Norm Fletcher

Sport: Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism

Induction Year: 2010

University: Northwestern State

Induction Year: 2010

Fletcher spent five decades as the “Voice of the Hall of Fame” lending his baritone delivery as the narrator for ceremonies and videotape. His stirring style ushered each inductee into the elite ranks of Hall of Fame membership, but it was only a part of his remarkable contribution to state sports history.

He was a prominent sportscaster in north Louisiana for parts of five decades beginning in the late 1940s and continuing up until his passing in December of 2012. Fletcher was the “Voice of the Demons” calling Northwestern State sports from the age of 18 in 1949 until running successfully for Sheriff of Natchitoches Parish in 1979, and he reassumed the role for two years after leaving office in the early 1990s.

He hosted weekly morning radio shows and contributed to NSU sports coverage, while enjoying the work of two of his protégés, LSU Sports Network announcer Jim Hawthorne and Cox Sports Television lead announcer Lyn Rollins, whose broadcast careers began under Fletcher’s guidance in Natchitoches.

From 1949-79, he broadcast high school sports, doing every Natchitoches High/Natchitoches Central football and basketball game, except for time spent in the U.S. Air Force. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Radio Service Far East Network in the 1950s as chief news and sports announcer. He broadcast major sports events throughout the Far East, including football, baseball and boxing.

For a quarter-century after he returned home to Natchitoches, he did either prep or college basketball game broadcasts five nights a week from mid-November until early March, and returned back to the studio early the following mornings to anchor the local news and sports reports and a talk show. Broadcasting sports including football, basketball, baseball, boxing, boat races and even two Gulf States Conference track and field championship meets, his total of play-by-play events is over 4,000 broadcasts. As co-owner of KNOC-AM and KDBH-FM, Fletcher helped launch the broadcast careers of dozens of NSU students, including Hawthorne and Rollins.

Fletcher became just the fifth broadcaster to enter the Hall as a Distinguished Service Award winner, joining Hap Glaudi and Buddy Diliberto of New Orleans, LSU’s John Ferguson and 2009 recipient Bob Griffin of Shreveport. Fletcher and Ferguson continue to be the only two play-by-play broadcasters honored so far.