Mike McConathy

Sport: Basketball

Induction Year: 2026

University: Louisiana Tech

The winningest college basketball coach in state history, Bossier City native Mike McConathy was a prep All-American guard at Airline High School who became one of Louisiana Tech’s great players before launching a history-making coaching career.

His 682 wins (330 at Northwestern State in 23 seasons, 352 in 16 seasons after starting the Bossier Parish CC program) tops any state college coach in men’s or women’s basketball. McConathy’s overall 330-373 mark at NSU included a winning record (220-203) in Southland Conference games while he led the Demons into 117 guarantee games bringing in over $5 million to the school’s athletic budget — including road wins at Auburn, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State, UTEP and neutral-court victories over Oregon State and 15th-ranked Iowa in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

As a college point guard at Tech, he averaged 20.7 points per game with 2,033 points (1973-77), winning Southland Player of the Year honors as a junior for a conference championship team. An NBA Draft pick by Chicago, he made it to the final cut and briefly played professionally in Europe.

His 43-year coaching career began as girls coach at Airline High, before he launched the Bossier Parish CC program, playing home games at Airline. His 16 seasons building the Cavaliers into one of the more successful NJCAA programs, including seven seasons of 23-plus wins, in March 1999 he took over a Demons’ program with only five winning seasons and no postseason trips in 24 years of Division I history. Without a roster makeover, McConathy led Northwestern to the Southland Conference championship game to cap his first season, then won that game the next season to earn the first of four postseason tournament appearances (NCAA 2001, Opening Round win over Winthrop; NCAA 2006, No. 14 seed First Round upset of No. 3 seed and Big Ten Tournament champ Iowa; NCAA 2013, First Round loss to eventual NCAA champion Florida) and the 2014 CIT.

His NSU teams made seven Southland championship game appearances (four straight from 2005-08) and graduated 90 percent of his players. Five current or former Division I head coaches, including Maryland’s Buzz Williams, were part of his NSU staffs. He is in the Louisiana Tech and NSU athletic halls of fame, the Ark-La-Tex Museum of Champions and NSU’s Hall of Distinguished Educators as he served as an active faculty member during his 23 seasons. The Prather Coliseum court was named for him Feb. 15, 2025. … Born 12-27-55 in Bossier City.