BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Seven LSU legends have been inducted into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
LSU said the inducted legends have had a lasting impact on the campus. The Hall of Fame is broken into categories: Coach/Administrator, Student-Athlete and Distinguished Honors.
Karen Bahnsen, the women’s golf coach, was inducted into the Hall of Fame after her team finished in the Top 10 in the NCAA Championship seven times, including the third-place national finishes in 2011 and 2012. Bahnsen also coached numerous All-Americans. Bahnsen coached for 34 years.
Baton Rouge native Al Coffee is a 17-time Track and Field All-American and football player. Coffee was ranked in the World’s Top 20 Track and Field on 13 occasions from 1969-1972 in the 100-yard dash, 220-yard dash, 440-yard dash, 440-yard relay, 880-yard relay, and one-mile relay. Coffee also led the Tigers football team as a wide receiver to the 1970 SEC Championship and two Orange Bowl appearances.
Megan Falcon was a three-time tennis All-American and SEC Player of the Year in 2007. Falcon was ranked first in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Falcon also played in the Pan American Games for Team USA. Falcon now is the associate tennis coach for Auburn University and was named the ITA Southwest Regional Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022.
Danyel Mitchell, NCAA Discus and Shot Put champion was inducted after she won the discus championship in 1993 and 1994 and won the NCAA shot put title in 1993. Mitchell represented the United States in the 1995 Outdoor World Championships in Sweden and the Collegiate World University Games in Japan.
Nyla Shepherd Moore was a volleyball All-American who led the Tigers to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 1990 and 1991 and three SEC titles from 1989-1991. Moore played for Team USA in the 1989 Olympic Festival.
Though Jim Hawthorne was not an athlete, he was the voice of the Tigers for over 30 years. Hawthorne gave play-by-play details on LSU men’s basketball, football, and baseball. Since 1979, Hawthorne broadcasted 400 football games, 1,500 men’s basketball games, and 2,000 baseball games. He’d broadcasted all six of the baseball national championships, the 2003 and 2007 football national championships, and the men’s basketball Final Four in 1981, 1986, and 2006. Hawthorne was also inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Sam Nader was a football recruiting coordinator for LSU. He began his recruiting career with LSU in 1980. Nader was a quarterback at Auburn University before attending LSU for graduate school. While enrolled at LSU, Nader joined the staff as a graduate assistant in 1975. Shortly after, he became a full-time assistant coach in 1977, then a recruiting coordinator from 1980 through 1993. In 1994, Nader became an administrative assistant for football operations until 2000. Nader was with the Tigers for three national championships, seven SEC titles and 32 bowl games.
