NSU alumni McConathy, Strother honor families during Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame press conference
By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations
There are plenty of parallels between Mike McConathy and Dewain Strother, two members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026.
In addition to being classmates in the state’s athletic shrine, the pair are record-breaking basketball coaches who own Louisiana records when it comes to coaching victories, they are both deeply tied to Northwestern State and they would much rather give credit to others – especially family members — than to speak glowingly about themselves.
That trio of bullet points came together Thursday afternoon as the pair joined eight other members of the Hall’s Class of 2026 at the introductory press conference presented by LaCapitol Federal Credit Union. McConathy, Strother and the rest of the class will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame at 7 p.m. Saturday in a ceremony at the Natchitoches Events Center.
“When you live in Natchitoches for 23 years, you know about the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and you hear about all of the players who came through,” McConathy said. “You hear about how important God was in their lives and how they speak boldly about God. This is overwhelming and very humbling – just special.”
What McConathy built at Northwestern was special for several reasons – the least may have been the 330 of his Louisiana state college basketball-record 682 victories that he accumulated as the Demons’ head coach. He also holds a master’s plus 30 hours in education from NSU.
McConathy’s remarkable 23-year tenure at Northwestern was in many ways a tribute to his father, a former Northwestern star and eventual NBA Draft pick.
A multi-sport athlete growing up in Bossier City, McConathy recalled seeing his father play during a church men’s league game and the impact it delivered.
“He never talked about himself,” McConathy said of John McConathy, who was drafted fifth overall by the Syracuse Nationals in the 1951 NBA Draft. “He walked in to see Coach Prather (at Northwestern) and said, ‘I’d like to try to play basketball.’ The coach said, ‘You don’t look like a player.’ Those are the things that I got from him – that drive to be the best you can with what God has blessed you with. He didn’t say a whole lot.
“He was a basketball player and a coach. He won a state title in 1960. He was 35 years old playing in a church league. He went down the baseline and he got up off the ground – like one of my players used to say, ‘He had air under his feet.’ I said, ‘This guy could play,’ and I wanted to be the best player possible because of what I saw him doing.”
The baseline drive that launched a Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame playing career and a 43-year coaching tenure had a lasting impact on generations to come.
While McConathy’s Northwestern teams captured three Southland Conference Tournament championships and the program’s first three NCAA Tournament appearances – including the Demons of Destiny’s 2006 upset of third-seeded Iowa – his team’s biggest victories came off of the court as 90 percent of his players graduated with their four-year degrees.
“I was in junior college (coaching) for 16 years,” McConathy said. “Everybody had to graduate to go where they wanted to be. That’s what we were supposed to do – graduate them. When we got here, it was what we were used to doing. I wanted to make sure our guys graduate – that way they’ve used the game and the game hasn’t used them.”
Much like McConathy built the Bossier Parish Community College men’s basketball program from scratch, Strother turned Florien High School into a state and regional power.
Six state championships and 1,235 victories – the second-highest total nationally in girls high school basketball and a Louisiana record – highlighted his 40-year head coaching career.
The other numbers – nine Division I players, five state Class B Coach of the Year awards and 49 years in education – speak more about Strother than he wants to about himself.
“I’m up here doing one of the hardest things for me, and that’s to talk about Dewain Strother,” said Strother, a 1974 Northwestern State education graduate. “I don’t like to pull my chain. I don’t need to be patted on the back. This is something that never crossed my mind. When I got the call, I just stood there. (My wife) Lisa said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I just got inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.’ She said, ‘I thought you were already in it.’”
While the punch line led to a room full of laughs, no one laughed at what Strother accomplished in his four decades coaching the Black Cats.
In the early 1990s, Strother’s team was invited to an eight-team Tournament of Champions in Birmingham, Alabama. Each of the eight teams had won a state championship and were brought together to face off with one another.
“We went and played and won the first game,” Strother said. “We won the second. As a matter of fact, we went up against Saudia Roundtree, who ended up playing at Georgia. We played them and won. We played the finals and we won. We beat a team out of Illinois, I think. We won by 16 points, and the coach told me I didn’t have any class, because we beat them by 16.
“I told him, ‘Coach, I played my second bunch the last four minutes of the game, so I’m sorry.’ That was the Alabama trip.”
While McConathy’s career got a boost from his father, the latter part of Strother’s career enjoyed one from the other end of a family – a trio grandchildren that extended his Hall of Fame career before a brief two-year retirement that was upended by a return to Florien as an assistant coach this season.
“Who would have ever thought you’d be around long enough to coach your grandchildren?” Strother said. “I had my daughter here today. I coached her. I didn’t coach my son (on the court), but I coached him at home. Those of you who have grandchildren know, grandchildren should come first. You can spoil them and put them back in momma and daddy’s arms, and they’ve got to leave the house.
“They’re great. I enjoyed all three of mine. They were good players. The oldest one tore her ACL. The other two were good shooters, All-State players. I knew it was time to go, but it wasn’t time to go. Two years (out of the game) was rough. As they always say, if you need something, pray for it. He put me back.”