2009 Induction Celebration
Thursday, June 25 • Saturday, June 27
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CARRICE RUSSELL BAKER -- (Basketball) During her 39-year girls high school basketball coaching career, Baker won over 1,000 games and is the state’s winningest girls coach. Her teams posted an astounding 972-191 (.836) record (three of her seasons in the late 1940s do not have records available, but there was a 22-5 record sandwiched between two of them) and won eight state championships and finished second four more times. Four state titles came at Winnsboro HS in the era of six-player, three at each end of the court competition, and four more came in the 1970s at Jena HS in the five-player full-court game. She was 588-138 (.810) with 20 playoff appearances and 11 district titles at Winnsboro after taking over as head coach at the age of 19 for the 1946-47 season following her graduation from Louisiana Tech. Her 1952-53 team made history by ending the national-record 218-game win streak by nearby Baskin HS, coached by Hall of Famer Edna Tarbutton. That team was her first to reach the state finals, followed by state titles in 1954, 1955, 1958 and 1960. She returned to her hometown of Jena for the 1972-73 season, the first year under the five-player format, and won the first of three straight state titles in a stretch when the Lady Giants played for the state crown six times in seven seasons. Jena took state in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1979, and was runner-up in 1976, 1980 and her final season, 1985, as she capped her Jena tenure with an overall 384-53 record, nine district titles and nine “Sweet 16” state tournament appearances. She was chosen as national Coach of the Year in 1980 and was the third girls coach enshrined in the Louisiana High School Coaches Hall of Fame, honored after Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers Edna Tarbutton (1979) and Jelly Pigott (1980) while her career continued in 1981.top
MICHAEL BROOKS – (Football)A Ruston native who was All-America as a junior at LSU, Brooks reached the Pro Bowl in 1992 for the Denver Broncos to highlight 10 NFL seasons (1987-92 in Denver, 1993-95 with the New York Giants, 1996 with Detroit). AP and Scripps-Howard News Service All-America as a junior for LSU, an injury curtailed his bid to become one of the few two-time All-Americas in LSU history. He was All-Southeastern Conference in 1985 (AP, UPI and SEC Coaches). Brooks was a third-round NFL Draft pick who starred at linebacker while playing 138 career games with 4 interceptions and 9 fumble recoveries. Recruited out of a hallway at Ruston High in his freshman year by Hall of Fame coach Chick Childress, Brooks was a two-time Class 4A (at the time the state’s largest classification) All-State pick and a three-year all-district selection. He posted 97 tackles as a junior, 104 as a senior and added two pass interceptions, three aerial deflections as a junior, along with three pass interceptions, four deflects as a senior. Brooks helped lead Ruston to the 1982 state title. He made a hit that broke a flak jacket worn by future Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame QB Stan Humphries in a Ruston-Southwood HS game. top
MARTY BROUSSARD – (Track, Baseball) Broussard, a trainer for the USA in the 1960 Rome Olympic Games and the 1955 Pan American Games, was one of the nation's most innovative trainers and a fixture at LSU for five decades. Among his accomplishments are being co-developer of the Drury-Broussard Torque Table to test muscular strength, co-author of booklets on functional isometric contraction for football an functional isometric contraction for golf and author of the booklet Athletic Training Guide. He developed the Quickkick energy drink. An Abbeville native and 1944 graduate of LSU, Broussard lettered in track and baseball during his undergraduate days and was high point scorer in the 1944 SEC meet. He also served as trainer at Florida and Texas A&M before returning to LSU in 1948.. He was selected National Trainer of the Year by the Rockne Foundation in 1963. Broussard was elected to the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, after being among the organization's five founding fathers years earlier. He was one of three founders of the Southeastern Conference Trainers' Association. In 1982 he was named to the LSU L Club Hall of Fame. He lectured frequently at clinics both in the U.S. and abroad. He was a beloved figure at LSU, revered by iconic figures such as Billy Cannon, Pete Maravich and Dale Brown before passing away in 2003.top
MARSHALL FAULK – (Football)One of the NFL’s most dynamic running backs during a brilliant 12-year career with the Indianapolis Colts (1994-98) and St. Louis Rams (1999-2005), the New Orleans native was a three-time AP All-Pro pick and seven-time Pro Bowl selection. He was named by the AP as the NFL MVP in 2000 and was the AP’s Offensive Player of the Year from 1999 to 2001. He was also the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1994 after being the second overall pick in the draft. He piled up seven 1,000-yard rushing seasons, gaining more than 1,300 yards on the ground for four straight years (1998 to 2001). The last three came as a member of the Rams, whose offense was dubbed “The Greatest Show on Turf.” Faulk, who played in 176 games with 156 starts, finished his career with 12,279 rushing yards, which ranked ninth all-time going into the 2008 season. He averaged a healthy 4.3 yards a carry on 2,836 career attempts. A fine receiver out of the backfield, he caught 767 passes for 6,875 yards -- giving him 19,154 total yards from scrimmage and placing him fourth on the all-time list. He set the NFL single-season record in 1999 with 2,429 yards from scrimmage, helping the Rams to the playoffs and a win in Super Bowl XXXIV. That year was his best as a pro as he rushed for 1,381 yards (5.5 average) and caught a career-high 87 passes for 1,048 yards (12.0 average), gaining an amazing 7.1 yards every time he touched the ball. Faulk scored 136 career TDs (100 rushing, 36 receiving), which ranked fourth going into the 2008 season. In 2000, he scored a then-NFL record 26 TDs and is the NFL record-holder with seven career two-point conversions. The only thing he couldn’t do was complete a pass as his only attempts in 1999 and 2001 fell incomplete. As a San Diego State freshman in 1991, he rushed for 386 yards and seven TDs in his second career game -- both NCAA records for freshman. He finished that season with 1,429 rushing yards and 23 total TDs and then was second in the Heisman Trophy voting as a sophomore in 1992. Born 2-26-73 in New Orleans.top
