Play Ball! Lake Charles’ Sporting Past by Brandon Shoumaker, Calcasieu Parish Public Libraries
One cannot talk about the history of Lake Charles without discussing its rich sports past, which for many years included professional sports, as well as the city’s wealth of successful collegiate and high school athletes and teams. The city’s professional sports history dates back over a century, to the Lake Charles Creoles, which began play as the town’s first professional baseball team in 1906 and which won the Gulf Coast League championship in 1907. Lake Charles has also been represented well in Major League Baseball, beginning with the legendary Connie Mack, bringing his Philadelphia Athletics to Lake Charles for spring training in 1920 and 1921. In 1921, the New York Yankees, featuring Babe Ruth, and Rogers Hornsby’s St. Louis Cardinals played a preseason game at the old Athletic Park in Lake Charles. Local baseball players, both Lake Charles natives and McNeese State alumni, have made an impact in the big leagues. Players like Hall-of-Famer Ted Lyons, Preacher Hebert, Alvin Dark, and Chester “Chet” Williams paved the way for the stars of today like Jace Peterson, Garin and Gavin Cecchini, and Wade LeBlanc. Lake Charles has also been host to several successful professional football teams over the years. The Lake Charles LandSharks indoor football team began play at the Lake Charles Civic Center in 2001 and made three straight playoff appearances. In 2005, the LandSharks gave way to the Southwest Louisiana Swashbucklers, by far the 52
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most successful pro team in city history. The Bucs won three consecutive league championships in both the Intense Football League and Southern Indoor Football League from 2007-09, going undefeated in 2008. The Sharks and Bucs featured many local talents like quarterbacks Alvin Bartie and Freddie Harrison, receivers Jermaine Martin and Shawn Piper, and linemen like John Paul Jones. From 1997 to 2001, Lake Charles also had its own professional hockey team, the Ice Pirates of the Western Professional Hockey League. Under the coaching of veteran pros like Dennis Maruk and Bob Loucks, the Ice Pirates, which featured former and future NHL players such as Graeme Townsend and Darcy Verot, made the playoffs in three of the team’s four years of existence. Basketball hall-of-famer Joe Dumars, NBA player Tierre Brown, and the Lawrence brothers make up McNeese State’s rich history in men’s basketball, while the Cowgirls’ basketball program has enjoyed recent success as well. Lake Charles has also been successful on the soccer field. The St. Louis Catholic High School boys’ soccer team has won 13 state championships since 1997 and won a national championship in 2006. That same year, Joseph Lapira, a graduate of St. Louis Catholic, went on to win the Hermann Trophy, college soccer’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, at the University of Notre Dame, and became the first amateur to earn an international cap with the Republic of Ireland since 1964.
May 2017