Come next summer, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame will welcome 11 new members, bringing the total to 503.
The Hall of Fame announced the members of the class of 2025, headlined by football standout Andrew Whitworth.
The 6’7″ 330 lb. offensive tackle won championships at all three levels — high school, college and professional.
Whitworth won three state championships with the West Monroe High School Rebels, two of which (1998 and 2000) were also accompanied with national championships.
He then went on to play for Nick Saban at LSU, winning a national title there in 2003.
In 2006, Whitworth embarked on a 16-year NFL career, spending 11 seasons with the Bengals and five seasons with the Rams.
Whitworth played in four Pro Bowls and culminated his career with a Super Bowl title with the Rams against, ironically, the Bengals.
He also won the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2021, his final year in the NFL.
With all of his accomplishments, there’s a very good chance that Whitworth will follow up his induction in Natchitoches with an induction in Canton, Ohio.
The class of 2025 also includes two basketball stars — Danny Granger and Vickie Johnson.
Granger starred for Grace King High School in New Orleans and played his college ball aty Bradley and New Mexico before embarking on a ten-year NBA career.
Granger spent most of his NBA career with the Indiana Pacers before wrapping it up with stops with the Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat.
A Coushatta native, Johnson played for Louisiana Tech and played in the WNBA for the first 13 years of the league’s existence, playing for the New York Liberty and the San Antonio Silver Stars.
Johnson was a WNBA All-Star twice.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 also includes:
- April Burkholder, a decorated gymnast for LSU from 2003-2006, winning 108 individual titles to set a school record. She won the NCAA beam title in 2006 with a score of 9.9125. She recorded eight perfect 10.0 scores during her LSU career — four on floor and two each on vault and beam.
- Danny Broussard, who coached basketball at St. Thomas More in Lafayette, winning more than 76% of his games (1,130-349). He led STM to six state championships in ten championship game appearances. He ranks as the seventh winningest basketball coach in the country, third among active coaches.
- Joe Scheuermann, who became Louisiana’s all-time winningest college baseball coach just before completing his 34th season as head coach at Delgado Community College. He’s led the school to five trips to the JUCO World Series.
- George “Bobby” Soileau. He won four state boxing titles, including one in the 90-pound weight class as an eighth grader. In his five years in prep boxing, Soileau went 96-2-1. He went on to LSU, where he won the NCAA championship in 1956 in the 125-pound (featherweight) division. He then went on to coach football at Sacred Heart, compiling a record of 159-100-9.
- Dale Weiner, who’s one of Louisiana’s all-time winningest football coaches. He coached for 35 years, amassing a record of 317-109. Best known as the head coach at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Weiner also coached at Trafton Academy, St. John-Plaquemine and Catholic of Pointe Coupee. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1970.
The class will also include three contributors — a winner of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and two recipients of the Distinguished Service Award in SPorts Journalism presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
Those winners will be selected later this year.