By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING — GramFam love.
Despite the steamy mid-July humidity, it permeated the air inside the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center Saturday night.
The Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame held its 2024 induction ceremony Saturday and love for the Black and Gold was the unmistakable theme of the night.
Representing football were Glynn Alexander, Aldrich Allen, Scotty Anderson, Herman Arvie and Arlester Brown. Elsie Dillard and Napoleon Johnson were basketball honorees, while Michael Cummings and Robert Williams represented baseball. Track and field contributions were celebrated through the induction of Ainsley Armstrong and Gail Emmanuel. Additionally, former Band Director Larry Pannell was recognized in the contributor category.
But undoubtedly, probably the biggest highlight of the night was the induction of the 100-year-old Brown, a member of Grambling’s undefeated and unscored team of 1941. The backfield mate of Tiger legend and NFL trailblazer Tank Younger received multiple standing ovations.
Brown, who became a Shreveport educator and founded the still-functioning Shreveport Teachers Association Credit Union, was a football halfback alongside Tiger legend Tank Younger before being injured in World War II. He returned to Grambling and earned a bachelor’s and two masters’ degrees, then a degree in divinity, eventually leading him into the ministry along with later service as a security volunteer in the Clinton White House.
“God and Grambling State gave me these opportunities to help others,” Brown said. “God and Grambling State allowed me to be blessed to be a blessing to so many others.
“To my family, God keep you and God love you. Be the person God wants you to be. That is the thing the world needs more of today — more love. God bless you and God keep you.”
The last inductee of the night was Pannell, a Shreveport native and former member of the World Famed Grambling Tiger Marching Band who graduated in 1973 and became part of the band’s leadership in 1990 and moved into the director’s position soon afterward. He led an array of noteworthy performances, not only on the field but in movies, and in the 1998 Super Bowl.
“I never thought when I came to Grambling in 1969 that I would become considered one of the legendary figures at Grambling State University,” Pannell said. “I will not belabor you with a long acceptance speech. Let me just give a special thanks to my friends Doug Williams, Mr. James ‘Shack’ Harris (Grambling Legends founders) and all of the Hall of Fame induction committee members in making this such a memorable event.”
The first inductee, former baseball shortstop/outfielder Michael Cummings, was a four-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference selection and was drafted in the sixth round of the 1969 League baseball draft by the Boston Red Sox.
Cummings played 10 seasons in the minors, logging 679 games in Double-A and Triple-A for the Red Sox and Braves organizations, batting .293 with 181 runs batted in.
“This is like a dream,” Cummings said. “I can’t even explain what I’m going through. God is good. God is good. Thank you all.”
Team captain and all-conference selection on the 1967 SWAC championship baseball team, Williams went on to a successful career as a railroad executive and public/motivational speaker.
“What I’m saying to you tonight is that 1967 was a great year,” Williams said. “I asked my wife to marry me in 1967. She agreed — that was 1967. And then all of a sudden, we found ourselves blessed with our first son, so it was a great year.”
Williams went on to say it was his children, grandchildren and wife were his biggest wins throughout his life.
“To each and every one of you here, I love you,” Williams said. “This is as great as it gets.”
Johnson was an All-American post player for Fred Hobdy’s Tigers, twice earning All-SWAC honors, before a lengthy pro career that began in the NBA as a 10th-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks but earned his most pro success in the international game in Italy.
After his playing career, Johnson served for 10 years for the Alexandria Police Department before becoming an insurance executive for the past 15 years.
“Here I am standing on Grambling’s basketball court, 40 years after taking the 00 (jersey) off my back, being honored as a Hall of Famer in front of the Tiger nation,” Johnson said.
“How did I get here? My mother once took me to visit her sister, the late professor Bessie Foster, who on the visit gave me eight Grambling yearbooks to look at —- 1959-67. And I saw one page in there with a headline that said ‘Jim Dandy (the nickname of late GSU hoops standout Howard Willis) to the Rescue!’
“That stuck in my head. In 1967 she took me to a Grambling basketball game when they were playing in (Shreveport’s) Hirsch Coliseum to go to (the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) basketball tournament in Kansas City and introduced me to coach Hobdy. Before that, I did not know that my mother had played for coach Hobdy in the 1950s. By that time that 9-year-old boy was already ready to come to Grambling.”
Arvie, an All-American offensive lineman, helped Eddie Robinson’s Tigers win the 1989 Southwestern Athletic Conference title and the 1992 National Black College Championship. A fifth-round 1993 NFL Draft pick, he played four seasons with the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens franchise.
“I owe this honor to the support of many — to my family, my mom, my siblings, my niece and nephews, who have been my unwavering pillars of strength,” Arvie said.
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com