SIX NAMED TO LSU ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME
BATON
ROUGE – Five former LSU standouts and a former LSU coach have been
elected to the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame, the school has announced.
New
inductees to the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame are legendary men’s
basketball coach Dale Brown, first-team All-America and Olympic baseball
pitcher Kurt Ainsworth; two-sport
basketball and track standout Frank Brian; national champion diver
Ashley Culpepper-Gluck; three-time All-American gymnast Amy
McClosky-McGinley, and All-American volleyball setter Daniela “Dani”
Reis.
The
six newly elected honorees will be formally inducted into the LSU
Athletic Hall of Fame later this year on a date to be announced.
Brown
took over a struggling LSU men’s basketball program in 1972 and built
it into a consistent winner that played in front of sell-out crowds in
the Pete Maravich Assembly
Center. He led the Tigers to Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1986,
along with two other NCAA Elite Eight appearances (1980, 1987) and one
more Sweet 16 berth (1979). He built a powerhouse program in the SEC,
winning league titles four times (1979, 1981,
1986, 1989) while taking LSU to 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament
appearances.
He
was named National Coach of the Year in 1981 when the Tigers won an SEC
title and stormed to the Final Four in Philadelphia. In 1986 his
Tigers stunned the college basketball
world when he took a Cinderella team from an 11th seed in
the NCAA Tournament to a Final Four berth in Dallas. He earned SEC Coach
of the Year honors four times (1973, 1979, 1981, 1989). By the time he
retired from LSU in 1997, he compiled a 25-year
record of 448-301 and coached three first-team All-Americans – Rudy
Macklin, Chris Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal. A 1957 graduate of Minot
State, Brown lives in Baton Rouge.
Ainsworth,
who starred at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, played baseball at
LSU from 1998-99 and was named both All-American and Academic
All-American in 1999. One
of the greatest pitchers in school history, he led the SEC in
strikeouts in ’99, earning NCAA Regional Tournament Most Outstanding
Player honors before being selected in the first round of the Major
League Baseball draft by the San Francisco Giants.
He
was a member of the 2000 US Olympic Team that won the gold medal in the
Sydney Games. He pitched four years in the major leagues for San
Francisco (2001-03) and Baltimore
(2003-04) before retiring in 2004. He is a founding partner in Marucci
Sports in Baton Rouge. He graduated from LSU in 2004.
Brian,
a high school standout from Zachary, lettered in men’s basketball at
LSU from 1942-43 and 1946-47 as a guard. His college career was
interrupted by military service
in World War II, serving in the US Army from 1944-45. He was named
All-Southeastern Conference in basketball in 1942-43 and again in 1946
after returning from the war. He led the Tigers in scoring in 1943 with
a then-school record of 17.7 points per game
and was second in the SEC in scoring in 1947. He was named to the SEC
All-Tournament Team in 1947. Brian also participated in the 1943 SEC
Track Championships in four events.
He
went on to have a stellar professional basketball career, earning NBL
Rookie of the Year honors in 1948 for the Anderson Packers, NBL All-Star
honors two times and NBA
All-Star honors two times. He played in the 1955 and 1956 NBA
Championships for the Fort Wayne Pistons and scored 6,663 points during a
10-year career. He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of
Fame in 1986. Brian is retired and living in Zachary.
Culpepper-Gluck
lettered in women’s diving at LSU from 1996-2001 and was the 2000 NCAA
Diver of the Year after winning the NCAA national title in the 3-meter
diving event.
She earned 11 All-America awards during her LSU career, including six
first-team honors. In addition to her 2000 national title, she was a
silver medalist on the platform in 2001 and bronze medalist in the
one-meter event in 2000. She was the 2000 SEC Diver
of the Year after winning the SEC title in platform diving that year.
She
was an alternate on the 2000 US Olympic Team and a member of the US
National Team from 1996-2001. She graduated from LSU in 2002 and now
resides in Houston.
McClosky-McGinley
lettered in gymnastics at LSU from 1995-98 and earned All-America
honors three times, as well as Academic All-America in her final two
seasons. A standout
on the balance beam, she was the first gymnast in LSU history to score a
perfect 10.0 on the beam. She was twice named All-SEC and in 1998 won
the SEC Balance Beam Championship.
The
NCAA Woman of the Year nominee from Louisiana as a senior,
McClosky-McGinley was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Alpha Epsilon
Delta and Golden Key. She earned her
undergraduate degree from LSU in 1999 and earned her Doctor of Medicine
from Tulane in 2004. She is currently a resident in emergency medicine
at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Reis
lettered in volleyball at LSU from 1989-92, establishing herself as the
finest setter in school history. She was named All-American three
consecutive years by the American
Volleyball Coaches Association and led the Lady Tigers to back-to-back
Final Four appearances in 1990 and 1991.
She
was named All-SEC in each of her final three seasons and earned SEC
Tournament MVP honors as a freshman in 1989. She still holds the SEC
and LSU records for most assists
in a career with 6,379 and she ranks fourth in league history while
holding the LSU record for most assists in a single season with 1,701.
She also ranks ninth in NCAA history in career assists. Reis now lives
in her native Brazil.
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