GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Former LSU basketball coach John Brady, who took the Tigers to their last Final Four in the 2005-06 season and won two Southeastern Conference championships with a Sweet 16 appearance, will be inducted into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame on September 19.
Brady, now the analyst for Tigers basketball games on the LSU Radio Network, is one of only three coaches to take the LSU men’s team to the Final Four after Dale Brown (1981 and ’86) and Harry Rabenhorst in 1953. Brady’s team knocked off No. 1-ranked and No. 1 seed Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski in Atlanta, then No. 2 seed Texas to reach the Final Four.
LSU AND JOHN BRADY THREW A SWEET 16 PARTY IN 2000
After six straight losing seasons (four under Brown and two under him), Brady took the Tigers to the 2000 SEC title NCAA Sweet 16 after signing Shreveport forward Stromile Swift despite dealing with inherited NCAA sanctions at the time. He recently celebrated that team’s 25-year reunion.
A native of McComb, Mississippi, Brady played at Belhaven in Jackson, Mississippi and was an assistant at Mississippi State and UNO and head coach at Samford before replacing Brown after the 1996-97 season. He was honored an SEC Basketball Legend in 2018. He coached the Tigers into the 2007-08 season before being fired midway through. LSU won the SEC title the next season with several of Brady’s remaining players under new coach Trent Johnson, who praised Brady for what he left several times and offered him a championship ring.
Brady won SEC titles in 2000 and 2006 and was voted SEC Coach of the Year in each season. He also took the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in 2003 and 2005. Brady coached three SEC Players of the Year in forwards Stromile Swift (2000), Brandon Bass (2005) and Glen Davis (2006) and four SEC Freshman of the Year in coached four SEC Freshmen of the Year in Torris Bright (2000), Bass (2004), Davis (2005) and Tyrus Thomas (2006).
From the 2002-03 season through the Final Four in 2006, Brady had one of the best records in the SEC.
The 2025 induction class as chosen by the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame Election Board also includes men’s golf coach J. Perry Cole (1933-43), who won national championships in 1940 and ’42, gymnast Rheagan Courville (2012-15), who was a 23-time All-American, Brady’s forward Ronald Dupree (2000-03), who helped lead the Tigers to the 2000 NCAA Sweet 16 and the 2003 NCAA Tournament, women’s basketball guard Cornelia Gayden (1992-95), who remains the most prolific three-point shooter in LSU history, and women’s basketball point guard Temeka Johnson (2002-05), who helped direct the Tigers to Final Fours in 2004 and ’05.
“Each of the inductees epitomize athletics excellence and a commitment to character and integrity,” LSU athletic director Scott Woodward said. “This prestigious honor is well-earned, based on the significant contributions each of these outstanding individuals made to our university.”
Nominees are required to have earned a college degree The induction ceremony will be held on Friday, September 19, at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge.
Cole directed the golf team to five SEC titles in addition to the two national crowns. He was at LSU from 1919-60 in various capacities, such as a math professor, Dean of Student Affaris and the Director of Student Life. He was one of the driving forces behind the construction of the War Memorial Tower on the LSU campus, and Cole helped create and organize the Hall of Fame he will soon enter. He was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2012.
A native of Galveston, Texas, Cole earned degrees in civil engineering (1912) and mathematics (1926) from LSU, and he was inducted in 2021 into the LSU College of Science Hall of Distinction and the LSU Ole War Skule Hall of Honor. He was a World War I U.S. Army veteran who served as a battalion commander and was honorably discharged in 1921.
Courville, a Baton Rouge native, won NCAA vault national championship in 2013 and ’14. She was the SEC all-round and vault champ in 2013 and in 2015, and the SEC beam champ in 2013. Courville was voted SEC Gymnast of the Year in 2013 and Central Region Gymnast of the Year in 2013 and 2014. A four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, Courville earned her LSU degree in 2015, and now works as one of the top sales representatives for GK Elite sport wear.
LSU HIRES FORMER PLAYER RONALD DUPREE
A Biloxi, Mississippi, native, Dupree is one of just five LSU players to rank in the top 10 in career scoring (1,726 points) and rebounding (907). The others are Shaquille O’Neal, Rudy Macklin, Bob Pettit and Tasmin Mitchell. He was a three-time All-SEC selection. He is one of 16 players in LSU history to amass 1,000 points, 200 assists and 100 steals. He is in the career top 10 in points scored, rebounds, games played (129) and double-figure games (88).
Dupree played six seasons in the NBA and earned an electrical engineering degree from LSU in 2015. He just recently became general manager of the LSU men’s basketball program under coach Matt McMahon.
Gayden, a 1995 All-American and a three-time All-SEC selection, is No. 1 in career three-point field goals made at LSU with 337, and she is No. 1 in school history in three-pointers in a season with 105 in 1994-95. And she holds the LSU record for most points in a game with 49 against Jackson State in 1995. Her 12 3-pointers in that game was the NCAA record until 2018.
A native of Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, Gayden earned her LSU degree in 1997. She is fourth all-time at LSU in scoring with 2,451 points and fifth in field goals made with 829.
Johnson, a New Orleans native, was a four-time All-American and won the 2005 Nancy Liebermann Award as the nation’s best point guard. She is No. 1 on LSU’s all-time assists list with 945, which is No. 8 in NCAA Division I history.
She holds the LSU record for assists in a game with 17 against Georgia in 2005, and had four 15-assist games during her career. She earned her LSU degree in 2004, and was voted 2005 WNBA Rookie of the Year. She won a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury in 2009.
(Bill Franques of the LSU Sports Information Department contributed to this report.)
2025 LSU ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CLASS
• John Brady – Men’s Basketball Head Coach (1997 – 2008)
• J. Perry Cole – Men’s Golf Head Coach (1933 – 1943)
• Rheagan Courville – Gymnastics (2012 – 2015)
• Ronald Dupree – Men’s Basketball (2000 – 2003)
• Cornelia Gayden – Women’s Basketball (1992 – 1995)
• Temeka Johnson – Women’s Basketball (2002 – 2005)
Be the first to comment