Sports: Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Natchitoches Parish Louisiana Source: The Natchitoches Time August 1996 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** LOUISIANA SPORTS HALL OF FAME Prather Coliseum, NSU Campus Begun in 1972, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame is located in Prather Coliseum on the NSU campus. It houses color portraits of each athlete as well as jerseys and other sports memorabilia. Induction ceremonies are held annually in June. The glass holds back the rousing applause and scent of sweat spent during decades of athletic competition. The portraits of Louisiana's most accomplished athletes are studded with retired jerseys, game-winning implements and record-breaking sketches. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame at Northwestern State University's Prather Coliseum scores a living history of athletics in the state. The Hall of Fame came to Natchitoches 24 years ago following local efforts by Jerry Pierce, Hall of Fame chairman from 1972-1990. At the time Pierce was the news bureau director for the university and master of ceremonies for the annual induction ceremony conducted by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. "I'd been in the sports writers association since 1961 and I'd been hearing about the Hall of Fame," Pierce said. "The sports writers in that day weren't a very reverent bunch anyway and they made fun of everything. One of the big jokes was the Hall of Fame, that there were inductions into something that was a noble enough idea but didn't exist anywhere except in the newspapers." The more Pierce contemplated the idea of bringing the Hall of Fame to Natchitoches and Northwestern, the more logical it seemed. Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, brims with history. It is relatively centrally located. Northwestern is the oldest university in the Louisiana Board of Trustees system and has a rich athletic history. The first induction ceremonies in Natchitoches were held in 1972 for former LSU football star and all-time NFL quarterbacking great Y.A. Tittle. His ceremonies took place at halftime of a Northwestern basketball game at Prather Coliseum. Untold hours were spent collecting pictures and background material for biographical sketches of the inductees. Two 60-foot glass enclosed display cases have been built to showcase the portraits and priceless memorabilia, along with the Louisiana Golf Association's Amateur Championship trophy, a silver replica of the state capitol building. Color portraits of the 158 members have been painted and are on display in the Hall of Fame, which also has a growing collection of memorabilia contributed the shrine by Hall of Fame members and their families.