Long before I ever heard of filmmaker Douglas Domingue, I had my own personal "Lights Out In Blackham" experience.

A group of friends were going over to Blackham Coliseum to shoot some hoops one night. I got there first and the lights were indeed actually out.

Fortunately, I got one of the doors to open and there was just enough of a ray of light from somewhere for me to find my way to the court.

I made a basketball version of a snow angel at midcourt and just listened. There weren’t actually any sounds to hear, but I tried to let my imagination go.

I could almost hear Dr. Oliver saying the names of the players, the band playing Aretha Franklin’s "Respect" and the fans chanting "U-S-L, U-S-L."

The thought crossed my mind during Wednesday’s Beryl Shipley Tribute Gala at the Acadiana Center for the Arts how cool it would be to do that again with what I know now.

Back then, I certainly knew who Beryl Shipley was. I was 7 in 1973 and attended many of those games in the glory years as a kid, but the vivid memories weren’t there for me like they still are for the Bobby Paschal years.

After the few times I got a chance to talk to Shipley since then, plus numerous conversations with his former players and the book that he and Ron Gomez wrote, I can only imagine what my ears could hear now.

Watching many of the interviews during Wednesday’s sneak peek into Domingue’s "Lights Out In Blackham" documentary that he plans to have ready for national film festivals by August certainly gave everyone who wasn’t in the middle of the Shipley era a better understanding.

Back then, my ears weren’t listening for all the social progress that was made by the mid-1960s version of Shipley’s boys.

Back then, my ears didn’t really detect how strong Shipley’s vision was of bringing this basketball program and city of Lafayette to the national forefront.

Perhaps the fact that he lived the rest of his life after the 1973 death penalty in Lafayette in part illustrated that.

Back then, my eyes had seen Dean Church’s name in the record books, but my ears had not heard the All-American relay how important of an influence Shipley was in his life.

Or Marvin Winkler tell how everything he achieved in life was totally due to Shipley.

Back then, my ears weren’t sensitive to the bitter divide between those who supported the Shipley cause through the decades and those who didn’t.

They were on Wednesday night.

Between the many speakers at the podium and on the screen, many cool things were said.

One of my personal favorites was former assistant coach Tom Cox saying that legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp "couldn’t hold Beryl Shipley’s whistle." Rupp certainly couldn’t in the area of social reform.

There were a few, though, that many in the audience probably didn’t catch. Current UL coach Bob Marlin made a few of them, almost in passing. They may have sounded like everyday things such as how he and Shipley met for lunch or how Shipley visited his office "to talk ball."

Back then, my ears had no idea that something like that had never happened. Until Marlin, no Cajun basketball coach had a relationship with Shipley. No coach had ever bothered "to talk ball" or establish a friendship with the winningest coach in the program’s history that was living just a few miles from Blackham Coliseum.

While Marlin relayed some of those stories Wednesday, I couldn’t help but ear Shipley’s heart beating faster when he finally got that opportunity to feel like he was part of the program again.

In fact, Marlin told the crowd Wednesday night to go ahead and add 11 wins to Shipley’s career record of 293-126 "because he was responsible for those 11 wins at the end of the year" that helped resurrect the 3-14 start the Cajuns got off to in Marlin’s first season.

Talk to Shipley’s boys today and they’ll tell you that this weekend’s Beryl Shipley Classic is both to honor their beloved former coach, but also to pass the torch to Marlin. The torch, or the vision, that Shipley had — to bring a special basketball program to Lafayette.

For all those who never knew or who had forgotten, Domingue’s version of "Lights Out In Blackham" will reveal so much of Shipley’s story.

So much I wish I could have heard when I had the chance in the barn he built.

Athletic Network Footnote:

Click here for the Beryl Shipley Tribute Gala.

Click here for the Tribute to Coach Beryl Shipley.