Athletics: Delhomme, Girouard Elected To Louisiana Sports Hall Of Fame

Duo among eight to be enshrined in June

NATCHITOCHES – Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns legends Jake Delhomme and Yvette Girouard were among a group of eight individuals that were elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in an announcement on Tuesday. They will be officially enshrined Saturday, June 27, in Natchitoches to culminate the 2015 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration June 25-27.
 
Delhomme and Girouard are joined in the 2015 class inductees by LSU’s all-time leading rusher, three-time Super Bowl champion Kevin Faulk, former NBA champion point guard and Coach of the Year Avery Johnson, along with coaching legends Pat Collins and Otis Washington, among eight greats chosen for the 2015 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class to be enshrined next summer.
 
College Football Hall of Fame member Leonard Smith and championship Thoroughbred racing trainer Frank Brothers are also in the Class of 2015 announced Tuesday afternoon by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the parent organization of the Hall of Fame.
 
A record-setting quarterback for the Cajuns from 1993-96, Delhomme posted school records with 9,216 yards, 1,246 pass attempts, 655 pass completions and 64 TDs. He was the starting quarterback in the Cajuns’ 29-22 victory over No. 25 Texas A&M in 1996 and set a single-game school-record with five touchdown passes against Northern Illinois.
 
Delhomme led Carolina to the Super Bowl to highlight an 11-year NFL career, seven with the Panthers. The Breaux Bridge native was an undrafted free agent who signed with the Saints and spent three seasons on their practice squad. His career took off when he signed in 2003 with the Carolina Panthers, leading them to Super Bowl XXXVII in his first season there.
 
In an 11-year NFL career, he threw for 20,975 yards with 126 TDs and 101 interceptions while completing 59.4 percent of his passes. Delhomme played in 103 games with 96 starts, posting a 56-40 record as a starter in the regular-season and a 5-3 mark in playoff starts.
 
Most of his success came in seven seasons with the Panthers and set club records for passing yards (19,258), TD passes (120) and game-winning drives (23).  In his first season in Carolina, he led the Panthers to an 11-5 record, NFC South title and berth in the Super Bowl, where he nearly led his team to a victory against the New England Patriots before falling 32-29 on a field goal in the final seconds. 
 
He completed 16 of 33 passes for 323 yards with three TDs, going 9-of-14 for 211 yards and two scores in a fantastic fourth quarter in which the Panthers outscored Tom Brady and the Patriots 19-18. 
 
Girouard, a 2005 inductee into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame, built the Ragin’ Cajuns program from scratch beginning with a 7-15 record in 1981. After that, the wins piled up as Girouard recorded 30 straight winning seasons and finished with a sparkling 31-year career with a 1,285-421-1 record – the fourth-best total in NCAA history. She was 759-250 from 1981-2000 with the Ragin’ Cajuns and 526-171-1 at LSU from 2001 until her retirement after the 2011 season.
 
One of three coaches in NCAA softball history to take two teams to the Women’s College World Series, Girouard led her teams to five WCWS appearances — 1993 (3rd-place finish),’95 (5th) and ’96 (5th) at her alma mater, then guided LSU to Oklahoma City in 2001 (3rd) and ’04 (3rd). She had a total of 19 40-win seasons (10 at Louisiana, 9 at LSU) and nine 50-seasons (6 with the Tigers, 3 with the Ragin’ Cajuns).
 
Girouard coached 41 All-Americans and 16 Academic All-Americans in her 31 seasons. She was an eight-time conference Coach of the Year in the Southland (1984, ’85 and ’87), Sun Belt (2000) and SEC (2001, ’02, ’06, ’11).  Girouard won her 1,000th game with an 8-3 decision over Arkansas on April 6, 2005 and became only the third coach to record a 1,200th victory, doing so in the NCAA Tournament in 2009. 
 
Girouard was the National Fastpitch Coaches Association National Coach of the Year in 1990 and 1993. 
 
The eight new inductees will raise the total of Hall of Fame members to 318 competitors honored since the first induction class —  baseball’s Mel Ott, world champion boxer Tony Canzoneri and LSU football great Gaynell Tinsley — were enshrined in 1959 after their election a year earlier.
 
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame includes 16 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, 18 Olympic medalists (10 gold medal winners), nine members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, seven of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players, six Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 34 College Football Hall of Fame members, five National High School Hall of Fame enshrines, jockeys with a combined 12 Triple Crown victories, six world boxing champions, seven Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, seven College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees,  seven College Basketball Hall of Fame members, four NBA Finals MVPs and two Super Bowl MVPs. Biographical information on all current members is available at the LaSportsHall.com website, with a steady stream of info available at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Facebook page and the @LaSportsHall twitter account.
 
The 2015 Induction Celebration will kick off Thursday, June 25 with the press conference and reception. It includes three receptions, a youth sports clinic, and a Friday, June 26 golf scramble at Oak Wing Golf Course in Alexandria. Tickets for the Induction Dinner and Ceremony, and golf entries, will go on sale next spring through the LaSportsHall.com website.
 
Also to be honored at the event will be three other Hall of Fame inductees, the winner of the 2014 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and the recipients of the 2014 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the LSWA. Those award recipients will be announced soon.
 
Adding to the 310 sports competitors currently enshrined, 14 winners of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership award and 54 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, there are 378 current members of the Hall of Fame before next summer’s inductions.
 
The 2015 Induction Celebration weekend will be hosted by the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, the support organization for the Hall of Fame.  The LSHOF Foundation was established as a 501 c 3 non-profit entity in 1975 and is governed by a statewide board of directors.  For information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Foundation President/CEO Lisa Babin at 318-458-0166 or LisaBabin@LaSportsHall.com. Standard and customized sponsorships are available.