Cajun Connection at Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame

By Bruce Brown, Athletic Network, July 1, 2018

NATCHITOCHES – There’s never been a weekend like it.

The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame held its annual induction weekend ceremonies here this weekend, capped by Saturday’s introduction of the 2018 class, and never have there been so many Ragin’ Cajun connections.

Brandon Stokley, the son of former UL football coach – the late Nelson Stokley – earned a spot in the Hall with a record-setting career as a Ragin’ Cajun receiver and a memorable 15 years as one of the most dependable pass catchers in the NFL.

Lewis Cook, a Rayne native and UL graduate, is considered one of the finest football coaches in Louisiana high school history with multiple state titles at Notre Dame as well as a crown for Crowley High. He was also running the offense when Stokley and 2015 Hall of Famer Jake Delhomme excelled at UL in the 1990’s.

Tennis coach Jerry Simmons compiled 11 impressive seasons as Ragin’ Cajun coach from 1972-82 with 214 dual match victories including an unbeaten ledger in the Southland Conference as he combined drive with innovation to put the program on the map. He moved to LSU and had 278 wins, a national titlest in Donni Leaycraft and numerous Top 10 NCAA team marks.

That trio is joined by Rayne’s Jack Hains (outdoors), former Colts receiver and Stokley teammate Reggie Wayne, Russ Springer (baseball), Larry Wright (basketball) and Paul Candies (motor sports).

Also honored were former New Orleans Saints standout Steve Gleason (Dave Dixon Award) and LSWA Distinguished Service recipients Scooter Hobbs and Lyn Rollins.

Hains grew up with Cook in Rayne, boosting the south Louisiaian flair of the evening. He was the first outdoorsman from Louisiana to win the Bassmaster Classic in 1975.

Among those UL athletes/coaches already enshrined in the Hall, in addition to Delhomme, are Brian Mitchell and Chris Cagle (football); Ron Guidry and Mel Didier (baseball); Kyla Hall Holas and Yvette Girouard (softball); Bo Lamar, Andrew Toney, Beryl Shipley, Kim Perrot and Dutch Reinhardt (basketball); and Harold Porter and Hollis Conway (track and field).

Highest honor

“To be able to do something I’ve always wanted to do, and to be elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, is the greatest honor in the state of Louisiana,” said Cook, a USL graduate who knew from elementary school forward that he wanted to be a football coach.

Cook coached Crowley High to the Class 3A state crown in 1989, enjoyed a second stop at USL in the 1990’s working with Delhomme and Stokley, then led Notre Dame to three state championships.

His teams have won 344 games in 33 years, reached the playoffs in 31 of those years where they have a 75-27 record, reached 18 semifinals and 12 title games.

“I tell the kids to work hard, live right and do right, and you’ll be a success,” Cook said. “I tell them to take ownership of the team. On May 30, our first day of summer work, there were 64 kids there at 5:30 in the morning.”

So was Cook, who wouldn’t have missed it.

Self defense mechanism

Simmons began playing tennis out of self preservation.

“I was 4-foot-11 in the ninth grade, and I was getting killed in school,” he said. “I started playing tennis.”

The rugged West Texas landscape was fitting for Simmons’ struggle toward respect from his peers. But he was coached by John Bryan, whose no nonsense approach left its mark on Simmons for a lifetime.

“John was my main influence,” said Simmons, who later coached Bryan’s sons Bill, Vaughn and Boyd with the Cajun program. “Also, John Wooden. His book is my Bible. And George Patton, I’d use his speeches before matches.”

The UL job was no plumb.

It paid $1,000 a year, and the team was 0-11 the year before I got there,” Simmons said. “But, I wanted to be a head coach.”

Some 492 victories later, he is recognized as one of the best in the game’s history.

Calling an audible

Brandon Stokley was tired of football. So the son of USL coach Nelson Stokley elected to focus on baseball and basketball as a sophomore and junior at Comeaux High.

“I was an option quarterback (like his father),” he said. “I was 5-4, weighed 115 and couldn’t throw the ball 15 yards. Then Jerry Martin took over (football) and put in a new offense. I moved to receiver and fell in love with the game again.”

His time as a basketball point guard helped at receiver,

“He finds space in a crowd,” said former Cajun assistant Gerald Broussard. “He knows where everyone is. And it comes naturally to him.”

Stokley led the state in receiving as a senior, then set records yet to be broken at USL with 241 catches, 3,702 yards and 25 touchdowns before launching a 15-year NFL career.

“I had spent countless hours at the facility with my dad, and driving all the other coaches crazy,” he said. “Those 5 years playing for the Cajuns were special. I think back on the tremendous times I’ve had in my life, and it goes beyond wins and losses.”

Once in the NFL, Stokley found he had loyal fans in tow.

“In all the towns, I had an entourage,” he said. “They were like a tornado. They wrecked the town.”

At the 2018 Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the Cajuns were ragin’.

Since 2010 Bruce Brown is the writer of the Spotlight on Former Athlete, a monthly feature of the Athletic Network.