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Regular Session, 2014
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 181
BY REPRESENTATIVE COX
A RESOLUTION
To commend Wright Waters on receiving the 2014 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership
Award.
WHEREAS, the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award is presented
annually by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association's thirty-member Louisiana Sports Hall
of Fame selection committee to an individual who has played a decisive role as a sports
leader or administrator benefitting Louisiana and bringing credit to the state on the national
and international level; and
WHEREAS, the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award is named in honor
of Hall of Famer Dave Dixon, the driving force behind bringing the National Football
League to Louisiana with the creation of the New Orleans Saints franchise, and the man who
is also considered the "father" of the Mercedes-Benz Louisiana Superdome; and
WHEREAS, longtime Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters is one of
two 2014 recipients of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award presented by the
Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, Wright Waters served as a Division I conference commissioner for two
decades as part of a forty-year career in collegiate athletics; and
WHEREAS, before moving to the conference level, Mr. Waters served as associate
athletic director at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette prior to a four-ye ar stint at
Tulane University as both associate athletic director and interim athletic director; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Waters left Tulane for the Southeastern Conference, where he was
commissioner for seven years and helped that league to achieve unprecedented growth; and
WHEREAS, Wright Waters left the Southeastern Conference in 1998 to take over
as only the fourth commissioner of the Sun Belt, and two years later, he became one of only
two commissioners in modern-day National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) ENROLLEDHR NO. 181
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history to oversee the addition of football as a league sport in a currently existing Football
Bowl Subdivision (FBS) league; and
WHEREAS, under Wright Waters' leadership, the league became a Bowl
Championship Series conference, and it gained a permanent seat on the NCAA Board of
Directors; and
WHEREAS, during his stint as commissioner, Mr. Waters was integral in convincing
many Sun Belt schools of the benefits of moving to Division I, and was thus instrumental
in helping to form a successful football league that now has two automatic bowl tie-ins,
including the New Orleans Bowl; and
WHEREAS, led by Mr. Waters, the league added five members and increased its
sports sponsorship by five; and
WHEREAS, Wright Waters will be among the 2014 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
induction class to be spotlighted at the annual induction dinner and ceremonies on Saturday
evening, June twenty-first, at the Natchitoches Events Center.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby commend Wright Waters on receiving the 2014 Dave
Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to Wright Waters.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES