Legacy Plaza, a lasting tribute to Joe Aillet and Maxie Lambright for their profound influence on the University and its football tradition, opened this fall on the same day the football team closed its 2025 regular season home schedule with a huge comeback win.
Joe Aillet came to Louisiana from New York City on an orphan train as a toddler in 1907. Maxie Lambright came to Louisiana from Mississippi as a former star football player and veteran assistant coach with a wife and two daughters in 1967. That each stuck around proved lucky for Louisiana, especially lucky for Louisiana Tech.
To honor the enduring impact of both Hall of Fame coaches, the University celebrated a ribbon cutting of the Richardson Family Legacy Plaza on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, November 22, a prelude to Tech’s final home regular season football game of 2025.
Made possible through private donations and developed by Tech’s Championship Resources team, Legacy Plaza is anchored by bronze statues of Aillet and Lambright. The landscaped plaza is on the southwest corner of Joe Aillet Stadium at the entrance to the Davison Athletics Complex. The plaza’s brick walkway will continue to evolve as fans, friends, and lettermen add their names to this project. Each brick is available for purchase and can be inscribed with a personal message.
The Richardson Family Legacy Plaza is the latest project in a multi-phase enhancement of Joe Aillet Stadium. Projects already completed include the Sarah and A.L. Williams Champions Plaza, the LED ribbon board, and the video board. The Origin Bank Center for Student-Athlete Success is under construction.
An All-American nose guard in 1971 and a Class of 2023 inductee into the University’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Chris Richardson was in Aillet’s final signing class and on Lambright’s first team.
“To see these two well-deserving coaches have statues presented, I’m just so glad to be a part of it,” Richardson said. “I thought I was going to play under Coach Aillet as a couple of my uncles had; it didn’t work out that way. But I was totally impressed with Coach Lambright and the crew he brought in. He had some great teams, and I got to play with great players and couldn’t have asked for more. I can’t say how much I love this place.”
“When they took the canvas off (Aillet’s statue), it just about took my breath away, it looked so much like him,” said Cynthia Aillet, one of many of Coach Aillet’s grandchildren and family members present for the ceremony. “It was perfect, the whole day. I think it brought some closure for me, personally, since I’ve been so tied to Ruston and to Tech for so long. It’s good to know the legacy is in good hands.”
“I came to Louisiana Tech because of Joe,” said A.L. Williams, a former Tech coach and player and member of the University’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2007. “The Tech program got a lot of players just because of Joe. Everybody thought so much of him; he was not ‘just a coach.’”
“The families are extremely honored that President Jim Henderson and the University continue their conscientious effort to keep Coach Aillet relevant,” grandson Joe Aillet said. “We deeply appreciate it; this is just over the top. Here we are, 60 years later, still recognizing an individual who passed away way back then. We’re just as excited to have Maxie as a part of this; hopefully several others will eventually get here.”
A dozen members of the Lambright family were also able to attend, including Lisa and Linda, the daughters of Maxie and his late wife Gerry, who taught math at Tech and, Linda said, “should probably have her own statue for helping so many of dad’s players stay academically eligible.”
“They’ve done a gorgeous job with that place; it way exceeded my expectations about what it was going to be,” Linda said. “Of course, dad would probably be embarrassed about it. He gave his blood, sweat, and tears to Tech. It was so great to grow up in Ruston with my dad coaching and my mom at Tech.”
“We have a lot of pride about the success that my granddad had at Tech and the number of lives he impacted,” said Linda’s son Max Causey, a former Tech quarterback, now an NFL official, and his grandfather’s namesake. “It’s really neat to see his legacy still being honored, and we’re very grateful to everyone responsible for helping this come together.
“I’ve had countless people in my life tell me stories about him, and they never get old. He passed away six months before I was born, so I love being able to glean insights about him as not only a coach but also a person. I think more recently I’ve begun to understand that what he and his teams accomplished during his time here transcended football and shaped so many of his players to be the men and fathers they are today.”
The football game that followed the brief ribbon cutting hinted that Aillet and Lambright still had the Midas touch. Trailing Liberty by three touchdowns midway through third quarter, the Bulldogs, who’d finish the season 8-5 under young head coach Sonny Cumbie, roared back to win in overtime, 34-28, the first of three straight wins, the final one a 23-14 victory over Coastal Carolina in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport on December 30.
The Richardson Family Legacy Plaza is 1-0.
