Brought To You By Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
ROBBY ALBARADO — The late Lafayette native retired from active riding in 2021 after 32 years in the saddle, which started in 1990 at Evangeline Downs. Won 5,222 races in his career and was tied for 30th all-time (as of 7-15-2026) with LSHOF member Mark Guidry and just 87 behind LSHOF inductee Calvin Borel from 34,114 mounts. He added 4,950 seconds and 4,696 thirds for a 44% in-the-money percentage. His mounts earned more than $221 million in his career, which ranks 19th all-time and second only to Kent Desormeaux among Louisiana-born jockeys. Was the regular rider for Horses of the Year Mineshaft (2003) and Curlin (2007, 2008). Won two Triple Crown races — the 2007 Preakness aboard Curlin and 2020 Preakness on Swiss Skydiver — and was in the money on eight other occasions. His wins on Curlin included the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic — one of three career Breeders Cup wins — and the 2008 Dubai World Cup. Captured his first graded stakes victory in 1995 at Arlington Park and went on to win 212 graded stakes races. Won seven riding titles at Fair Grounds and was elected to the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame in 2005. Received the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award in a vote of his riding peers in 2004. Ranked in the top 15 nationally in earnings 11 times in his career and in top 15 in wins on four occasions. Overcame multiple injuries during his career, including a pair of skull fractures. … Born 9-11-73 in Lafayette. (died 8-3-26).
LEONARD FOURNETTE – A record-breaking running back in three seasons at LSU, he played seven NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who made him the fourth overall pick of the 2017 draft, Tampa Bay Bucs and Buffalo Bills. Fournette had 4,518 rushing yards and 34 TDs in just 81 games before injuries and other issues cut his career short at the age of 28. The powerfully-built 6-foot, 228-pounder also caught 312 passes for 2,219 yards and seven TDs. Despite rushing for 1,040 yards in 2017 and 1,152 yards in 2019, the Jaguars released Fournette in Aug. 2020. He was quickly scooped up by the Bucs and helped them win Super Bowl LV that year – rushing for 89 yards and a TD in a 31-9 beating of the Kansas City Chiefs. His top games as a pro were a 29-carry, 225-yard effort for the Jaguars against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 29, 2019 and a 181-yard, two-TD day against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 8, 2017. The consensus No. 1 player in the 2014 recruiting class rushed for 1,034 yards and 10 TDs as a freshman at LSU, then earned All-American honors as a sophomore after notching school single-season records of 1,953 rushing yards and 22 TDs. On Oct. 22, 2016, he broke the school record with 284 yards on 16 carries in a 38-21 win over Ole Miss. An ankle injury limited Fournette to seven games as a junior, but he still rushed for 843 yards, then declared for the draft with career rushing totals of 3,830 yards, 40 TDs and 6.2 yards per carry. Only LSHOF inductees Kevin Faulk (4,557), Dalton Hilliard (4,050) and Charles Alexander (4,035) – who all played four years – have more rushing yards in an LSU uniform. … Born 1-18-95 in New Orleans.
AARON HILL – California native played shortstop for LSU from 2001-03, earning Freshman All-American honors in 2001 and first-team All-American honors in 2003 after a monster junior season in which he was named SEC player of the year in leading the Tigers in five categories – batting (.358), runs (68), hits (95), RBIs (67) and doubles (27). A first-round draft pick (No. 13 overall) of the Toronto Blue Jays, Hill played 13 MLB seasons with Toronto (2005-11), Arizona (2011-15), Milwaukee and Boston (2016) and San Francisco (2017). He was an AL All-Star in 2009 when he had a breakout year with 36 home runs, 108 RBIs, 37 doubles and 340 total bases while hitting .286. He was the Blue Jays’ player of the year and was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year after missing the final four months of the 2008 season with a concussion. In 2012, Hill became the first player in MLB history to win a Silver Slugger award in both leagues – accomplishing the feat with the Blue Jays in 2009 and D-Backs in 2012. Hill authored seven 100-hit seasons, topped with 195 in 2009, 184 in 2012 and 177 in 2007 and retired with 1,501 career hits. He is, according to MLB Reference, one of just 673 players to reach the 1,500-hit threshold (among 23,495 players who have played in the majors as of June 3, 2025). He wound up playing 1,559 games, hitting .266 with 162 HRs, 695 RBIs and 74 SBs. Playing most of his career at second base, he compiled a .986 career fielding percentage with just 92 errors in 6,446 chances. … Born 3-21-82 in Visalia, Calif.
