Southern University Roger Cador has been named to the 2019 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class. Cador is the ninetenth member from Southern University and the first since the induction of Otis Washington and Avery Johnson in 2015. Cador will be joined by Peyton Manning, LSU Les Miles, Danielle Scott-Arruda, Charles Smith, Matt Dunigan, Max Fluger, And T. Barrett Porter.
The Class of 2019 will be enshrined Saturday, June 8, in Natchitoches to culminate the 60th Anniversary Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration June 6-8.
The 2019 Induction Class will be showcased in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum, operated by the Louisiana State Museum system in a partnership with the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. The striking two-story, 27,500-square foot structure faces Cane River Lake in the National Historic Landmark District of Natchitoches and has garnered worldwide architectural acclaim and rave reviews for its contents since its grand opening during the 2013 Hall of Fame induction weekend.
A 35-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2019 inductees. The panel considered a record 145 nominees from 30 different sport categories on a 31-page ballot, said Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland.
The eight new competitive ballot inductees will raise the total of Hall of Fame members to 350 competitors honored since the first induction class — baseball’s Mel Ott, world champion boxer Tony Canzoneri and LSU football great Gaynell Tinsley — were enshrined in 1959 after their election a year earlier.
Also to be spotlighted next summer will be three other Hall of Fame inductees, the winner of the 2019 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and the recipients of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the LSWA. Those contributor ballot inductees will be announced later this year.
The complete 11-person Class of 2019 will bring the membership in the Hall of Fame to 433 men and women, including 19 Dixon Award winners and 64 sports journalists.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame already includes 18 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, 18 Olympic medalists including 11 gold medal winners, 10 members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, seven of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players, six National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 37 College Football Hall of Fame members, nine National High School Hall of Fame enshrinees, jockeys with a combined 16 Triple Crown victories, six world boxing champions, seven Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, seven College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 10 College Basketball Hall of Fame members, four NBA Finals MVPs, four winners of major professional golf championships, four National Museum of (Thoroughbred) Racing and Hall of Fame inductees and two Super Bowl MVPs.
Biographical information on all 422 current Hall of Fame members is available at the LaSportsHall.com website, with a steady stream of info available at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Facebook page and the @LaSportsHall twitter account.
Cador became one of the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s top all-time coaches in any sport while leading the baseball team at his alma mater, Southern University, for 33 seasons (1985-2017). He compiled a career record of 913-597-1 (.604) in leading Southern to 14 conference titles and 11 NCAA tournaments.
In one of the milestones of his career, on May 21, 1987, Cador guided the Jaguars to a stunning 1-0 upset of No. 2-ranked Cal State Fullerton, which was the top seed for the NCAA South II Regional at UNO. It was the first time an HBCU school won an NCAA tournament game.
Cador added two more NCAA tournament victories en route to posting a dozen 30-win seasons. He coached 10 All-Americans and had 62 players chosen in the Major League Baseball draft. Under Cador’ss tutelage, second baseman Rickie Weeks, a two-time NCAA batting champion, won the 2003 Golden Spikes Award as college baseball’s top player and was the second overall pick in the draft by the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I would like to congratulate Coach [Roger] Cador. His body of work speaks volumes,” said Southern University Athletic Director Roman Banks. “Southen’s family thanks Coach Cador, in the way he enhanced Baseball, Southern’s Athletic Department, and Southern University as a whole.”
The 2019 Induction Celebration will kick off Thursday, June 6, with a press conference and reception. The three-day festivities include two receptions, a youth sports clinic, a bowling party, and a Friday night riverbank concert in Natchitoches. Tickets for the Induction Dinner and Ceremony, along with congratulatory advertising and sponsorship opportunities, will be available early in 2019 through the LaSportsHall.com website.
Anyone can receive quarterly e-mails about the 2019 Induction Celebration and other Hall of Fame news by signing up on the LaSportsHall.com website.
Adding to the 342 sports competitors currently enshrined, 18 winners of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership award and 62 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, there are 422 current members of the Hall of Fame before next summer’s inductions.
Courtesy of Southern University Sports Information