SLS 17RS-652 ORIGINAL
2017 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 73
BY SENATOR LONG
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Dan McDonald upon receiving the 2017 Distinguished
Service Award in Sports Journalism and being named to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of
Fame.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend and congratulate Dan McDonald for receiving the 2017 Distinguished Service
3 Award in Sports Journalism and on being named to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall
4 of Fame Induction Class.
5 WHEREAS, the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism is the most
6 prestigious honor offered to sports media in Louisiana; and
7 WHEREAS, inductees are carefully chosen after an extensive deliberation by a
8 thirty-member expert panel of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame selection committee based
9 on their professional accomplishments in local, state, regional, and national arenas; and
10 WHEREAS, the respected veteran sports journalist Dan McDonald is the recipient
11 of the 2017 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and a member of the 2017
12 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class; and
13 WHEREAS, with a multifaceted sports journalism career dating back to 1974, Dan
14 McDonald continues to pile up Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) writing
15 awards and remains involved in sports media relations in the private sector; and
16 WHEREAS, after graduating in three years from Northwestern State University, he
17 spent one year as a sportswriter at the Alexandria Town Talk before Northwestern hired him,
18 at 22 years old, to be the sports information director of what was about to become a Division
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SLS 17RS-652 ORIGINAL
1 I athletics department; and
2 WHEREAS, he served as a sports information director for twenty-six years at
3 Northwestern State University (1975-80) and University of Southwestern (USL), now known
4 as the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (1980-99); and
5 WHEREAS, he won numerous College Sports Information Directors of America
6 awards for writing and media guides at both institutions and served two years on its board
7 of directors; and
8 WHEREAS, he was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee media relations staff
9 for two Olympic Games: Seoul in 1988, and Atlanta in 1996, and six U.S. Olympic festivals;
10 and
11 WHEREAS, in 1999, he retired from USL to become senior sports writer at the
12 Lafayette Daily Advertiser and, even after retiring following nine years in that role, has won
13 dozens of writing awards from the LSWA, including three Writer of the Year awards in a
14 five-year span, and is a recipient of the LSWA's coveted Mac Russo Award recognizing
15 members who represent the ideals of the organization; and
16 WHEREAS, he also served two years as president after a two-year term as vice
17 president of the LSWA, and he remains a member of its executive committee and hall of
18 fame committee; and
19 WHEREAS, in June 2011, he was inducted into the College Sports Information
20 Directors of America Hall of Fame; and
21 WHEREAS, he captured a Best of Gannett national award for his coverage of the
22 Little League World Series; and
23 WHEREAS, Mr. McDonald has also done extensive broadcast and television work,
24 including currently anchoring annual webcasts of Sun Belt Conference baseball, softball and
25 golf tournaments; and
26 WHEREAS, he and his wife of twenty-eight years, Mary Beth McDonald, operate
27 the Lafayette-based McD Media marketing/public relations firm with an emphasis on sports
28 public relations; and
29 WHEREAS, the outstanding and successful career of Dan McDonald has rightly
30 earned him the 2017 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and being named
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SLS 17RS-652 ORIGINAL
1 to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class.
2 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
3 commend and congratulate Dan McDonald for receiving the 2017 Distinguished Service
4 Award in Sports Journalism and on being named to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
5 Induction Class.
6 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
7 Dan McDonald.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by J. W Wiley.
DIGEST
SCR 73 Original 2017 Regular Session Long
Commends Dan McDonald for receiving the 2017 Distinguished Service Award in Sports
Journalism and on being named to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class.
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