NATCHITOCHES, La. – Raymond E. Didier, former Nicholls State University director of athletics and legendary baseball coach, was one of 11 members to be named to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class, the organization announced Wednesday.
The class will be enshrined Saturday, June 24, in Natchitoches to culminate the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration June 22-24.
Didier, who died at age 58 in 1978, touched three different sports programs in the state prominently and coached Nicholls to the Division II College World Series 1970 finals -- the first Louisiana school to seriously challenge for a national baseball championship. He won a Gulf States Conference football title and five GSC baseball crowns as head coach at UL Lafayette, a Southeastern Conference baseball title while head coach at LSU, and was an assistant coach on LSU's 1958 national championship football team.
In 1963, Didier went to Nicholls where he coached the Colonels to 217 victories between 1964 and 1973, including that run that brought the Colonels to the precipice of a national Division II title. He then gave up baseball to concentrate on the school's athletic directorship duties.
Didier is second in program history in coaching victories, and he and the 1970 baseball team are both members of the Nicholls Athletics Hall of Fame. The Nicholls baseball stadium is named for him.
Joining Didier in the class are LSU's David Toms, whose 13 PGA Tour golf wins include a major championship, track great Eddie Kennison and iconic gymnastics coach D-D Breaux, in her 40th year leading the nationally respected program.
Also in the powerful induction class are nine-time Pro Bowl football star Ed Reed, three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel, and World Series champ Juan Pierre, and Southeastern Louisiana basketball legend C.A. Core. Core and Didier will be inducted posthumously.
The 2017 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 2017 inductees. The panel considered a record 125 nominees from 28 different sport categories on a 26-page ballot, said Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland.
The complete 11-person Class of 2017 will bring the membership in the Hall of Fame to 411 men and women, including 17 Dixon Award winners and 60 sports journalists.
Biographical information on all 400 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.
