Mike Cook

Sport: Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism

Induction Year: 1992

University: LSU

Horace M. “Mike” Cook, who spent almost his entire career — 35 years — at the Baton Rouge State-Times, earned nationwide acclaim for his columns and stories as outdoors editor at the State-Times and its sister newspaper, the Morning Advocate. Cook earned a journalism degree from LSU in 1954, then began his sports writing career at the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News in 1956. In November of that same year, he moved to the State-Times. When the State-Times published its final edition in October of 1991, he retired.

Cook, who was the State-Times’ beat writer in the early days of the New Orleans Saints, became the newspaper’s outdoors editor in 1966. In 1978, he also became the outdoors editor of the Morning Advocate. Already an award-winning sportswriter, his writing about the outdoors was soon noticed nationwide. He won the Outdoor Writers Association of America award for his stories on poaching in Louisiana. In 1979, the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association made him the unanimous winner of the Arthur Van Pelt Award for lifetime dedication to conservation in the state.

Cook was twice voted the Louisiana Wildlife Federation’s Conservationist Commentator of the Year. He was also winner of the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press’ Frank C. Allen Award for distinguished news reporting.

Cook was an advocate for the preservation of the Atchafalaya Basin. In 1982, he received the state’s highest outdoors award from the LWF when he was named Conservationist of the Year for his series of stories and columns on the basin.

A native of Panama City, Fla., Cook was a U.S. Marines radio operator and served in the Pacific Theater in World War II.