Lou "Rags" Scheuermann

Sport: Baseball

Induction Year: 1990

University: DelgadoLoyola

Induction Year: 1990

Lou “Rags” Scheuermann was a successful college baseball coach for 40 years, and he is the first person inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame primarily as a baseball coach.

But he didn’t go to college.

Scheuermann has turned a negative into a positive by using himself as an example of the value of a college education.

“I’m in a better position to teach a young man the importance of a college education than I would be if I had gone to college,” Scheuermann said. “I can use myself as a role model.”

He got his nickname as a teenager, because he couldn’t afford spikes played baseball in his socks.

A lifelong resident of New Orleans who attended Nicholls High, “Rags” played professional baseball for several years as a young man. He was an infielder with teams in Durham, N.C., and Elizabeth, Tenn., and worked out with the Boston Red Sox.

After a shoulder injury suffered in a freak accident ended Scheuermann’s playing career, long-time New Orleans sports writer Hap Glaudi persuaded “Rags” to give coaching a shot – starting with New Orleans Recreation Department and the Babe Ruth program.

In 1951, he made his debut in the All-American Amateur Baseball Association – coaching players who were one or two years above the limit for American Legion baseball.

His first team finished second in the national AAABA tournament at Johnstown, Pa. Two years later, he brought the first of nine national championships back to New Orleans.

“You always remember the first time,” Scheuermann recalled in 1991. Players such as Chubby marks and Ronnie Able contributed to three consecutive AAABA titles starting with the 1953 edition.

Forty years after his firs trip to Johnstown, “Rags” and his son, Joe Scheuermann, celebrated the anniversary by coaching another team to a second-place finish in the national tournament.

Their team was one victory away from a tenth championship, winning its first give games in the double elimination tournament before dropping two straight games to perennial power Baltimore.

“Every time we went to Johnstown, it was exciting,” Scheuermann said.

“Rags” had a friend in city hall – in fact, several city halls – for much of his baseball coaching career. Three of his players became mayors – Moon Landrieu in New Orleans, Pat Screen in Baton Rouge and Tommy Wilcox in Harahan.

Twenty-seven of his players (and one of his two sons) became high school or college baseball coaches.

Nine of his players made it to the major leagues, including four who were active in 1991 – Lenny Webster of the world champion Minnesota Twins, Wally Whitehurst, Gerald Alexander and Kevin Mahat.

“The signing bonuses of the layers I coached amounted to two million dollars,” Scheuermann said, “and I never got a dime as their agent.”

He owns 79 percent of his games in 20 years at Loyola, posting a 340-92 record. Then he won 73 percent of his games at Delgado Junior College, with the Dolphins posting a 527-199 record and winning eight district championships in competition with teams from Texas and Mississippi.

One of the highlights of his early of his early years at Loyola was a 7-2 victory over Southern Mississippi in 1958.

“That was a big event for me,” he recalled. “I was new to college coaching.”

During one three-year stretch at Loyola, the Wolfpack was 17-2, 19-1, and 18-3.

“Our only loss one season was to LSU, 6-5, early in the year,” Scheuermann recalled. “We went up to Baton Rouge and beat them the last game of the season, and I was thinking we had a pretty good year. Then someone from Loyola asked why we lost that first game to LSU.”

He took Delgado to the 1984 Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., and dozens of his players went on to play at NCAA Division 1 schools.

“Eighteen went to Tulane,” he recalled, “and seven were elected team captain. It’s always nice to pick up a paper and see where one of your players is doing well.”

Scheuermann turned over the Delgado coaching reins to his son after the 1990 season and became the intramural sports director at the school. He continued to oversee the operation of Kirsch-Rooney Park, not only during the junior college season but during the high school and American Legion season as well.

He also continued to organize the All-American program in New Orleans, obtaining sponsors and assigning coaches and players.

“Rags” and Maureen Scheuermann have been married for more than 30 years. They have two sons and two daughters. Their father couldn’t afford baseball spikes for a college education, but he put all four of his children through college.

When he was informed that he had been selected for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Scheuermann’s first reaction was that somebody was pulling a practical joke on him.

“I didn’t believe it until they put a letter right in front of my face,” he said. “I thought they were joking. I was really shocked because there are so many great people already in it. I just hope I’m deserving on the honor.”

“Something like this makes all the years worthwhile. For a coach, records are not what’s important. What’s important is the effect you have on people’s lives. I just hope I’ve had a positive impact.”