Tiger Rag News Services
NATCHITOCHES – John Brady, the last LSU men’s basketball coach to take the Tigers to the Final Four, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Sylvia Fowles, who helped lead the LSU women to four Final Fours, and former LSU All-American center Todd McClure lead the Tigers’ contingent into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
Big news! The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026 has been announced.
— Louisiana Sports HOF (@LaSportsHall) September 10, 2025
See the full lineup ➡️ https://t.co/KteDmfjopS#lshof #louisiana pic.twitter.com/H2kNczeF38
Other inductees will be former New Orleans Saints wide receiver Joe Horn and former NFL defensive tackle Pat Williams, Major League Baseball All-Star Jonathan Lucroy, and other legendary
basketball coaches Mike McConathy and Dewain Strother make up the eight-member group.
LSU GREAT WARREN MORRIS ALSO WILL BE HONORED
Additionally, the Hall will present the Louisiana Sports Ambassador Award to former LSU baseball great Warren Morris, the Alexandria native whose walk-off home run won the 1996 College World Series, resulting in the Bolton High product becoming a lifelong spokesman for college baseball, the CWS and LSU.
JOHN BRADY’S SWEET 16 TEAM CELEBRATES 25-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Brady won 402 games in 25 seasons of college basketball coaching at Samford, LSU and Arkansas State,
with 190 victories in 10 seasons with the Tigers including three SEC regular-season championships (2000,
2005, 2006) and a run to the 2006 NCAA Final Four.
Fowles, a four-time USA Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), helped LSU to four consecutive Final Fours from 2005-08. She was an eight-time WNBA All- Star in a 15-season pro career that included WNBA Finals MVP honors as she led the Minnesota Lynx to league crowns in 2015 and 2017. Fowles was chosen as one of the WNBA’s Top 25 Players of All-Time in 2021 and entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame last weekend and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June.
McClure, a Baton Rouge native and two-sport All-Stater at Central High School, was an All-Southeastern Conference and All-America center for LSU before 14 NFL seasons in Atlanta that earned him a place in the Falcons Ring of Honor.
Horn was a four-time Pro Bowl receiver (2000-02, 2004) and fan favorite in seven seasons (2000-06)
with the New Orleans Saints in a 12-year NFL career. Williams, a defensive tackle from Wossman High School in Monroe reached three Pro Bows from 2006-08 while with the Minnesota Vikings in a 14-season career that started with the Buffalo Bills.
NICK SABAN HIGHLIGHTED 2025 LOUISIANA SPORTS HALL OF FAME CLASS
Lucroy starred for three years at catcher for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns and was a third-round 2007 MLB
Draft pick by Milwaukee, where he earned a pair of American League All-Star Game appearances (2014,
2016) and was fourth in voting for the 2014 AL Most Valuable Player award as pinnacles of a 12-year big
league career.
McConathy’s No. 14 seed Northwestern State team stunned No. 3 seed and Big Ten Conference champion Iowa in the 2006 March Madness in one of three NCAA trips (two wins) for NSU. The former Louisiana Tech star guard won a state-record 682 games as a college coach in 16 seasons at Bossier Parish Community College and 23 at Northwestern.
Strother is the nation’s second-winningest high school girls basketball coach, retiring in 2023 with a
1,235-395 (.758) record that includes 21 trips to the state semifinals and 11 championship game
appearances, collecting five LHSAA titles for Florien High in southern Sabine Parish.
The new class will be enshrined next June 25-27 at the Hall of Fame’s home in Natchitoches to culminate
the 67th induction celebration. Ticket information for the seven events over three days of festivities is
available at the LaSportsHall.com website.
THE MAN WHO ESCORTED NICK SABAN AROUND NATCHITOCHES
A 40-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2026 inductees, completing a
three-week process. The panel considered 153 nominees from 27 different sport categories on a 34-
page competitors ballot with 61 reaching the final phase of deliberations.
Also spotlighted next summer will be three other Hall of Fame inductees from the contributors
categories: a winner of the 2026 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and two recipients of
the 2026 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers
Association – the parent organization of the Hall of Fame. Those inductees will be selected and
announced later this year.
The complete 12-person Class of 2026 will swell the overall membership in the Hall of Fame to 515 men
and women – athletes, coaches, administrators and sports media members – honored since its founding
in 1958.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame already includes 25 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, 18 Olympic
medalists (including 11 gold-medal winners), 14 members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, seven
of the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players, seven National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 45 College Football
Hall of Fame members, 11 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, 10 Collegiate Basketball Hall of
Fame enshrinees, 10 College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, nine National High School Hall of Fame
members and five National Museum of (Thoroughbred) Racing and Hall of Fame inductees.
The LSHOF showcases jockeys with a combined 16 Triple Crown victories, six world boxing champions, four NBA Finals MVPs, four winners of major professional golf championships, and five quarterbacks with a combined seven Super Bowl MVP awards.
Biographical information on all current Hall of Fame members is available at the LaSportsHall.com
website, and a steady stream of info is available at the @LaSportsHall X (formerly Twitter) account.
Tickets for induction events, along with congratulatory advertising and sponsorship opportunities, are available through the LaSportsHall.com website. Anyone can receive quarterly e-mails about the 2026 Induction Celebration and other Hall of Fame news by signing up on the LaSportsHall.com website.
For information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Foundation President/CEO Ronnie Rantz at 225-802-6040 or at [email protected], or Foundation Director of Business Development and Public Relations Greg Burke at 318-663-5459 or at [email protected]. Or call the Foundation office at 318-238-4255 (HALL).
Online ticketing and event information for the 2026 celebration is available at www.LaSportsHall.com/Induction2026.
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