Boxing Milestones

Email Dr. Ed Dugas athleticnetwork@louisiana.edu if you have a Milestone/Ragin’ Cajuns First to submit. Please include sport, date, event, etc., source, along with your contact numbers.

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Click here for the Boxing Photo Gallery which includes 11 years of photos and information from 1930-1947.

Click here for the 1930 Boxing Photo Gallery, the first season for Boxing at the university,  which featured the hiring of Ed "Happy" Davis as the coach and crowds which packed the gymnasium. 

Click here for the 1937 Boxing Photo Gallery which documents the first year of Coach George "Gee" Mitchell. 

Click here for the Athletic Network profile of Coach Mitchell.

Click here for the 1938 Boxing Photo Gallery which features Captain Carlo Listi, Coach Mitchell, and the 8-0-2 undefeated team.

Click here for the 1940 Boxing Photo Gallery when the team fashioned a 7-1-1 season defeating Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and L.S.U., and avenging its only loss to La. Tech in a return match.

Click here for the 1941 Boxing Photo Gallery when the entire team was the only collegiate team to be invited to the NCAA championships. At the championships, Louis "Louie" Campbell became the first boxer from the university to win a national title.

Click here for Louis Campbell's Athletic Network profile. It includes memories written in 2008 by of one of his fellow students, Paul Bergeron, and the chapter on Louis Campbell written in 1980 by Bruce Brown in Prides of Acadiana.   

Click here for the 1942 Boxing Photo Gallery when the Bulldogs narrowly missed an undefeated season, losing their last match to the U. of Wisconsin before 15,000 spectators. They won the Sugar Bowl Boxing Championship and enjoyed packed crowds at Long Gym. Please check the student attire, as they filled the permanent and moveable bleachers. Captain Donald Harper won the 120 pound at the NCAA championships that season, giving the Bulldogs their second national champion in consecutive years.

Click here for the 1947 Boxing Photo Gallery and the ending of the program.  

Click here for the boxing memories of Bob Bass, son of the Bill Bass. Bob was a two-sport letterman at the university and a military veteran who served as Head Golf Coach from 1991-2008. Bob attended boxing matches as a child and his memories are priceless.
The Alumni Association Homecoming Golf Tournament is named in honor of Bill Bass, our first Alumni Association Director who was a boxing letterman during the late 1930s and who served the university in a variety of positions of responsibility. Thanks to Bob for serving as a primary source for this historical information.   

Click here  for the Athletic Network profile of Bill Bass.

Click here for the Athletic Network profile of Don Landry. Don is one of our graduates, who blazed a career in athletics which spanned over 40 years, involving leadership at athletics and sports highest levels. After attending a boxing reunion in 2008, he decided to write Boxing - Louisiana's Forgotten Sport - History of High School and College Boxing. It the most comprehensive book written on the subject. After several book signing parties, numerous presentations to clubs and organizations, and attendance at one Louisiana Boxing Reunions, the supply of printed copies were exhausted, and the archives materials for the book were donated to the Louisiana Room of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Not only did Don include the various high school state championship tournaments from 1931-1958, he also included sections for each of the colleges who had boxing teams, including the one at SLI and our outstanding teams, boxers, and coaches.

Included in Don's profile is an article published on June 29, 2011 in the Morning Advocate by Cody Worsham which provides a review of his book. Graced with photos of the leading high school and college boxers and their teams, the book depicts the Lafayette area as one of the leading hot beds of high school boxing during 1931-1958.  

Appreciation is expressed to Don for writing Boxing: Louisiana's Forgotten Sport, for donating his materials to the university, and for providing the Athletic Network with one of the final copies of the book. His labor of love has warmed many hearts and is deeply appreciated.

Please click here for the Iberville History Museum, Home of the Louisiana High School Boxing Hall of Fame located at  57735 Main Street, Plaquemine, LA 70764, 1(225)687-7197, contact@ibervillemuseum.org  

Friends and family of our former boxers are encouraged to email the Athletic Network so they may receive the complimentary electronic newsletter. The thread of our Boxing Program will forever be a part of the athletic fabric and a significant part of our university history. We are proud of our former athletes and teams and want others to know about them.

Peace, Dr. Ed Dugas
athleticnetwork@louisiana.edu