Whitworth, a champion at West Monroe High School, LSU and in the NFL during a 16-year pro career, is joined by pro basketball All-Stars Danny Granger and Vickie Johnson, the state’s winningest all-time college baseball coach Joe Scheuermann and Danny Broussard, one of the nation’s most successful high school basketball coaches, in this year’s induction class.
It also includes LSU gymnastics great and NCAA individual champion April Burkholder, transformational Catholic-Baton Rouge high school football coach Dale Weiner and George “Bobby” Soileau, an NCAA boxing champion at LSU who also won a state crown as a football coach at his alma mater, Sacred Heart High School in Ville Platte.
LSU graduate Vincent, now a longstanding associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, is receiving the Hall’s Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award with his enshrinement. Daniels was a generational television sports broadcaster in New Orleans, and Guilbeau is one of the nation’s more decorated sportswriters in a career that has seen him cover LSU, state college, high school and pro sports along with stories across the South and around the SEC. They are being inducted as recipients of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism.
The new class will be enshrined June 28 at the Natchitoches Events Center to culminate the 66th Induction Celebration. Three days and nights of festivities begin Thursday, June 26 with seven events, three with free access. More information is available at LaSportsHall.com or by calling the LSHOF Foundation office at 318-238-4255.
Saban brought the Tigers from relative mediocrity to a national championship in five years (2000-04) as head coach before departing for the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. He won seven national titles, six since 2009 with Alabama, in 28 seasons as a head college coach and carved his prominent place in state sports history with the 2003 BCS national title win by his LSU squad over Oklahoma in the Superdome.
Under Saban, the Tigers won the Southeastern Conference championship in 2001 and 2003, took the SEC West Division crowns in 2001-03, and compiled a 48-16 (28-12 SEC) record in Baton Rouge, 4-1 in bowl games. He posted a 292-71-1 (.804) mark as a college head coach before his retirement after the 2023 season. He was national coach of the year for the first time and won his first SEC coach of the year award in 2003 at LSU.
The first coach to win a national title with two different FBS schools since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936, Saban joined Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant as the only coaches to win SEC crowns at different schools. Among Saban’s coaching tree, former LSU assistants Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart have led their teams to national titles. He is a 2013 inductee in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and will be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in December 2025.
After retiring from coaching, he joined the announcing crew for ESPN’s popular College GameDay Saturday morning show for the 2024 season, and the 73-year-old TV newcomer has been nominated for a Sports Emmy Award.
The complete 12-person Class of 2025 will swell the overall membership in the Hall of Fame to 504 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, 10 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, 10 Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, nine National High School Hall of Fame members, nine College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 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 three Super Bowl MVPs.
The 2025 Induction Celebration will kick off with a press conference and reception. The three-day festivities include two receptions, a free youth sports clinic, a bowling party, and a free riverbank concert in Natchitoches.
