Photo by: Brogan Burns

Nicholls State University dedicated the Don Landry Legacy Center in Stopher Gymnasium to Don Landry on Saturday Jan. 20, 2024. 

The event hosted in Stopher Gymnasium honored Landry who served as Nicholls’ head basketball coach from 1966 to 1979 and took over the athletic director position in 1978.

He helped Nicholls win 173 games and reached the NCAA Division II National Championship Quarterfinals twice in the 1975-76 and 1978-79 seasons.

He became Southland Conference Commissioner in 1987 and even helped Nicholls join the Southland Conference and become a Division I athletic program as conference commissioner.

Landry said he sees Nicholls’ move to Division I as one of his greatest accomplishments. 

“I’m still happy that I was able to get Nicholls into the conference,” Landry said, ”I had to work a compromise to let us in, but I’m glad I did.”

Dr. Cleveland Hill, a former basketball player under Landry’s leadership, cited his efforts to bring the community of Thibodaux together around Nicholls as a reason for the dedication to Landry.

“When I first came to Nicholls, a lot of the townspeople looked at Nicholls State as ‘that college over there,’ [because] they didn’t feel a part of it,” Hill said. “Coach Landry did more than any other coach or athletic director I’ve seen to bridge that gap.”

“It means the world to us,” Nicholls Athletic Director Jonathan Terrell said, “[Landry] left a legacy.”

The Don Landry Legacy Center will be used as an academic facility for Nicholls’ student-athletes and will serve snacks and refreshments for fans with courtside seats during basketball games. 

Nicholls women’s basketball will host Northwestern State University in the first Nicholls athletics match in front of the newly dedicated Don Landry Legacy Center on Thursday, Feb. 1.