NFL record-setting passer and Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints joins a star-studded nine-member group of 2024 "competitors" ballot inductees chosen for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
A two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year, Brees, the 2006 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year, a Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year and an Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, Brees led the Saints to three NFC championship games (2006, 2009, 2018) after the franchise had none in its first 39 years of existence and they claimed their only Vince Lombardi trophy with a 31-17 win over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7, 2010.
The LSHOF Class of 2024 also includes LSU women's basketball great and eight-time WNBA All-Star Seimone Augustus, mixed martial arts icon Daniel Cormier, 1992 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kevin Jackson, Tulane basketball legend Perry Clark, McNeese football great Kerry Joseph, three-time state-title high school football coach Frank Monica, Breeders' Cup-winning thoroughbred jockey Ray Sibille, retired Grambling baseball coach Wilbert Ellis, the second-ever recipient of the Louisiana Sports Ambassador Award.
The LSHOF's Class of 2024 will be enshrined at the Hall of Fame's home in Natchitoches to culminate the 65th Induction Celebration. The dates for the three-day celebration will be announced soon, including two receptions, a free youth sports clinic, a bowling party, and a riverbank concert in Natchitoches. Tickets for the Induction Ceremony, along with congratulatory advertising and sponsorship opportunities, will be available through the LaSportsHall.com website once the induction celebration dates are announced.
A 40-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2024 inductees. The panel considered 149 nominees from 28 different sport categories on a 35-page "competitors" ballot.
Also spotlighted next year will be three other Hall of Fame inductees, a winner of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and two recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the parent organization of the Hall of Fame. Those inductees will be announced later this year.
The complete 12-person Class of 2024 will swell the overall membership in the Hall of Fame to 492 men and women – athletes, coaches, administrators and sports media members -- honored since its founding in 1958.
