Billy Hardin

Sport: Track and Field

Induction Year: 1998

University: LSU

Induction Year: 1998

By Sheldon Mickles

This time, former LSU track star Billy Hardin got to Natchitoches the conventional way.

Thirty-eight years after hitchhiking here to win his first title in the state high school track and field championships, Hardin didn’t have to thumb a ride for his induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Hardin won the 120-yard hurdles title for Baton Rouge High in the 1960 state Class 3A meet held on the Northwestern State campus and later went on to a spectacular career that netted him seven Southeastern Conference titles, an NCAA crown, a national AAU title and a berth in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Inducted along with Hardin during a banquet which capped two days of festivities were former Southern All-American quarterback Warren Braden, football greats Everson Walls and John Petitbon, basketball standouts Lucius “Luke” Jackson and Eun Jung Lee Ok, and golfer Pat Browne.

Also honored was the late Hal Ledet, a highly decorated south Louisiana sportswriter who received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from the sponsoring Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

After barely getting to the track in time for his preliminary heat of the hurdles in 1960, Hardin went on to win the title. He and teammate Bobby Cotton, who was entered in the 100-yard dash, had to hitchhike after the team bus broke down just outside of Baton Rouge.

“It was going to take a while to fix it, so coach (Bat) Gourrier told us we had better get going if we wanted to run in the finals,” Hardin recalled. “So we got a set of blocks and our uniforms, and we put our thumbs up.”

After getting a lift to Alexandria from Baton Rougean Henry Glaze, who used to be a boxer for Gourrier, the two were picked up by a Northwestern State student who drove them all the way to the meet. After arriving, Hardin asked the starter to wait while he changed into his uniform for his prelim.

“I never got the guy’s name that picked us up, but I wish I would have,” Hardin said. “That’s one of the things that’s so great about this weekend. I have had a chance to go back and reflect on a lot of memories.”

One of those memories includes getting the opportunity to join his father, two-time Olympic medalist Glenn “Slats” Hardin, in the Hall of Fame. They became only the second father-son duo to be elected to the Hall (the other being Dub and Bert Jones), which now boasts 187 members.

“This is a special time for me, but it’s a very emotional time,” said Billy Hardin, whose father died in 1975. “If dad were here today, he would be proud. It’s an honor to be included with such tremendous athletes.”

Braden, who earned All-American honors in 1948 and ’49 as the field general for teams that won back-to-back black national titles under coach A.W. Mumford, was also in awe of the company he was suddenly in.

“I’ve always been a student of sports,” said Braden, who will turn 70 years old this summer, “and I kept up with the guys I’m looking at right now. It’s really great to be a part of it.”

It was Braden’s fourth induction into a Hall of Fame. He’s already a member of those sponsored by Southern University, the Nokia Sugar Bowl and the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

Described by legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson as a “Joe Montana-type player,” Braden helped Southern to a 41-4-2 record during his four-year career. In their championship years, the Jaguars finished 12-0 and 10-0-1 with Braden directing Mumford’s potent offense.

Braden’s exceptional talents were evident in many of the blowout victories the Jaguars posted during his tenure as their starting quarterback. But they were best illustrated in a 64-7 romp over Tuskegee in the 1946 Yam Bowl and an 87-0 trouncing of Xavier in Braden’s final college game in 1949.

Against Tuskegee, Southern exploded for 50 points in the second half after struggling to a 14-7 halftime lead with Braden on the bench for disciplinary reasons.

In the rout of Xavier, he threw four TD passes and kicked an extra point to lead his team to a 40-0 halftime lead.

“I first saw him play at Southern, and he would really take charge of a ball game,” Robinson said Saturday. “Braden was the first guy I saw go out and play quarterback the way they do now.”