TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
LSU football greats Leonard Fournette, Henry Thomas and eight-time Pro Bowler Patrick Peterson, along with Tiger baseball legends Aaron Hill and Ryan Theriot, headline a star-studded nine-member 2027 inductee class to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Peterson ranked among college football’s best players before embarking on a tremendous 13-year NFL career. At LSU in 2010, he won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defender and the Thorpe Award as the top defensive back – becoming the first LSU player to win those two prestigious awards. Peterson made the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons (2011-18) and was a three-time Associated Press first-team All-Pro (2011, 2013, 2015). He was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-Decade Team for the 2010s.
The consensus No. 1 player in the 2014 recruiting class from St. Augustine in New Orleans, Fournette earned All-American honors as an LSU sophomore after notching school single-season records of 1,953 rushing yards and 22 TDs. He broke the school single-game record with 284 yards on 16 carries in a 38-21 win over Ole Miss. Fournette played seven NFL seasons with Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and Buffalo, helping the Buccaneers win Super Bowl LV.
Thomas was a standout defensive tackle for LSU, helping the Tigers win the SEC in 1988, and played 14 NFL seasons as a three-down interior defensive lineman. But he was more than a run-stopper, racking up 93½ career sacks – fourth-most in NFL history among players listed solely at the defensive tackle/nose tackle positions. He made the Pro Bowl in 1991 and ‘92 and earned a second-team AP All-Pro nod in 1993 after recording 23 sacks in that three-year stretch with the Minnesota Vikings and was named one of the “50 Greatest Vikings” in the franchise’s 50th anniversary season in 2010.
Hill, a California native, played shortstop for LSU from 2001-03, earning Freshman All-American honors in 2001 and first-team All-American and SEC player of the year accolades in 2003. He played 13 MLB seasons with Toronto (2005-11), Arizona (2011-15), Milwaukee and Boston (2016) and San Francisco (2017), was an American League All-Star in 2009 and became the first player in MLB history to win a Silver Slugger award in both leagues – accomplishing the feat with the Blue Jays in 2009 and D-Backs in 2012. Playing most of his career at second base, he compiled a .986 career fielding percentage.
Baton Rouge native Theriot came out of Broadmoor High to play shortstop for the Tigers from 1999-2001. He helped Skip Bertman chalk up the last of his five College World Series titles in 2000 when he scored the walk-off game-winning run in LSU’s 6-5 victory over Stanford. Theriot was named to the CWS All-Tournament team. Playing three infield and two outfield spots, he hit .281 in eight MLB seasons, helping St. Louis win the 2011 World Series and getting another Series championship ring a year later in San Francisco.
The LSHOF Class of 2027 also includes two-time Triple Crown-winning jockey Robby Albarado; transformational Northwestern State and Alabama college baseball coach Jim Wells; one of the state’s most successful high school football coaches, Hank Tierney; and the cornerstone of the 1985 Final Four ULM women’s basketball team, Lisa Ingram.
The new class will be enshrined next June 24-26 at the Hall of Fame’s home in Natchitoches to culminate the 68th Induction Celebration. Ticket information for the seven events over three days of festivities can be found at lasportshall.com.
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