In the wake of Presidents’ Day, which is often promoted with a picture of Mount Rushmore, I am proposing a Mt. Rushmore for Louisiana sports legends.

But here’s the problem. There are four presidents on Mt. Rushmore, and so I want to keep my selection to four people, rather than add a fifth. Or plead the fifth.

I want to limit the choices to people who are no longer active in their sport so their legacy has had time to settle, to ferment, to stand the test of time.

I’ve got three locked in, with their profiles ready to be sculpted, but I wavered on No. 4 before finally deciding.

My top three are: Eddie Robinson, Skip Bertman and Shaquille O’Neal.

Robinson coached football at Grambling from 1941-97, except for a two-year hiatus during World War II, and when he retired, he was the winningest coach in the history of college football with 408 wins. He died at age 88 in 2007. He still ranks third overall behind only John Gagliardi, who spent most of his coaching career a St. John’s in Minnesota, with 489 victories, and Penn State’s Joe Paterno (490).

What’s more, Robinson was one of the best ambassadors for not only Grambling but college football in general with his smile and wit and charm. He had a knack for making anyone he met feel like they were best friends. He may have been the most patriotic sports legend our state has ever had. He didn’t just teach football, he taught the values of hard work, courage and unselfishness he learned as a sharecropper’s son.   

Bertman’s legacy as LSU’s baseball coach is unmatched, resurrecting a baseball program that was an afterthought (with a few exceptions) on campus  until he got there. He guided the Tigers to five national championships, seven Southeastern Conference titles and 11 College World Series appearances in 18 years. Like Robinson in football, Bertman was an outstanding ambassador for college baseball. Skip was the key figure in making the SEC a baseball powerhouse conference, not to mention triggering the game’s surge of popularity in recent decades.

The charismatic O’Neal may be among the top 5-10 most recognizable people in the world after his brilliant basketball career that blossomed at LSU and climbed to an elite level in 19 years in the NBA. Standing 7-foot-1, 325 pounds, Shaq was a fierce competitor on the floor, playing for three NBA championship teams and 15 All-Star games, and with youngsters he is a gentle giant off the court. He is a member of both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and he National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and was voted among the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players.

Number 4? I thought about Archie Manning, Pete Maravich or Grambling/New York Knicks icon Willis Reed, or making an exception to my rule about no active participants and including Hammond hoops legend, former La. Tech women’s basketball star and current LSU coaching phenom and fashion queen Kim Mulkey.

My top three have what I called the “beloved” factor in addition to being superior achievers. That’s why I like Manning and Reed, for example. Young people, I’m sure, don’t appreciate what each of them meant to their team and their professional team’s city. Maravich, simply for his unbelievable, unprecedented and uncanny basketball skills in a life that tragically ended at age 40, must be considered.

But I’m siding with Archie Manning. He was nicknamed “Super-Manning” during his thrilling, heroic years at Ole Miss, and had he played for a top-notch NFL team, he’d have ranked among the all-time great QBs and made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. As it was, he was the NFC Most Valuable Player in 1978, despite playing for a Saints team that finished 7-9.

After his playing career, he and his wife, Olivia, chose to make New Orleans his residence, and for 50 years they have been valuable citizens of the city. He owns a sports bar and grill, and just last week, the Children’s Hospital there was renamed the Manning Family Children’s Hospital, including sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli. Archie has also influenced and inspired many quarterbacks through relationships built over nearly three decades at the Manning Passing Academy each summer in Hammond.

Archie Manning is to New Orleans what the late Cardinals baseball great Stan Musial was to St. Louis. That’s why he gets my vote to be in this elite foursome. And my vote and a buck 25 will buy you a 5-ounce box of Whoppers.