The picture here is of Scooter Hobbs — former cornerback for the Springhill Lumberjacks and for the past 40 years a sportswriter for the Lake Charles American-Press — in a position envied by all: flanked by the co-founders of DesignatedWriters.com.

This was taken about 40 minutes before Scooter won his 11th or 12th Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) Division II Columnist of the Year award Saturday. It was at the annual LSWA contest luncheon, which JJ makes it a point to attend each year so he can be with the fellas, a group which is relatively worthless but who I do love so. On his Facebook page, JJ posted this Scooter picture with these words:

An annual rite of the Summer of John is to make the trek to Natchitoches to shake the hand of the Distinguished Service Award winner. The staff at www.DesignatedWriters.com is the official clearinghouse before these winners can pass through. Along with Teddy Allen, we waved Scooter Hobbs around third base this weekend and just hoped he didn’t trip over home plate.) #SOJ6

I can report that Scooter made it….because the above picture is also about seven hours before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame Proper. For being a stud. I was there for the 2018 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, held annually on the final weekend of June in Natchitoches, home of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

It was and is a great class. Other members included Steve Gleason as the Dave Dixon Sports Leadership Award winner. His message: “No White Flags.” (Check out Team Steve Gleason online.) Along with Scooter, our broadcasting friend Lyn Rollins, who has broadcast more college baseball games than any individual in the history of Earth, was inducted. He worked hard Saturday night since he’s also the Voice of the Hall of Fame.

I’ll tell you more Wednesday, including why you might want to get your tickets NOW for the 2019 induction. For reals. Somebody from Louisiana will have been retired (from the NFL) for three years then and might be eligible for induction. Who might that be?…

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