Billy Ryckman is one of only a handful of football players to be born and raised in Lafayette that got the chance to play in the NFL. He was certainly one of the first to do so. Billy played high school ball for the Lafayette High Mighty Lions as a small but slow WR. After high school, he attended Louisiana Tech and then went on to the NFL. Billy was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons where he played for in the late '70s tills the early '80s. After football, Billy moved back to Lafayette to raise two kids. He began his broadcasting career in 1999.