Marshall’s ability to adjust his plan carried him alongside McConathy as a Hall of Famer
Over the last 50 years, a lot has been written about Bossier City’s Mike McConathy.
And a lot has been written by Shreveport’s John James Marshall.
JJ has written about Mike. They have actually shared a mic – at what used to be known as the Radio Ranch, KWKH. Same mic, different shows.
This weekend, they will have the shared experience of a Bayou State sports lifetime – induction in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
McConathy, who was a scrawny redhead nicknamed “Opie” when he got to Airline High School, left there as a high school All-American basketball star.
Marshall left Jesuit High School as an All-City third baseman, best remembered for throwing the winning touchdown pass in the 1976 Class 3A championship game, a 62-yarder, the only TD. His only completion in five attempts. A screen pass that All-State safety Greg Page, pinch-hitting at halfback, took to the south end zone midway through the second quarter.
Marshall did his part perfectly. Winnfield blitzed, as they had done repeatedly. He retreated, then just as the Tigers probably thought they were about to take down the Blue Flyers QB, he tossed the ball out to the right side to Page, who veered left and downfield. I watched, sitting behind the Jesuit bench with some Jonesboro-Hodge teammates..
That play, and that game, has nothing to do with J.J. joining McConathy and 10 others in the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. When America was wrapping up its bicentennial year, Marshall was already writing a few stories on American Legion baseball, high school hoops and such as a correspondent for The Shreveport Times.
At that point, McConathy was lighting it up in Ruston at Memorial Gym for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. He was the 1975-76 Southland Conference Player of the Year as Emmett Hendricks’ team won the SLC title with a 9-1 mark.
Two years later, he made it to the last cut with the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. Told by coaches he was making the team, the front office decided otherwise. He headed to Europe to play pro ball. That didn’t take. The basketball part was OK, but across the pond there was no sweet tea, no Connie Herrmann (they’re in Year 48 of the marriage) and there was a career to start back home.
McConathy’s Hall of Fame resume’ is well documented, with the state record 682 college coaching wins, two at Northwestern in the NCAA Tournament, topping his long list of accomplishments.
Marshall doesn’t lack for credentials either; they’re just not well known. One of the fascinating aspects leading to his enshrinement is his versatility. Another attribute is resilience. The overriding characteristics: a passion for telling stories, and elite talent doing it.
Ron Higgins saw that first-hand when he was a Shreveport Journal teammate of Marshall’s in the early 1980s, and has enjoyed it over the past few years as a Shreveport-Bossier Journal colleague.
“J.J. is the best writer I’ve ever worked with,” said Higgins as the LSWA selection committee discussed a talent-laden field of nominees for the 2026 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism. “Anywhere.”
That resonated with those who weren’t very familiar with Marshall, because they hadn’t read him much. Most of that segment of the committee had worked alongside or read Higgins during his years in south Louisiana. They also had recently elected him for the 2024 DSA and knew he had been both the Louisiana and Tennessee sportswriter of the year, and was the only Louisiana native elected president of the Football Writers Association of America.
J.J. dropped his accounting major at Louisiana Tech, declared for journalism and found purpose. Mentored by the late, great Wiley Hilburn, teamed with Teddy Allen and Greg Hilburn on the Tech Talk staff, he came home to join Jerry Byrd and Nico Van Thyn in the Journal newsroom. Very soon, he was cranking out not only LSWA award-winners, but capturing honors in nationwide contests.
“You couldn’t teach the creativity J.J. had,” Van Thyn said.
As you know as an SBJ reader, that has not faded. At all.
But a decade into it, he stepped away from sportswriting. Given an ultimatum in 1993 to give up his daily radio show “Sports Talk with J.J. and Bonzai Ben” by his Shreveport Times editor, he said sayonara to scribing. Until this publication launched in January 2022, Marshall was not a regular published writer. Along with staying the sports talk show course, he’s been media director, instructor and many other things for Loyola.
The SBJ has provided a regular writing platform for him and a showcase of his greatest professional talent. He’s cashing winning tickets in LSWA writing contest every summer, and he’s getting better with age.
Saturday night, it becomes official with his Hall of Fame induction. What we’ve known will no longer be just our very bonifide opinion.
John James Marshall is as good as it gets. He is a legend of those who cover and talk about the games, and always will be.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com