Dec. 28, 2006

New Orleans - Former Tulane basketball All-American and TU Hall of Fame member Warren Perkins has been chosen for the 2007 induction class of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Perkins' class includes Pat Swilling, Brian Mitchell and Stan Humphries, along with recently enshrined Baseball Hall of Fame member Willard Brown, Joel Hawkins of Baton Rouge-Southern Lab, Louisiana's all-time winningest high school boys basketball coach, along with women's basketball pioneer Kim Perrot of Lafayette and Olympic gold medalist Esther Jones, who is LSU's most decorated track and field athlete of all-time.

An iconic sports figure in New Orleans as an athlete and civic leader, Perkins was an All-America basketball player at Tulane (1945-49), and he was a first-round NBA Draft pick in the early days of that pro league. He was the first basketball player enshrined in the Tulane Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977 as one of 11 charter members and is also a member of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame. He was a three-sport Tulane letterwinner and set scoring records for the Green Wave. Perkins is also member of the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame. A two-time all-SEC selection (1948, 1949), he played in the NBA for the Tri-City Blackhawks from 1949-51.

The class was chosen by a 30-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association panel that considered 126 candidates in 22 different sports categories. Their enshrinement next summer will increase membership in the state sports Hall of Fame to only 253 men and women since the shrine, located in Natchitoches, was established in 1958 and inaugural members Gaynell Tinsley, Mel Ott and Tony Canzoneri were elected.

The eight new inductees will be honored June 21-23 during the 2007 Hall of Fame Induction Celebration in Natchitoches, home of the Hall of Fame since 1972. Brown and Perrot will be enshrined posthumously. Also honored will be the 2007 recipients of the LSWA's Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, the equivalent of Hall of Fame membership for sports media in the state, and the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award. Those honorees will be announced next spring.