Louisiana Tech ended its Centennial Homecoming Celebration Week with an exclamation point as eight of its all-time greats were inducted into the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2025 cried. Lots of emotion. Joy, gratitude, tears of remembering. And they laughed. Laughed about the thrill of competition, the silliness in and familiarity of the locker room, the things that happen with teams and with teammates. Priceless.
They hugged and waved and shared stories with a warm audience of family, friends, fans, and admirers, delighting the crowd in ways a bit differently than how they’d entertained thousands in arenas and ballfields and on courts and tracks across the country.
In a 90-minute ceremony that spotlighted some of the greatest moments and people in Tech’s rich athletic history, this fraternity of greats didn’t disappoint.
“This is one of the most humbling things to ever happen to me,” said four-time conference champion and three-time national champion Randy Crouch (1971-74) who, along with fellow inductees Ronnie Alexander and Billy Ryckman, is a member of both the Louisiana Tech Football 100-Year Anniversary Team and the Greatest 50 Players in Joe Aillet Stadium History. “There are so many deserving people who are not in; I’m so thankful and blessed to be a part of this. This means an awful lot to me and to a lot of people, my teammates and those close to me; I look at this as a team award.”
“We had some great seasons, we had some that were not so great,” said Alexander (1967-70), a fierce linebacker and 1970 All-American. “Friendships made with your teammates, that’s what was really important to me. One of the biggest things you can gain from football is making friends with guys that you’re friends with forever.”
“You never can tell how much you miss somebody until you see them again,” said Ryckman (1973-76), a Cajun from Lafayette and practical joker who played four seasons with the Atlanta Falcons after leading the nation in receptions with 77 during his All-American 1976 season.
“I grew up with posters of football players on my wall; I just loved the joy of playing,” he said. “I’m told I cry at every Hallmark movie because I’ve been hit in the head so much, but this is really special for me and my family.”
Humility and gratitude were themes of an evening that included the induction of basketball greats Cheryl Ford, Ray Germany, and Wayne Smith; 21-time track and field and cross country Coach of the Year Gary Stanley; and beloved athletic trainer Sam Wilkinson, a constant in Tech Athletics for 30 years who never missed a day of work, a workout, or a game.
November’s induction, the 21st class, was the most recent since the Hall’s founding in 1984 and brought the number in this exclusive club to 129.
We didn’t get NIL money; we got relationships. I see people here tonight who would stay around for us when the games were over.”
– WAYNE SMITH
“The thing I’m most proud of, more than assists or steals or points or anything, is the wins: 94 wins. That’s not been done again,” said Smith, who never missed a game or a start. “We were a group that stayed together, basically Louisiana kids, just hard-working, blue-collar kids.”
Two-time WAC Player of the Year Cheryl Ford (1999-2003) said she came to Tech because she didn’t want to miss hearing her mother’s voice in the gym. She gave her mom plenty to cheer about, even into the pros, as Ford, the third pick in the WNBA draft, became a three-time WNBA champion.
“This means everything to me,” she said. “I’m humbled and honored, so blessed.”
Her induction completed the first father-daughter duo in the Hall; dad Karl Malone, for three seasons a teammate of Wayne Smith’s, is a member of the Class of 1992.
“Two country kids from Summerfield playing in the dirt, shooting at a basket nailed to a light pole,” Ford said. “Who’d have ever thought we’d make it?”
Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Famer and three-time all-conference honoree Ray Germany (1955-60) knew something about dirt. The son of a sharecropper, he learned how to play by shooting at the metal ring of an old barrel nailed to the side of a barn. Highly recruited as Louisiana’s Mr. Basketball out of Holly Ridge High, he was once told by an LSU basketball recruiter than no one turned down LSU.
“I just did,” the sharecropper’s son said.
Good thing for the Bulldogs; Germany led the team in scoring for three seasons and to a pair of conference titles. He passed away in 2021 at 85 and was represented at the induction by his son Kent. All four of the Germanys’ children — he and Nelda were married for 60-plus years — attended; each is a Tech graduate.
When Stanley came to Tech in 1982, his home for a while was the basement of Thomas Assembly Center, fitting since no coach has called Tech home longer than Stanley. During his 40 years across five conferences, he coached 46 All-Americans and won 21 conference titles.
He recalled Tech’s first year in the WAC, a league Tech dominated for seven years. Not so much that first year though.
“I told my assistants, ‘We’ve gotta get good or we’re gonna be gone,’” Stanley said. “We got good.”
Athletes from Stockholm, Sweden to Simsboro, Louisiana were in the crowd to cheer on their grateful — and Tech’s longest tenured — coach.
“No one is more humbled and pleased to be here tonight; I’m so honored,” said Wilkinson (1977-2008) who, even in retirement, is still called “Chief” with deep affection by former players. “I couldn’t wait to get to work and never had a bad day; some were better than others, but there were no bad days.
“These young athletes kept me young,” Chief said. “They weren’t gonna let me get to be an old man. I loved every one of them and tried to treat them like my own sons. Thank all of you for what you’ve done for me.”
