By TEDDY ALLEN/Designated Writers
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Saturday night in Natchitoches was a win for 11 inductees and the record crowd of 800–we pushed the limits of the fire marshal. The event was televised live by Cox Sports Television and will re-air several times. You can read more about the Class of 2019 in DW’s No. 7 spot in today’s batting order.
Sunday morning after the Induction, we members of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association have our annual brunch and awards ceremony. It’s a shorts and T-shirt thing in a local eatery, this time with the wonderful people at Merci Beaucoup Restaurant, 127 Church Street. They’ll cure what ails you.
So LSWA Treasurer For Life Kent Lowe, the event’s studly emcee/entertainment, threw out the first award and — and DW fair caught it. This is a first in our organization. DW has not entered or won squat — until now. It was in the Pro Event category and was about Patrick Reed’s win of the 2018 Masters — (the awards covered the 2018 calendar year). The story didn’t make the print edition of The Times in Shreveport or The News-Star in Monroe — my press badge at Augusta National says “The Times” of course, but I didn’t want to enter illegally — so I entered it under the DW umbrella. (Found out later — later being Sunday afternoon — we think it ran online in Shreveport. So thank you Gannett and thank you DW. Anyway…) I suppose if we don’t give it to somebody as we usually do — don’t think Patrick Reed wants it — we will hang it in a DW Bureau.
The other award a DW co-founder received was in the College Columns category for a story about Billy Cannon’s greatest return of all, written for The Times/USA Today Network in honor of Dr. Cannon’s life after he passed away last year.
Times editor Scott Ferrell earned the Mac Russo Award, given with distinction annually to a person who has contributed to the progress, ideals, and fellowship of the LSWA; Jerry Pierce of Northwestern State won the first one in 1983. DW is proud for Scott, a longtime friend and co-worker of the DW front office.
The Patrick Reed and Dr. Cannon stories are below.
Break!