By JASON PUGH, Written for the LSWA
In the eight decades of Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductions, among the 467 people enshrined, 107 are former LSU athletes, coaches or alumni.
That number increased by a record number, six, on Saturday night at the Class of 2022 ceremony at the Natchitoches Events Center.
The one who could only be remembered during the Induction Celebration was LSU and Thibodaux High School offensive lineman Eric Andolsek, who was emerging as an NFL star at age 25 when he was killed by an out-of-control 18-wheeler while cutting the grass at his home on La. 1 in 1992.
An All-SEC and third-team All-American as a Tiger, Andolsek died exactly 30 years ago Thursday and was inducted on the anniversary of his funeral. His brother Andy, his sister Renee, and a large contingent of family and friends from Thibodaux and Baton Rouge were in Natchitoches to honor him.
While accepting his brother’s posthumous induction, Andy recalled Eric’s college choices coming down to Alabama and LSU and what his younger brother’s decision to stay closer to home meant, especially in light of the accident that took his life.
“I lived next door to my parents, and every afternoon you had a college coach sitting in the living room talking or eating boiled crawfish,” Andy Andolsek said. “He was torn between LSU and Alabama. He made the right choice. He stayed home where everybody could follow him. That made his legacy in Thibodaux.
“If he had gone somewhere else, he wouldn’t have been who he was. Even now, going to the grocery store, someone always has an Eric story, and it usually doesn’t deal with football. It could be as simple as him helping change a flat tire. Everyone in Thibodaux still remembers him.”
In addition to his prowess and nasty streak on the field, Andolsek’s high school coach has another idea why people remember the man who was a “gentle giant” away from the field.
“When the Detroit Lions came to town for his funeral, one of the coaches said Eric was a special person – a giver,” Laury Dupont said. “When you give, it grows. When you save, it dies. Eric was a giver. He touched everybody’s life.”
He made impact in the NFL as a standout guard for the Lions – not the struggling franchise of recent years, but a team on the rise with the electric Barry Sanders at running back, a playoff team in what turned out to be Andolsek’s last year.
His last NFL game? The 1991 NFC Championship Game, one step from the Super Bowl.
Sanders took time over last weekend to acknowledge his teammate and the Andolsek family. You can look it up – after Andolsek’s death, the Lions faded, and Sanders’ rushing totals weren’t quite as substantial as they were with No. 65 helping clear space up front.
“What a great honor for his family. Congrats,” Sanders tweeted.
Another tribute came from another Pro Football Hall of Fame member, and a proud LSU product who came through Baton Rouge a decade after Andolsek did.
“One of the best to ever do it,” tweeted Alan Faneca, like Andolsek, an offensive guard.
Now they are teammates, not only as LSU Tiger greats, but in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Photo by CHRIS REICH, LSWA