LISA INGRAM – A two-time all-American center who led UL-Monroe to the NCAA Final Four in 1985, she was the “Miss Inside” to Eun Jung Lee’s “Miss Outside” on the great Lady Indian teams which compiled a 102-15 record from 1981-86. Ingram is ULM’s and the Southland Conference’s all-time scoring leader with 2,601 points. Her lowest season average during her four-year career was 21.2 ppg as a sophomore. She shot 58.7 percent from the field for her career and 73.7 percent from the foul line. She is also ULM’s career rebounds leader with 1,173. She had 52 points in a victory over Joyce Walker and Sue Gunter coached LSU in 1984. She was a four-time All-SLC and All-Louisiana first-team selection and was Louisiana’s Player of the Year in 1986. Ingram was a two-time Parade All-America at Coral Gables (Fla). High School, scoring 52 to lead a state title win as a senoir, and generally considered the No. 2 prep player in the nation behind Cheryl Miller. Ingram was the leading scorer in the 1983 gold medal contest as the USA won the Pan American Games and was part of the USA’s silver medal squad for the 1983 FIBA World Championships. An 18-year veteran of pro basketball overseas, Ingram was among the first to play in the WNBA. She was inducted in the ULM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991 and her number 33 jersey was retired by ULM in 2025.
PATRICK PETERSON – Regarded by many as the best defensive back in LSU football history, Peterson was the nation’s top DB in 2010 before embarking on a 13-year NFL career. He won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defender and the Thorpe Award as the top defensive back – becoming the first LSU player to win those two prestigious awards. He also became the first player in SEC history to earn the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and Special Teams Player of the Year honors, intercepting four passes and averaging 29.1 yards on 32 kickoff returns and 15.1 yards with two TDs on 26 punt returns as a junior. The fifth overall pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2011, Peterson made the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons (2011-18) and was a three-time AP first-team All-Pro (2011, 2013, 2015). He played in 201 regular-season games with 200 starts in 13 seasons – 10 with the Cardinals, two with the Minnesota Vikings and one with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had 36 interceptions, returning two for touchdowns, and recovered 12 fumbles. Peterson also returned kickoffs and punts for seven seasons, taking four punts back for touchdowns as a rookie in 2011. The four scores went for 80, 82, 89 and 99 yards – all in the first 11 games of his NFL career. The 99-yarder was a walk-off as he ran through the entire St. Louis Rams coverage team in overtime to give the Cardinals a 19-13 win on Nov. 6, 2011. Peterson was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-Decade Team for the 2010s. … Born 7-11-90 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
RYAN THERIOT — A product of Broadmoor High in Baton Rouge and LSU, Theriot was a shortstop for the Tigers from 1999-2001. He helped Skip Bertman chalk up the last of his five College World Series titles in 2000 when he scored the walk-off game-winning run on a Brad Cresse single in LSU’s 6-5 victory over Stanford. Theriot was named to the CWS All-Tournament team. He batted .322 as a freshman, .305 as a sophomore and .353 as a junior before being chosen in the third round of the 2001 draft by the Chicago Cubs. He reached the majors four years later and played shortstop, second base, third base and corner outfield positions for the Cubs from 2005 to 2010. He batted .287 with 15 home runs and 174 RBI for the Cubs before moving on to the Los Angeles Dodgers later in the 2010 season. In his final two seasons in 2011 and 2012, he helped the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants win the World Series. In 899 games over eight major league seasons, he had a career average of .281 with 17 homers and 257 RBI. He hit a career-best .328 with the Cubs in 2006. In what would be the final game of his career, he repeated his feat of the 2000 CWS when he scored the eventual game-winning run in the 10th inning of Game 4 of the World Series — capping the Giants’ four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers. … Born 12-7-79 in Baton Rouge.
