Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame wraps up the week with the Induction Ceremony

NATCHITOCHES, La. (KALB) – Saturday, June 22, was induction night for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

While big names were being inducted, big names were also in attendance. Everyone dressed to impress for the big day, but no one was more grateful than the inductees themselves.

“You know, first of all is the greatest day in my life to have been asked and the committee selected me as a second ambassador for Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame,” said Wilbert Ellis. “I’m in various other hall of fames, but when you talk about Louisiana and your hometown state or your village or your community, and when you’re honored by that, it has a great impact on you. And then I want to make sure that whatever I say or do will be able to touch the American youth. Where they want to be involved in things and get more involved and active in baseball, and life.”

“It’s awesome, especially…to be able to share this and go in with the inductees from 2024,” said Kerry Joseph. “I just feel very special and I’m grateful for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame for electing me for this year, but also to be able to go in with this class. We’re going in with as much respect as much due respect to the ones that have come before me and paved the way for me to be a part of this great celebration. Been an awesome three days and we get to top it off tonight with this ceremony.”

“My family is here and my grandkids and all that and oh we are they all are having a ball,” said Ray Sibille. “Everybody’s having such a wonderful time. You guys. It’s unbelievable. I didn’t know how much they did. I saw it last year on the IPB channel. But I had no idea that this was this big.”

In a class that headlined Saints legend Drew Brees, who was not able to attend, we caught up with a few familiar faces who rep the purple and gold on the purple carpet.

“It’s been a joy just to see and hear all the memories of different coaches, different journalists in their journey of following me or at least watching me throughout my time and just hearing those experiences,” said Seimone Augustus. “But for me, it means the most because I’m from Louisiana…my pride and joy was being able to represent my state as best I could whenever, wherever I went in the world. To be able to be celebrated with my people is probably the most special moment. It’s still overwhelming to me and I thought my gift was just the fact that I could put the ball in the basket, but no. My gift was that I could bring people together from all walks of life. You see people come to places that they probably would like to lock their windows, roll their windows up and lock their doors. But they wanted to come see what I had to offer. They wanted to come and be a part of something special. So, I’m definitely thankful that I had an ability to bring people together to at least celebrate a cause and have some joyous moments”

“It’s not about me today,” said Kim Mulkey. “I had my little moment back when I was 29 years of age. This is about Simone Augustus and what she has meant to our university, LSU women’s basketball, our state and just women’s basketball in general… I’m so excited to watch her talk tonight and more importantly I’m excited she’s going to be on my staff now.”

And we even caught up with a familiar Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame alum who is entering a different hall of fame this year.

“So exciting to me to know that we have a spirit of excellence here in Louisiana when it comes to sports and I’m just so happy to be a part of it, said Charles Smith. “It is amazing…for me to be around for long because I just talked with coach Mulkey and I saw her play basketball in high school at Hammond high school and I also had a chance to see Simone Augustine play basketball when she was in high school. So, it’s just an honor and a pleasure to me to be able to come back here and see these young people that I saw perform on the high school level. That’s, you know, at the elite level now in the Louisiana sports hall of famers.”

To simply put it, this year’s class was phenomenal, and they are now part of a fraternity where their names are solidified in the state of Louisiana forever.

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