Like Father Like Son

Robert Dugas sees son following in his footsteps at LSU

by Matt Deville
Tiger Rag Senior Editor

(At left) Robert Dugas was an All-American in 1978 for the Tigers. Today, he says he is the same guy, “with just a lot less hair.”

Growing up on the outskirts of New Orleans in the early 1970s, Robert Dugas knew he wanted to do one thing.

“All my life, all I wanted to do was play football at LSU,” said Dr. Robert Dugas.

After graduating from Hahnville High School in 1974, he did just that. Charles McClendon offered the offensive lineman a scholarship and Dugas accepted.

It was the beginning one of the greatest careers for any LSU Tiger offensive lineman.
Four years later, Dugas was named first team All-SEC and an All-American. In 1990, Dr. Robert Dugas was elected to the LSU Hall of Fame.

“That was a total shock,” said Dugas, a Baton Rouge orthopedic surgeon said. “When the latter came in the mail saying I had been voted in, I was shocked. It’s not really how you plan it. I’ll tell you, I didn’t come to LSU in 1974 thinking about that.”

No player, especially on offensive lineman, dreams of stardom, awards and hall of fame inductions. But the years Dugas spent entrenched in LSU’s offensive line helped paved the way for one of the Tigers’ most prolific runners of all time.

Behind the blocking of Dugas and famed “Root Hogs,” Charles Alexander rushed for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns. Alexander set the school rushing record with 1,686 yards in 1977 en route to being named an All-American.

A year later, both Alexander and Dugas were tabbed as All-Americans after the bruising tailback piled up 1,172 yards in 1978.

“I was fortunate to have played with such a talented player like Charles Alexander,” Dugas said. “We joke with him that we (the LSU offensive line) helped make him famous. I was honored to be singled out as an All-American, but I share that distinction with all of our offensive line. Really, the “Root Hogs” were All-Americans as a group.”

After his playing career ended in 1978, Dugas went on to graduate from LSU medical school. Following residency at charity hospitals in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles, Dugas headed north to the University of Wisconsin to study under orthopedic surgery pioneer Bill Clancy. In 1990, after his induction to the LSU Hall of Fame, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he remained for 16 years.

(At left) Richard Dugas is expected to see time at fullback this season. (LSU)

Dugas said he enjoyed following Cornhusker Football, especially during the successful seasons of the mid 1990s. But LSU was always still in his heart.

“It made it exciting,” Dugas said of following Nebraska Football. “(Nebraska) coach Tom Osborne and coach (Charles) McClendon shared a lot of same philosophies in keeping things simple and working hard.

“Nebraska usually played during the day so at night, we’d find whatever LSU game we could on television.”

In 2006, Dugas and his wife of 27 years Jean had an opportunity to move back to the Baton Rouge area. The couple has four children, one of which, son Richard, was a senior in high school at the time of the move.

“Richard decided to fulfill his commitment in Lincoln, but he wanted to try to play football at LSU,” Dugas said. “The one thing I wanted to do in life was go to school at LSU and play football. And I guess he wanted to do the same.”

Richard Dugas is a redshirt junior offensive lineman. But Dugas said his son, 21, is experimenting with a possible position change.

“He (Richard Dugas) tore his ACL in the spring and he is trying to get back from that,” Dugas said. “Coach (Les) Miles wants to make him a blocking fullback.”

With the graduation of Quinn Johnson and LSU not having a true blocking fullback on the roster with any sort of experience, Richard Dugas is hoping to get in the mix.

The elder Dugas is loving every minute of it. Now 30 years removed from his All-American season of 1978, he still reminisces about his days in the purple and gold.

“When you say it – 30 years – you think, man it’s been a long time,” Dugas said. “But if you have run out of that shoot under the goal posts, you know what I mean. I relive it every year I go in the stadium. The only thing different about that place is the appearance.
It is exactly the same.”

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Dr. Robert Dugas is married to the former Jean Abadie of Baton Rouge. The couple has four children; Robert Jr. (24), Kristie (22), Richard (21) and Katherine (15). Dugas opened his own practice – The Baton Rouge Sports Medicine Clinic - in the capital city in 2006. He also serves as the Sports Medicine Director in the Department of Orthopedics at the LSU Health Science Center in New Orleans.