SONJA HOGG– (Baseketball) Hogg pioneered the women's basketball program at Louisiana Tech University, becoming its first head coach and organizing the first-ever team in women's basketball at the school, along with eventually hiring Leon Barmore as her assistant coach. She was at Tech from 1974-1985, She coined the nickname of Lady Techsters while teaching in the College of Education. Hogg became Women's Athletic Director in 1976 and continued coaching at the same time. Her overall coaching record at Tech was 307 wins and 55 losses in 11 seasons, featuring six consecutive Final Four appearances (1978-1984), including two national championships. In 1981, Tech won the AIAW national crown while posting perfect record of 34-0 and then rolled to the first ever NCAA sanctioned national title in 1982 with mark of 35-1. The Techsters had a national record winning streak of 54 games during her stay at the school. Hogg ‘s 1980 team set a national mark for most wins in a single season with 40. She coached five All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans and two Olympians, both of the latter being in 1984 and both being already enshrined Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers (Kim Mulkey, Janice Lawrence-Braxton). Hogg also coached four NCAA post-graduate scholarship recipients. She was Louisiana Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1982, the Sugar Bowl Coach of the Year in 1982. Hogg coached two Wade Trophy recipients, a Naismith national Player of the Year, a national Small Player of the Year, and a Broderick Cup recipient. She was picked for 2009 enshrinement in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.top
WILLIAM ROAF – (Football) The mammoth 6-foot-5, 320-pound tackle was the first-round pick of the Saints in 1993 (eighth pick overall and first offensive lineman) after a stellar career at Louisiana Tech. Roaf played 13 NFL seasons, the first nine with the Saints and the final four with the Kansas City Chiefs. As one of the top tackles in the game, he was a three-time AP All-Pro first-team pick (1994-95 with the Saints and 2004 with the Chiefs) and six times earned second-team honors. He was chosen to play in 11 Pro Bowls, including a club-record seven with the Saints. Roaf started all 189 NFL games he played in, with 131 of them coming with the Saints. He immediately became the anchor of their offensive line with his excellent size and strength, playing right tackle as a rookie in 1993 and making a seamless move to left tackle the following season to protect the quarterback’s backside. Is considered by many to be the greatest player in Saints’ history. A three-year starter at Tech, he made numerous All-American teams and was a finalist for the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best lineman as a senior when he allowed just one sack. Played in the Hula Bowl and East-West Shrine games. Born 4-18-70 in Pine Bluff, Ark..top
FREDDIE SPENCER – (Motorcycle Racing) Known to motorcycle racing fans as "Fast Freddie," Spencer, a member of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, will go down in history as one of the greatest road racers that America has ever produced. In addition to winning three world championships, he was the only rider ever to win the 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix World Championships in the same season (1985). He was the only rider to win three major races during Bike Week at Daytona International Speedway (Superbike, Formula One and International Lightweight races in 1985), the youngest to win the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship (21) and the youngest ever to win an AMA Superbike race in 1979 (18). A Shreveport native, Spencer learned to ride at the age of 4 and entered his first races as a 5-year-old. On June 16, 1979, he won his first AMA National, the Lightweight (now called 250 Grand Prix) National. On July 4, 1982 Spencer scored his first world championship victory by winning the Belgium 500cc Grand Prix. He was named the AMA's Pro Athlete of the Year in 1983 and again in 1985 after winning the 500cc World Road Racing Championship both times. He was also the 1985 world champion on the 250cc bike. He officially retired from racing in 1996. Born Dec. 20, 1961 in Shreveport.top
HAL SUTTON – (Golf) A star amateur and pro golfer, Sutton, who played collegiately at Centenary, was named by Golf Magazine as the 1980 College Player of the Year after winning the U.S. Amateur, North and South Amateur, Western Amateur and Northeast Amateur titles. He also was a member of two U.S. Walker Cup-winning teams in 1979 and ’81. After that, he embarked on a PGA Tour career that would net him 14 wins and more than $15 million in career earnings between 1982 and 2006. His biggest win on Tour came in the 1983 PGA Championship when the 25-year-old Sutton opened with scores of 65 and 66 and went on to win his only major title by one stroke over a late-charging Jack Nicklaus. Sutton ranked in the top 10 of the world golf rankings for more than 50 weeks from 1986-87 and another 50 weeks from 1999-2001 and reached the top five at one point. Sutton’s best years came in the late 1990s when he claimed the title at The Tour Championship in 1998 and in 2000 won The Players Championship, which is often considered to be the fifth major. He won $1.8 million in 1998 with two wins, a second and nine top-10 finishes; $2.1 million on a win and 13 top-10s in 1999; and a career-high $3,061,444 with two victories and 11 top-10 finishes in 2000. Sutton played on four U.S. Ryder Cup teams (1985, 1987, 1999, 2002) and was the non-playing captain of the 2004 team. He also was chosen to represent the U.S. in Presidents Cup competition in 1998 and 2000. He received the Payne Stewart Award for his charitable efforts, which include the establishment of the Christus Schumpert Sutton Children’s Hospital Shreveport and teamed with fellow Louisiana pros David Toms and Kelly Gibson to raise more than $2 million for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Sutton also earned the 2004 Omar N. Bradley Spirit of Independence Award in 2004 and was honored, along with Toms and Gibson, with the Golf Writers Association of America’s 2006 Charlie Bartlett Award for their relief efforts. Born 4-28-58 in Shreveport.top