coaches for future generations. The first effort, focusing on former baseball and assistant football coach Bobby Banna, is already live on the site, featuring interviews and testimonials from Banna’s charges.
“No historian could write what these people are writing,” Ed Dugas said. He recently met with a group of former players who played under head football coach “Russ” Faulkinberry. The group’s lunch meeting touched on everything from Faulkinberry himself to stories of the old days, bumping into a particularly cute co-ed outside the Earl K. Long Gym.
The tribute to Coach Russ Faulkinberry has a steering committee as well. The membership reads like a who’s who of ULL athletic history – Jim Doyle (football 1967-70), Carlton Falgout (football 1959-62, track ‘59, weightlifting 1961-62), Tom Kelly (football 1961-63), J.Y. Mula (baseball 1960-62, football 1961-62), Michael Neustrom (football 1965-68), Cliff O’Neal (football 1957-61), Edward Pratt (football 1964-67), Edwin Preis Jr. (football 1965-68), Jerry Streva (football 1961-63), and O’Neal Weber (football 1962-65).
L-R: O’Neal Weber, Carlton "Bubby" Falgout, Ed Pratt, Edwin Preis, Cliff O’Neal, J.Y. Mula pose for a pre-meeting photo surrounding a picture of Coach Russ Faulkinberry.
L-R: Ed Pratt, Ed Preis, Cliff O’Neal, Carlton "Bubby" Falgout, Ed Dugas, Cliff O’Neal, J.Y. Mula discuss the tribute being planned for Coach Russ Faulkinberry while being nourished with Po-boys from Olde Tyme Grocery.
If anyone would like to contribute their stories for the site, Ed Dugas can be reached at athleticnetwork@louisiana.edu. Those who would like to create a profile or just read up on the latest happenings in the UL athletics community can go to the site at www.athleticnetwork.net
Athletic Network Footnote by Dr. Ed Dugas: The June deliveries of Community Chronicles will occur Thursday and Friday. However, the story is now online at communitychronicles.com. Click on the front cover and the entire paper can be read. Here is an attachment of article if you would like to share on facebook or by email with others. On our website, you can view our distribution page for locations of where you can pick up a hard copy.
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