by Doug Ireland
It’s that time again, the most magical stretch on the sports calendar, even in the football-crazed state we’re in.
March Madness.
Sure, the Super Bowl is a bigger one-day event. And nowaways the NFL not only owns Sunday afternoons, but Sunday nights, Monday nights, and if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, Thursday nights.
But even considering the NFL playoffs – and now, the College Football Playoff — the four-week run of postseason college basketball captivates America like nothing else.
Why? It’s not as if we suddenly switch on a devotion to basketball above all other sports. Some of us do feel that way, especially people who grew up in small communities that revolved around the high school’s warm gym on a wet or cold or a wet AND cold night, watching the local girls and boys play basketball and cheer for the home team. There are different churches in those small communities, but there’s only one school, and if it wasn’t your kid, it was a family member, or the kid two houses down, who was involved in some way or another.
March Madness in our state begins with Marsh Madness, first in Hammond for the girls state tournament, then a week later, across I-10 in Lake Charles for the boys’ semifinals and finals.
Louisiana Christian, the university formerly known as Louisiana College, gave Cenla some of its greatest basketball heroes – Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame members Bily Allgood, Janice Joseph Richard, and Sheila Thompson Johnson.
Allgood was the Wildcats’ basketball coach from 1959-85, also serving as an assistant football coach in the early years and as baseball coach until he finally retired from that role and athletic director’s post in 1998. His 327 basketball wins included a massive upset at UTEP over legendary national major college champion Don Haskins and several NAIA Tournament appearances.
Janice Joseph was a sensational player and student at Peabody High School who went across Red River and was a spectacular player for the LC Lady Wildcats. She later became a hugely-successful head coach for LC. A two-time NAIA All-American guard for LC, Joseph was a four-time first-team all-conference pick. In her coaching career at Xavier, San Jose State and her alma mater, she elevated each program and guided Xavier and LC to NAIA Tournament success. She passed far too early after two battles with breast cancer.
Sheila Thompson, still living in Pineville and active in service to the community and her church, is married to state Rep. Mike Johnson, who does so much for Cenla, and for our state, in his legislative role as Speaker Pro Tempore of the state House. Once you sort out that Bossier City’s Mike Johnson is Speaker of the House in D.C. and our Mike Johnson serves in Baton Rouge, you’re good to go.
The Johnsons have been married for a long time, but not since Sheila became a basketball star as the first Louisiana girls player to be named to the prestigious Parade Magazine High School All-America Team while she grew up in Pitkin. She made the decision to play at LC where she became a two-time All-American and led the Lady Wildcats to a national fourth-place finish as a junior in only the fourth year of the women’s program at LC.
After scoring more points (2,659) than any other LC basketballer, male or female, in her career, Sheila made the LSWA’s 20-member All-Century Women’s Basketball Team for the state in 1999-2000.
She came back as head coach from 1985-89 for more success, then in 1996 became the state’s second female collegiate director of athletics at her alma mater, helped bring football back to the Pineville campus and guided the athletics program from NAIA to NCAA Division III membership.
When it comes to high school basketball, there’s no greater figure in state coaching history than the man still running the show at Peabody Magnet, Charles Smith.
His career has landed the still-active 75-year-old coach in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2019 and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame last October. He is the fifth winningest coach in the history of
American high school basketball and still drives the team bus – and is a demanding trigonometry teacher.
First came Bobby Lowther, the only two-sport All-American (basketball and track) in LSU history. How good was he? In 1947, a year after earning All-America recognition in both sports (throwing the javelin
and pole vaulting in track and field), he was voted LSU’s Best All-Around Athlete. Lowther was a Bolton High School graduate and WWII veteran. Seems a no-brainer, you say? The other candidates included future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle (a lifelong dear friend of Lowther’s), and future big league baseball All-Stars Joe Adcock (also an All-SEC basketball teammate of Lowther’s) and Alvin Dark (also a football star).
That list is limited to Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame members. There are many other local legends of the hardwoods – recently Boyce’s Clifton Lee. The Northwood-Lena product was the best player on the 2006 NCAA Tournament darlings from Northwestern State, and Lee’s stretch-run flurry keyed the Demons of Destiny as they knocked off No. 3 Iowa in a memorable NCAA Tournament upset.
It’s worth watching to see if anyone else from Cenla rises to the fore in this year’s March Madness – LSUA’s Kenny Natt is a prime candidate – but one thing’s for sure. Our area will continue making memories when the basketball season is at its peak.
