Marques Colston Headlines 2021 Louisiana Sports HOF Class

A former New Orleans Saints standout, who helped lead the team to a Super Bowl victory following the 2009 season, has been selected, along with seven other greats, to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Marques Coltson, who was a receiver for the Saints for ten seasons (2006-2015), along with former LSU basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, former LSU football star Glenn Dorsey, former LSU track & field coach Pat Henry, former Southern baseball standout Rickie Weeks, former Nicholls St./Southern Miss softball great Courtney Blades-Rogers, former Grambling pitcher and Richwood High School football coach Mackie Freeze, and former fishing great Villis "Bo" Dowden headline a star-studded 2021 induction class.

The Class of 2021 will be enshrined Saturday, June 26, in Natchitoches to culminate the 62nd Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration June 24-26.

The now 37-year old Colston, who has been a successful businessman man since his retirement from the NFL, has served as an owner for multiple minor league professional football franchises, including the Harrisburg Stampeded (American Indoor Football) and the Philadelphia Soul (Arena Football League).

After finishing his collegiate career at Hofstra, Colston was taken by the Saints in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL Draft.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Colston immediately paid dividends fro the Saints, catching 70 passes for 1,038 yards and 8 touchdowns in his rookie season, before following that up with 98 catches for 1,202 yards and 11 touchdowns, all career-highs in 2007.

Those 168 catches from 2006-2007 gave Colston an NFL record at the time for the most catches by a player in his first two years in the league.

After an injury-plagued 2008 season, Colston bounced back with four-consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards, before accumulating over 1,800 more receiving yards over the last two seasons.

A native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Colston caught 7 passes for 83 yards in the Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV win over the Indianapolis Colts.

In ten seasons in the NFL, all with the Saints, Colston compiled 711 receptions for 9,759 yards and 72 touchdowns, all franchise records.

Abdul-Rauf was one of the best scorers in LSU basketball history, averaging 29 points per game from 1988-90, and was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in each of his two seasons with the Tigers. In nine NBA seasons, he averaged 14.6 points.

Dorsey is one of the best defensive players in LSU football history, helping the Tigers to the 2007 BCS national championship. A two-time All-American defensive tackle, Dorsey played nine seasons in the NFL.

Weeks set two NCAA Division I career hitting records still on the books with a .465 batting average and a .927 slugging percentage while winning the 2003 collegiate player of the year awards. He played 14 major league seasons and was the National League’s starting second baseman in the 2011 All-Star Game while representing the Milwaukee Brewers.

Henry is one of the most successful track and field coaches in NCAA history, leading LSU’s men’s and women’s teams to a combined 19 SEC titles and 27 NCAA indoor and outdoor team championships during a 17-year run from 1988-2004.

Blades-Rogers was a four-time All-State pitcher at Baton Rouge’s Belaire High School who set an NCAA career record with 1,773 strikeouts in 1,261.2 innings pitched in two seasons apiece at Nicholls and USM. After earning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year honors as a sophomore in 1998, she transferred to Southern Miss, pitching the Golden Eagles to the Women’s College World Series in her final two seasons while earning first-team All-America accolades both years.

Freeze, who will become the oldest living person inducted at age 93, had a 116-23 (.834) coaching record from 1954-67 after starting the Richwood program. The Rams won a record 56 straight games and four consecutive state titles. As an athlete at Grambling, he was unbeaten on the mound in his career and pitched the Tigers to the NAIA national championship.

Dowden’s 1980 Bassmaster Classic win came on the St. Lawrence River after he was second in 1976 and third in 1977, highlighting 14 appearances in the Super Bowl of professional bass fishing.