REUTERS/Kimberly White (UNITED STATES)
NATCHITOCHES, La. – Recent Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Sylvia Fowles, NFL stars Joe Horn, Todd McClure and Pat Williams, Major League Baseball All-Star Jonathan Lucroy and legendary basketball coaches John Brady, Mike McConathy and Dewain Strother make up a star-studded eight-member group of competitors’ ballot inductees chosen for 2026 induction in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Additionally, for the third time this decade, the Hall will present the Louisiana Sports Ambassador Award, this time to Warren Morris, the Alexandria native and resident whose walk-off home run won the 1996 College World Series for LSU, resulting in the Bolton High School product becoming a lifelong spokesman for college baseball, the CWS and LSU.
The LSHOF Class of 2026 is headed by Fowles, a four-time USA Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) who helped LSU to four consecutive Final Fours from 2005-08. She was an eight-time WNBA All-Star in a 15-season pro career that included WNBA Finals MVP honors as she led the Minnesota Lynx to league crowns in 2015 and 2017. Fowles was chosen as one of the WNBA’s Top 25 Players of All-Time in 2021 and entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame last weekend and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June.
Horn was a four-time Pro Bowl receiver (2000-02, 2004) and fan favorite in seven seasons (2000-06) with the New Orleans Saints in a 12-year NFL career. McClure, a Baton Rouge native and two-sport All-Stater at Central High School, was an All-Southeastern Conference and All-America center for LSU before 14 NFL seasons, all in Atlanta, that earned him a place in the Falcons Ring of Honor. Williams, a defensive tackle from Wossman High School in his hometown of Monroe, reached three straight Pro Bowls (2006-08) while with the Minnesota Vikings in a 14-season career that started with the Buffalo Bills.
Lucroy starred for three years at catcher for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns and was a third-round 2007 MLB Draft pick by Milwaukee, where he earned a pair of American League All-Star Game appearances (2014, 2016) and was fourth in voting for the 2014 AL Most Valuable Player award as pinnacles of a 12-year big league career.
Brady won 402 games in 25 seasons of college basketball coaching at Samford, LSU and Arkansas State, with 190 victories in 10 seasons with the Tigers including three SEC regular-season championships (2000, 2005, 2006) and a run to the 2006 NCAA Final Four. That year’s March Madness was also a career highlight for Bossier City native McConathy, whose 14th seeded Demons stunned No. 3 seed and Big Ten Conference champion Iowa in one of three NCAA tourney trips (two wins) for NSU. The former Louisiana Tech star guard won a state-record 682 games as a college coach in 16 seasons at Bossier Parish Community College and 23 at Northwestern.
Strother is the nation’s second-winningest high school girls basketball coach, retiring in 2023 with a 1,235-395 (.758) record that includes 21 trips to the state semifinals and 11 championship game appearances, collecting five LHSAA titles for Florien High in southern Sabine Parish.
The new class will be enshrined next June 25-27 at the Hall of Fame’s home in Natchitoches to culminate the 67th Induction Celebration. Ticket information for the seven events over three days of festivities is available at the LaSportsHall.com website.
A 40-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2026 inductees completing a three-week process. The panel considered 153 nominees from 27 different sport categories on a 34-page competitors ballot, with 61 reaching the final phase of deliberations.
Also spotlighted next summer will be three other Hall of Fame inductees from the contributors categories: a winner of the 2026 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and two recipients of the 2026 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the parent organization of the Hall of Fame. Those inductees will be selected and announced later this year.
The complete 12-person Class of 2026 will swell the overall membership in the Hall of Fame to 515 men and women – athletes, coaches, administrators and sports media members — honored since its founding in 1958.
The 2026 Induction Class will be showcased in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum. The facility is operated by the Louisiana State Museum system in a partnership with the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
The striking two-story, 27,500-square foot structure faces Cane River Lake in the National Historic Landmark District of Natchitoches and has garnered worldwide architectural acclaim and rave reviews for its contents since its grand opening during the 2013 Hall of Fame induction weekend.
The new competitive ballot inductees will raise the total of Hall of Fame members to 402 athletes and coaches honored since the first induction class — Baseball Hall of Famer Mel Ott, world champion boxer Tony Canzoneri and LSU football great Gaynell Tinsley — was enshrined in 1959 after their election a year earlier.
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, 11 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, 10 Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, 10 College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, nine National High School Hall of Fame members, 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 five quarterbacks with a combined seven Super Bowl MVP awards.
Online ticketing and event information for the 2026 Induction Celebration is available at this link: www.LaSportsHall.com/Induction2026
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