HOF could use more Gentlemen

Published 6:32 am Sunday, June 26, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">NATCHITOCHES — Even though there have been more star-studded groups over the years, watching the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2016 come together this weekend, there were the usual array of familiar names.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Natchitoches is just now recovering from the weekend three years ago when Shaquille O’Neal took the hamlet by storm, renamed it Shaq-itoches for a weekend, and basically held the place hostage with nothing more threatening than that familiar huge, mega-watt smile.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But there were easily recognizable names at the gala Saturday night, most notably the marque state sports of football, basketball and baseball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Former Louisiana-Monroe and four-time all-star Milwaukee Brewers’ pitcher Ben Sheets was probably the top draw, along with 15-year NBA veteran P.J. Brown of Winnfield.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fellow Winnfield native Anthony “A-Train” Thomas was forgiven for exporting his talents to the Michigan Wolverines before earning the NFL Offensive Rookie of Year honor (2001) with the Chicago Bears.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I’m always all about Louisiana,” he said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And Rick Jones came into the state and elevated Tulane baseball to a national power, including the Green Wave’s only two trips to the College World Series.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He certainly needs no introduction in the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He recalled, incidentally, an early recruiting trip in the backwoods of a southwest Louisiana parish (which he refused to name) when a state trooper pulled him over.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“You’re in luck, coach,” the trooper told him. “There are only four Tulane fans in this parish, and I’m one of them.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He needs no introduction to even the passive state sports fan.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For that matter, longtime St. Thomas More coach Jim Hightower is the state’s second-winningest high school football coach.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No doubting those credentials, nor those of women’s basketball coach Janice Joseph Richard, whose impressive coaching career, which came after her All-American playing days, was cut short when she died of cancer.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Arthur “Red” Swanson isn’t as familiar for contemporary fans, but LSU’s long football history is well documented enough to know that he was a recruiting guru far before they were fashionable — luring the likes of everybody from Joe Adcock to Y.A. Tittle to Jerry Stovall to the Tigers.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Great additions, no doubt.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And they were properly feted in the Natchitoches Events Center, right next to the impressive new Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame building itself, which is well worth a visit, by the way, if you happen to be up here for, say, a McNeese game or the world-famous Christmas lights spectacular.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Most of the state’s great names are represented in there.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, really, I just can’t get this out of my head this weekend. You just wonder how many more “Gentleman Dave” Malarchers there are out there.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never head of him?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Well, neither had I before his name finally surfaced at the selection committee’s meeting last August.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But you should have.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He’s a fascinating character.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But some slip through the cracks.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The first class was elected in 1959, which included Vinton native Ted Lyons, along with fellow Baseball Hall of Famer Mel Ott and football star Gaynell Tinsley.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It turns out there was excellent Louisiana-related sports long before then, some of it not as well documented as baseball Hall of Famers and LSU star running backs.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Gentleman Dave — don’t you love the name? — was one of those.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Lyons, who was born in Lake Charles in 1900, was the oldest member I could find until this year. Malarcher was born in 1894.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Malarcher — can we just keep calling him Gentleman Dave? It sounds so much cooler — has been dead for 34 years now.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If not for the LSHOF he might be forgotten forever.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And that would be a shame.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He probably should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, even though he never played a game in the major leagues. He may have been a gentleman, but he was the wrong color during his playing and managing days, and thus toiled in the famed Negro Leagues, mostly for the Chicago American Giants.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">A native of Convent outside of New Orleans, he would have been an oddity even in the then-hard scrabble life of a major leaguer.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never mind how he got the wonderful nickname — he never smoked, drank or cursed, and (his ancestors swear this is true) never argued with umpires.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s amazing enough.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But how many in the seat-of-the-pants, broken-down-bus Negro Leagues were college graduates, published poets and already successful businessmen during their playing days?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Malarcher graduated from New Orleans College ?(now Dillard University) in 1916 and was also a World War I veteran before baseball found him.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He was known as the best third baseman in the Negro Leagues, as a switch hitter who batted .344 and was a player/manager before managing full-time while also running a real estate business in Chicago.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He won three Negro League pennants as player, two more as a player-manager, then two more strictly as a manager.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He has no plaque in Cooperstown, but his cap and jersey are on display.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yet at his induction here Saturday, the read one of his poems.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Interesting guy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The household names are fine for the Hall of Fame, and will always get the headlines.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it also nice to remember the Gentleman Dave Malarchers.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU </span>athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote"> </span>

<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress"><span class="s1">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</span></a>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">

</span>