In, just over a week, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame will stage its annual induction weekend festivities in Natchitoches, and one of the behind-the-scenes guys who helps makes this extravaganza work is Greg Burke.
Although he’s been on the job only two years as the director of business development and public relations for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, Burke’s no rookie at what he does. For a quarter of a century, he was the athletics director at Northwestern State University, where he did plenty of fundraising and development and marketing and public relations work. He also did similar work for four years at the University of Akron before going to NSU.
“Greg’s been a vital addition to our Foundation team, doing tons (of work) for the induction weekend,” says Doug Ireland, the chairman of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, which hosts the upcoming induction weekend June 26-28. “With his local and regional contacts, his knowledge and work ethic, and his enthusiasm, we’re better that we’ve ever been.”
Burke boasts of being a native of Alliance, Ohio, the hometown of legendary Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Lenny Dawson, but he’s also proud to claim Natchitoches as his longtime hometown, where he has lived since 1986. He was the athletics director at NSU from 1996-2022.
In his short time on the LSHOF job, he has progressed from a learn-as-you-go environment to developing a 20-page step-by-step manual of what needs to be done to make a successful induction weekend.
“It’s a working document,” he says. “For the good of the Foundation – not just for me but for all of us and for the future – I think it will be helpful.”
We’re talking about a big annual celebration that features seven official events over three days, and at such events, Burke says from experience, “always something unexpected happens that you have to deal with on-the-fly.” Another challenge is that three of the seven events are open to the public at no charge – evening events on Thursday and Friday nights and a youth training camp on Saturday morning.
Burke said that with his year-round presence in Natchitoches, he can do some things in advance to prepare for the weekend and avoid having to deal with some issues that can be handled in advance.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum was built with state dollars, but it is 12 years old, having opened in 2013, and it needs upgrades. And as tight as state budgets are, most of those upgrades need to come from funds generated by the Hall of Fame Foundation.
“It cannot be seen in 2025 as it was in 2013,” says Burke. “To keep up with the times, it needs more technology, more aesthetics.”
One thing Burke helped make happen last year was an 8-foot-high modern-art block structure in front of the museum spelling out LSHOF inset with names of inductees in national halls of fame. This signage added significantly to the recognition of the 23,000-square foot building that is in a moonbeam curve on Front Street.
When Nick Saban and former four-time Pro Bowler Andrew Whitworth from West Monroe and LSU and the rest of this year’s 12 inductees walk into the museum June 26 they will see another enhancement. Added within the last year is a 12-foot-long interior piece featuring some of the most high-profile LSHOF inductees based on their height, from the shortest (LSU gymnast Susan Jackson), to the tallest, 7-foot-1 Shaquille O’Neal.
Even more recently, as part of the recovery process from a fire that did some minor damage to the museum in early January, the once tarnished area will “look spectacular” for the induction weekend, according to Ireland. That’s thanks to nearly $30,000 in renovation and enhancement work paid for by the Foundation.
Some much-appreciated Foundation funds have been generated by a team membership drive that Burke started soon after taking the job. The first “team” he approached, asking for donations, was the nearly 500 LSHOF members. These folks are, for the most part, happy to contribute to a cause that is dedicated to making upgrades at the museum, choosing between four membership levels. Dozens of people from all walks of life have signed up alongside the sports legends to be part of the Hall of Fame Team.
By the end of this year (year two of the drive), Burke projects it will have generated between $80-90,000.
Nonetheless, Burke says “many moving parts” make the museum and the induction weekend a success, dishing credit not only to the Foundation, Ireland and Foundation CEO/president Ronnie Rantz, but to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the local Convention & Visitors Bureau, the City of Natchitoches, NSU, local supporters, businesses and more.
As for his part in the process, Burke says, “I enjoy it. I’ve worked with college athletics for the better part of 40 years. I enjoy getting up every day, knowing some days are going to be better than others … but knowing that here’s an opportunity to make better a museum that is one of the best in the country. It’s a crown jewel, and it’s a privilege to have it in Natchitoches.”
When Rantz and Ireland approached him about the job two years ago, Burke said, he was looking for a job he could be excited to work at every day.
“That they offered it to me, that’s God working for me right there,” he said. “I am blessed.”
