SLS 23RS-141 ORIGINAL
2023 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 17
BY SENATOR BERNARD
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Bruce Brown upon receiving the 2023 Distinguished
Service Award in Sports Journalism and on being inducted into the 2023 class of the
Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend Bruce Brown upon receiving the 2023 Distinguished Service Award in Sports
3 Journalism and on being inducted into the 2023 class of the Louisiana Sports Hall
4 of Fame.
5 WHEREAS, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches, Louisiana, each year
6 collaborates with the Louisiana Sports Writers Association in selecting a limited number of
7 sports figures who embody the character, skill, and talent worthy of being named to the Hall
8 of Fame; and
9 WHEREAS, the Distinguished Service Award is the most prestigious honor offered
10 to sports media in the state and recipients are carefully chosen after an extensive deliberation
11 by a forty-member expert panel based on professional accomplishments in local, state,
12 regional, and national arenas; and
13 WHEREAS, Bruce Brown, an acclaimed south Louisiana writer and editor, has been
14 selected for the 2023 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana
15 Sports Writers Association and is a member of the 2023 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
16 Induction Class; and
17 WHEREAS, Bruce Brown served on the sports staff of the Lafayette Daily
18 Advertiser for 21 years, worked 37 years overall as a part of the editorial staff, served as
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SLS 23RS-141 ORIGINAL
1 sports editor for 20 years, and helped guide the Daily Advertiser through radical changes in
2 both that newspaper and in the industry; and
3 WHEREAS, Bruce Brown began his writing career as a part-timer in January of
4 1975, covering a prep basketball game between Pecan Island and Meaux as his first
5 assignment; and
6 WHEREAS, Bruce joined the Daily Advertiser staff full-time in August of 1975 and
7 one year later he took over as sports editor, serving in that capacity for two decades; and
8 WHEREAS, in 1995, Bruce left the sports editor role to concentrate on writing and
9 covered prep, college, and pro sports as well as military, faith and values, and nonprofit
10 organizations for the Daily Advertiser; and
11 WHEREAS, during his career with the Daily Advertiser, the sports department won
12 more than 100 Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) awards for writing, layout, and
13 photography, numerous Louisiana Press Association honors, and won a coveted national
14 Best of Gannett award in 2005 for its coverage of Lafayette's team in the Little League
15 World Series; and
16 WHEREAS, in 1980, Bruce wrote Prides of Acadiana, a book about legendary
17 University of Louisiana in Lafayette (ULL) standouts including Walter Imahara, Ron
18 Guidry, Bo Lamar, Harold Porter, and Chris Cagle; and
19 WHEREAS, he served two years as LSWA vice president and another two as
20 secretary and has been a member of the Hall of Fame selection committee for two decades;
21 and
22 WHEREAS, Bruce returned to full-time sports coverage in 2011 before retiring in
23 2012; and
24 WHEREAS, in his retirement Bruce has become an award winning radio talk show
25 host, a freelance writer for the ULL Athletic Network, for Quick Slants, and Tiger Rag
26 magazines, the Crowley Post-Signal and the Abbeville Meridional, and still contributes
27 articles to the Acadiana Advocate.
28 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
29 does hereby commend Bruce Brown for receiving the 2023 Distinguished Service Award
30 in Sports Journalism and on being inducted into the 2023 class of the Louisiana Sports Hall
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SLS 23RS-141 ORIGINAL
1 of Fame.
2 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
3 Bruce Brown.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Kathy Liberty.
DIGEST
SR 17 Original 2023 Regular Session Bernard
Commends Bruce Brown for receiving the 2023 Distinguished Service Award in Sports
Journalism and on being inducted into the 2023 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
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