Former coach, athletic director Landry’s legacy to be honored by Nicholls

In 1979, Don Landry cut down the net at Stopher Gym following one of the most noteworthy seasons in the history of Nicholls men’s basketball.

The Colonels captured the Gulf South Conference title for the second time during Landry’s tenure as coach. Nicholls would go on to reach the Division II quarterfinals, losing to eventual national champion North Alabama 103-97.

Some 45 years later, Landry will be honored by Nicholls during a ceremony at 1 p.m. Saturday at Stopher Gym which will debut the Don Landry Legacy Center.

“I think it’s well deserved, obviously,” said Sonny Charpentier, a senior guard on Landry’s final team during that 1978-79 season, who left the school as the all-time leader in assists. “I was fortunate enough to play with him the last four years. He was just a fine gentleman.

“He did a great job as far as building that program and I’m happy for him. I think it’s personally long overdue, but it’s well deserved.”

Charpentier left the school as the all-time assists leader while dishing the ball to Larry Wilson, the all-time leading scorer at Nicholls.

“I think it’s a great honor for him,” said Wilson of Landry. “I thought it something like that should have happened years ago, but it’s never too late to get honors.

“He was a guy that was always willing to take care of his players and listen to whatever you had to say if he thought something was wrong. He’s always been a really nice man – a better person, in my opinion, than just a coach.”

Echoing those sentiments was Cleveland Hill, one of the early greats at Nicholls and a pioneer at the school as the first black athlete in school history who would years later go on to be the Dean of Education at the Thibodaux school.

“I think it’s long overdue,” said Hill. “Coach Landry did more than just coach basketball. He and Lucille (Landry’s wife) were deeply involved in the community. They were very instrumental in Nicholls not only starting a good athletic program, but kind of being the catalyst for it to get going.

“He gave the athletic department a little status around the campus. I remember when I came back from the army, ’75, that’s when they had that first great season. People were coming to the athletic department for tickets that had never even been in the athletic department before. I witnessed that. It was a community thing.”

A reason for the honor being long in coming, the players agree, may have been because of Landry’s unassuming personality.

“It’s probably because of the way he was. Coach Landry was not a very big self-promoter,” Charpentier said.

“Not only that, you know the way he interacted with people was never confrontational. It was always collaborative. It was always, what can the athletic department do to enhance you as opposed to the other way around,” said Hill.

The honor for Landry comes after a remodeled entry and lobby to Stopher gym after a revamping of the restrooms to make the facility compliant with the Americans with Disabilities act.

The reconfiguration has allowed for a display area for memorabilia to the left of the lobby. Inside the arena is a new glassed-in lounge area. The “Don Landry Legacy Center” will be inscribed across the top of the glassed-in area.

Landry, who was the youngest coach in the country at age 26 when he was hired in 1967, won 173 games as Colonels coach. He also served as the school’s athletic director from 1978-87.

For those who played under him, they all came away from their experiences at Nicholls with their own ideas on Landry’s legacy.

“His legacy is just being the kindest person, very religious person and a very fair person,” Wilson said.

“Good coach, great person,” said Charpentier. “Did it the right way. Ethical, morally. He was just a guy you could count on and if you needed something you could go to him, and he was going to help you the best he could. He would give you good advice.”

“One of my main takeaways is my time management skills and being on time, which is a little thing for a lot of people, but it’s very, very important and very, very important to Coach Landry and that was one of the things he told us,” said Hill. “So he made us better men because we were able to absorb some of the behaviors – some of the observations that we saw about him and carry that forward into our own adulthood.”