2017 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 73
BY SENATOR LONG AND REPRESENTATI VE LANCE HARRIS
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To commend and congratulate 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.
WHEREAS, the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism is the most
prestigious honor offered to sports media in Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, inductees are carefully chosen after an extensive deliberation by a
thirty-member expert panel of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame selection committee based
on their professional accomplishments in local, state, regional, and national arenas; and
WHEREAS, the respected veteran sports journalist Dan McDonald is the recipient
of the 2017 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and a member of the 2017
Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class; and
WHEREAS, with a multifaceted sports journalism career dating back to 1974, Dan
McDonald continues to pile up Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) writing
awards and remains involved in sports media relations in the private sector; and
WHEREAS, after graduating in three years from Northwestern State University, he
spent one year as a sportswriter at the Alexandria Town Talk before Northwestern hired him
at 22 years old to be the sports information director of what was about to become a Division
I athletics department; and
WHEREAS, he served as a sports information director for twenty-six years at
Northwestern State University (1975-80) and University of Southwestern (USL), now known
as the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (1980-99); and
WHEREAS, he won numerous College Sports Information Directors of America
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awards for writing and media guides at both institutions and served two years on its board
of directors; and
WHEREAS, he was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee media relations staff
for two Olympic Games: Seoul in 1988, and Atlanta in 1996, and six U.S. Olympic festivals;
and
WHEREAS, in 1999, he retired from USL to become senior sports writer at the
Lafayette Daily Advertiser and, even after retiring following nine years in that role, has won
dozens of writing awards from the LSWA, including three Writer of the Year awards in a
five-year span, and is a recipient of the LSWA's coveted Mac Russo Award recognizing
members who represent the ideals of the organization; and
WHEREAS, he also served two years as president after a two-year term as vice
president of the LSWA, and he remains a member of its executive committee and hall of
fame committee; and
WHEREAS, in June 2011, he was inducted into the College Sports Information
Directors of America Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, he captured a Best of Gannett national award for his coverage of the
Little League World Series; and
WHEREAS, Mr. McDonald has also done extensive broadcast and television work,
including currently anchoring annual webcasts of Sun Belt Conference baseball, softball, and
golf tournaments; and
WHEREAS, he and his wife of twenty-eight years, Mary Beth McDonald, operate
the Lafayette-based McD Media marketing/public relations firm with an emphasis on sports
public relations; and
WHEREAS, the outstanding and successful career of Dan McDonald has rightly
earned him the 2017 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and being named
to the 2017 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
commend and congratulate 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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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Dan McDonald.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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