HENRY THOMAS – A defensive tackle for LSU and three NFL teams, Thomas earned a reputation for his solid work ethic – especially in the trenches for 14 NFL seasons as a three-down interior defensive lineman. But he was more than a run-stopper, racking up 93½ career sacks – fourth-most in NFL history among players listed solely at the defensive tackle/nose tackle positions. Ahead of him are Aaron Donald (111), Warren Sapp (96½) and Steve McMichael (95). Sapp and McMichael are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Donald will join them when eligible. The 6-foot-2, 275-pound Thomas, nicknamed “Hardware Hank,” made the Pro Bowl in 1991 and ‘92 and earned a second-team AP All-Pro nod in 1993 after recording 23 sacks in that three-year stretch with the Minnesota Vikings, who took him in the third round (72nd overall) of the 1987 draft. Thomas was a menace to offensive linemen in shedding blocks and harassing the quarterback, but he didn’t mind doing the dirty work. He finished with 1,006 career tackles (868 solos) and forced 19 fumbles with 14 recoveries. Thomas, who had at least six sacks for 11 straight seasons from 1988-98, also played with Detroit (1995-96) and New England (1997-2000). He missed just 10 of a possible 223 regular-season games and was named one of the “50 Greatest Vikings” in the franchise’s 50th anniversary season in 2010. Thomas helped LSU to a 28-6-2 record in four seasons, capping his career with an SEC title and first-team All-SEC selection as a senior in 1986. … Born 1-12-65 in Houston, Texas.
HANK TIERNEY– High school football coach has spent a half-century on the sidelines – 40 (as of August 2026) as head coach and nine as an assistant at Archbishop Shaw, West Jefferson and Ponchatoula. Tierney, who ranked sixth on Louisiana’s all-time wins list with a 340-125 (.731) record entering the season, six wins away from fifth place. He won the 1987 state Class 4A title with Shaw over Covington (14-6) and 2024 Division II Select championship over E.D. White (28-25) with seven Superdome Classic final appearances in all. Most of Tierney’s success has come at Shaw, the Marrero-based school that had exactly one district title when he was hired as a 25-year-old assistant coach in 1977. He was elevated to head coach in 1983, starting a 19-year string of success that saw the Eagles go 185-48 and dominate the tough Catholic League with 12 district titles to go with a state championship and three runnerup finishes. They also won a then-Catholic League record 22 consecutive games before being fired after the 2001 season when the school was ordered to forfeit games in which ineligible players appeared. In a four-year stretch from 1987-90, Shaw went 49-7 – going 13-2 in 1987, 12-3 in 1988 and 12-1 in both 1989 and ’90. Tierney won three more district titles in six seasons at West Jefferson, going 36-27. Then, after three years as an assistant at Ponchatoula, he went 79-37 there with three district titles and a state runner-up finish in 2021. He returned to Shaw in 2022 and has fashioned a 40-13 record with a state title in 2024 and state runner-up finish in 2025 and three more district crowns. … Born 10-1-51 in New Orleans.
JIM WELLS – Elected to the American Baseball Coaches’ Association’s Hall of Fame in 2023, Wells is a Bossier City native, Northwestern State graduate and former Skip Bertman assistant who ranked among college baseball’s top coaches in a 20-year career at his alma mater (1990-94) and Alabama (1995-2009). He was 817-411 (.665) with three College World Series appearances, 14 NCAA Tournament appearances (1991, 1994 at NSU, 12 more at Alabama), five conference titles (1991, 1993, 1994 Southland, 1996, 2006 Southeastern Conference), and a spot in the 1997 CWS championship game. NSU’s program had not won in 13 seasons when he took over. Beginning with a state record (since topped by LSUS in 2025) 20-win streak opening his first season, Wells transformed not only the Demons’ fortunes, but his program’s success spurred the development of baseball in the Southland. Alabama came off its worst season in history in 1994, and immediately surged among SEC contenders under Wells, also a high school coach at Shreveport’s Loyola College Prep before he took a GA spot under Bertman in 1987. Born 3-21-55 in Shreveport.
Contributors
Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award
One recipient to be announced later this year.
Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism
Two recipients to be announced later this year.
