NATCHITOCHES – Jonesboro native and Jonesboro-Hodge High School graduate, Doug Ireland, is being honored by the establishment of an endowed scholarship totaling $100,000 at Northwestern State University. The NSU Foundation will host an announcement ceremony Saturday, Feb. 15 for the official creation of the Doug Ireland Endowed Scholarship.
Natchitoches attorney Robert “Skeeter” Salim is making a $100,000 gift to
the Northwestern State University Foundation to create the scholarship
endowment. It is the latest in a series of $100,000 scholarship endowments
Salim has made honoring friends who have served the university.
Friends and Northwestern supporters are invited to join Ireland, Salim and
Northwestern’s president. James T. Genovese, at a brief 11:00 am ceremony on
Feb. 15 in the Office of Development Conference Room, 520 University
Parkway in Natchitoches.
Former Louisiana State Sen. Louis Bernard will be the master of ceremonies.
Speakers will be Genovese, longtime NSU Lady Demon basketball coach James
Smith, Natchitoches Parish Clerk of Court David Stamey, Salim and Ireland.
To RSVP, contact Courtney Thompson at (318) 357-4430.
Contributions to supplement the scholarship can be made by visiting the
https://northwesternstatealumni.com/ireland-scholarship/ link.
Later on Feb. 15, Northwestern will officially name its basketball court at
Prather Coliseum in honor of coaching legend Mike McConathy during a
halftime ceremony at the Demons’ 3:30 home game against Stephen F. Austin.
Ireland and McConathy worked together from 1999-2019 and McConathy concluded
his career after the 2022 season with a state record 682 collegiate coaching
victories.
Salim has previously established four $100,000 endowments over the past two
years, scholarships in memory of Jerry Pierce, Richard Ware, Jack O. “Britt”
Brittain Jr. and H.N. & Inez Towry.
Salim and Ireland were among six people inducted last October in the
university’s Alumni Hall of Distinction, the Long Purple Line, raising the
total to 158 graduates receiving the honor over the past five decades.
Last fall, Salim was appointed by Gov. Jeff Landry to the Board of
Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System, which oversees operation
of nine state universities including Northwestern, Grambling, Louisiana Tech
and ULM in north Louisiana.
He is a former member of Board of Governors of the Association of Trial
Lawyers of America. Since 2007, he has been selected as one of the 100 Top
Trial Lawyers as determined by The American Trial Lawyers Association. Salim
is a founding member of The Class Action Trial Lawyers Association and was
recently named to America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators.
Salim’s support of Demon baseball has been pivotal for over two decades,
resulting in significant facility enhancements and more. He has also been a
significant supporter of men’s and women’s basketball through the years. In
2019, he was inducted into the N-Club Hall of Fame as a winner of the
Distinguished Service Award.
Ireland was sports information director and assistant athletic director at
Northwestern when he retired in 2019 after 30 years serving his alma mater.
He has been chairman of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame since 1990, just
over a year after he left the Alexandria Town Talk sports staff to launch an
acclaimed career as NSU’s SID.
Ireland spearheaded efforts leading to construction and the 2013 opening of
the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in
Natchitoches.
During his career, Ireland has earned numerous awards from the Louisiana
Sports Writers Association, setting an LSWA writing contest record in 1987
with six first places and nine prizes overall. In 2021, he was enshrined in
the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as a winner of the LSWA’s Distinguished
Service Award in Sports Journalism.
In 2008 the North Louisiana National Football Foundation S.M. McNaughton
Chapter gave him its “Distinguished American Award” and in 2016, he received
the Southland Conference’s Louis Bonnette Sports Media Award for career
accomplishment. In 2021 the Jackson Parish Sports Hall of Fame honored him
with a Distinguished Service Award. He was named 2022 “Mr. Louisiana
Basketball” by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches.
Ireland was named one of the 100 most impactful members of the Greek
community at Northwestern for his service from 2007-22 as advisor for the
Beta Omicron Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. In 2022, he was honored by
NSU’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts as a
Distinguished Communications Professional.
Since 2021, Ireland has been the sports director for Online Journals LLC,
which encompasses 14 parish journals in northwest and central Louisiana.
The 1978 JHHS graduate was student body president in his senior year. He was
an all-district baseball player and a member of the Tigers’ 1977 state
runner-up football team coached by Don Shows.
Ireland, 65, has returned on a part-time basis to serve Northwestern as a
special advisor to Genovese since the new president assumed office Aug. 5.
