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Regular Session, 2012
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 127
BY SENATOR JOHNS
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Louis Bonnette, McNeese State University Sports
Information Director, upon his retirement.
A RESOLUTION1
To commend Louis Bonnette for forty-six years of dedicated service to McNeese State2
University on the occasion of his retirement.3
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette is the Senior Associate Athletic Director in charge of4
sports information and Sports Information Director at McNeese State University; and5
WHEREAS, effective July 1, 2012, he will retire ending a tenure that began in 1966,6
a career that has spanned the course of six decades; and7
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette, who will be seventy-two in December, came to the8
university before the position of sports information director existed, from being a reporter9
for the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise to being hired by Jim Wynn as an assistant director for10
the McNeese News Bureau, which included sports information; and11
WHEREAS, in 1970 the position was moved to the athletic department, where he12
also took on roles as the ticket manager and business manager; and13
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette has worked many long and hard hours to bring the story14
of McNeese State athletics to the state, region, and nation, and has promoted numerous15
McNeese State players to All-America honors, including NBA Hall of Famer Joe Dumars,16
while always maintaining a positive approach to his work and seeing the best in everyone,17
with everybody considered as a friend; and18 SR NO. 127
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WHEREAS, he has witnessed and been a part of the vast changes in the manner in1
which information is disseminated - from telephone dictation, telecopier, typewriter,2
computer, the Internet, and now Facebook and Twitter; and3
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette has two sons and both are sports information directors,4
Michael at LSU and Matthew at Northwestern State University and has countless former5
student assistants who have also gone into the business; and6
WHEREAS, Matthew Bonnette, a 2002 graduate of McNeese State University, will7
succeed his father as sports information director at McNeese; and8
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette is a native of Pineville and a 1963 graduate of Louisiana9
Tech University in Journalism; and10
WHEREAS, he is also a past two term president of the Louisiana Sports Writers11
Association and has been the recipient of the LSWA's Mac Russo Award; has received the12
Distinguished Service Award from the LSWA; was named to the Southland Conference Hall13
of Honor in 2007; has also been inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, in the14
sports journalism division; is a member of the McNeese Hall of Fame which he founded and15
serves as its chairman; is active in CoSIDA and served on its academic All-America16
committee; and holds the CoSIDA record for consecutive football games worked, 257; and17
WHEREAS, he is the only sports information director in the nation for whom a18
football field - Louis Bonnette Field - has been named; and19
WHEREAS, Louis Bonnette stated that his pending retirement will give him time to20
write, golf, fish, and spend time with his grandchildren.21
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana that22
Louis Bonnette is hereby commended and congratulated for forty-six years of dedicated and23
exemplary service to McNeese State University on the occasion of his retirement.24
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that best wishes are extended to him for every25
happiness and success in his future endeavors.26
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Louis27
Bonnette.28 SR NO. 127
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The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
Johns SR No.
Commends Louis Bonnette for 46 years of dedicated service to McNeese State University
on the occasion of his retirement.