The 35-member Hall of Fame Selection Committee of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association annually conducts a two-month review process before electing eight new members of the Hall of Fame.
A standing ballot, typically including more than 120 candidates, is supplemented each year by new nominees.
Nominations can be made by the public as well as by members of the LSWA.
If you have a candidate to nominate, it’s easy to do.
Biographical material on nominees should be sent to DougIreland@LaSportsHall.com.
It can also be mailed to Doug Ireland, Chairman, Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, 500 Front St., Natchitoches, LA 71457.
The deadline to nominate new candidates each year is July 15. Supporting materials, especially for nominees not in high-profile sports categories, are very helpful.
It is best to submit the nomination information in the same form that it appears on the ballot, a paragraph form that features top achievements in the nominee’s career. An example is provided below.
Shaquille O’Neal, basketball
One of basketball’s greatest players, O’Neal exploded on the national scene during his playing days for Dale Brown at LSU and during a stellar 19-year NBA career grew into one of sport’s most magnetic and charming personalities, attaining a multi-faceted, unique identity that has made him an A-list world sports and entertainment figure. Nicknamed “Shaq” with dozens of other sobriquets, the 7-foot-1, 325-pounder was a pivotal figure for NBA Championship teams in 2000, 2001 and 2002 (Los Angeles Lakers) and the 2006 Miami Heat. He won three NBA Finals MVP honors, the 1999-20000 NBA MVP award, and the 1992-93 NBA Rookie of the Year honor after being the No. 1 draft pick of the Orlando Magic. Shaq captured three All-Star Game MVP awards while earning 15 All-Star Game selections, along with making the All-NBA Team 14 times and being a three-time NBA All-Defensive Team pick. He is one of only three players (joining Willis Reed, 1970; Michael Jordan, 1996 and 1998) to win All-Star Game MVP, NBA MVP and NBA Final MVP in the same season. He was chosen on the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1996. In NBA history, he ended his career ranked sixth all-time in scoring (28,596, 23.7 points per game), fifth in field goals (11,330), seventh in blocked shots (2,732, 2.3 average) and 13th in rebounds (13,099, 10.9 average) and made 58.2 percent of his shots, second all-time. He played for Orlando (1992-96), the Lakers (1996-2004), Miami (2004-2008), Phoenix (2008-09), Cleveland (2009-10) and Boston (2010-11). At LSU, he was the national Player of the Year in 1991 and a two-time Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (1991, 1992), the SEC Athlete of the Year in 1991-92, and won a World Amateur Athlete of the Year honor in 1991. In three seasons, he scored 1,941 points, snared 1,4217 rebounds, shot 61.0 percent from the field, has six career triple-doubles, and became the first player to lead the SEC in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots in a season. His No. 33 LSU jersey was retired in 2000 (the fourth number retired in any sport at LSU, joining Billy Cannon, Bob Pettit and Pete Maravich) and he made LSU’s All-Century Team in 2009. O’Neal was part of the USA’s Olympic gold-medal 1996 basketball team. A 2000 LSU graduate, Shaq was born 3/6/72 in Newark, N.J.
Additional Selection Information:
Athletes, coaches and other sports figures are selected according to categories and criteria established long ago, and slightly modified since, by the LSWA.
To be eligible for consideration, athletes must have competed for at least two years at the varsity level in high school or college in Louisiana. Athletes who gain fame in Louisiana at the college or professional level are also eligible candidates.
Coaches and nominees in other categories such as sports administration are eligible for membership if they are Louisiana natives who gain fame outside the state, or if they are out of state but gain fame while working in Louisiana.
Other basic criteria require sports figures to be retired or inactive in their discipline for at least three years before they can be considered.
Athletes in lifetime sports, such as golf, become eligible when they reach the age of 50 (as of Jan. 1 of that year), even if they remain active.
With rules refined in 2003, coaches and administrators become eligible once they turn 60, even if they remain active.
Rules prevent a majority of the selections coming from any one sports category.
All new nominees are reviewed by the Nominations subcommittee, which determines which new candidates advance to that year’s ballot.
