A Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer for less than 12 hours, Ray Sibille sat on the couch in the lobby of the cozy Church Street Inn on a heat-em-up Sunday morning by the Cane River, his smile modest and sincere, bright as the morning sunshine.
“I still can’t believe it,” he said. “Everything’s been so wonderful. Just perfect. What a weekend…”
Just out of the elevator and around the corner comes Pat Day, a Colorado native and National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee in 1991, in Natchitoches for the weekend, for his buddy Sibille. More handshakes and smiles.
Somewhere within their gravitational pull was Eddie Delahoussaye of New Iberia, a 2002 LASHOF inductee and a man who was almost as happy with Sibille’s induction as Sibille himself. Throw in Day and, between the three, you can count about 15,000 wins and $250 million in winnings.
Lot of money. Lot of winner’s circles. But to be a part of the Class of 2024, that seemed for Sibille to override all the rides around all the tracks.
“I thought I might go into the Hall a dozen years ago with Eddie,” Sibille said. “Then I thought, ‘Well, maybe I wasn’t quite good enough.’ But you know what? God’s timing is better than mine.
“If I’d have gone in then, my first grandson would be this big,” he said, pretending to hold a baby to his shoulder and pat it on the back. “And my other one wouldn’t be born yet. Now they’re both here and …”
What he didn’t say said it all. He just smiled. Pat Day smiled.
Through the glass front of the Church Street Inn, the bright sun poured through.
Saturday night’s audience in the Special Events Center behind the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum was among the largest and most receptive in the history of the Induction Ceremonies. Such a beautiful crowd. Smiles and laughter and a deep appreciation not only for the accomplishments of the inductees, but even more so for the personalities themselves, for the people who through a combination of genes and talent and work ethic and fate, found themselves in the glow of a night they won’t forget.
A few, like Sibille, had to stop for just a moment during their brief induction interviews Saturday might, stop and gather their emotions when they thanked some of the many people who helped each of them realize their dream.
The first inductee, Bobby Ardoin, set the tone when he cried, for just a moment, thanking his adoptive parents who, it turns out, raised a tireless educator and writer. “They let me do just about anything I wanted,” Bobby said to laughs. (They raised a good one.)
Grambling icon Wilbert Ellis brought about 200 fans with him (no exaggeration) and did not disappoint as he accepted the Ambassador Award, only the second ever awarded. In his acceptance interview, he preached respect and education, (and “preached” is used as a metaphor here, but just barely). Love Coach Ellis.
When he was a young coach, Class of 2024 inductee Frank Monica saw his Lutcher football team’s 27-0 winning streak snapped in the Class AAA 1976 semifinals by Jesuit, now Loyola, of Shreveport. At Lutcher, too. But after the game, Monica came into the winners’ locker room, got on a bench and told the Flyers how proud he was of them, congratulated them on how good of a team they were, and wished them a state championship — which they won the next week at Winnfield. So he lost with class — but he had plenty of opportunities to win with class, too: he’d go on to coach three different schools to three state titles. And all weekend in Natchitoches, he and his family beamed and spread the humor and humility.
Seimone Augustus. Perry Clark. Kevin Jackson. Kerry Joseph. Every inductee present radiated a sincerity and graciousness no one could fake. Go see them sometime. They’ll be waiting for you, in the Hall.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu