Fred Stamps, One of UL’s Greatest Receivers, Joins Hall of Fame Class of 2026

When Rickey Bustle took over as UL’s head football coach in 2002, he admits he didn’t know much about the players he inherited, in an interview with RaginCajuns.com. It didn’t take him long to figure out he had a weapon at wide receiver. That weapon was Fred Stamps, and on Friday, Oct. 16, the New Orleans native will be inducted into the UL Athletics Hall of Fame.

“He’s Going to Be Great for Us”

Stamps’ numbers were pretty average over his first two seasons as a Ragin’ Cajun. Bustle saw something more.

Get our free mobile app

“The thing that I saw, and I told our staff this, he’s going to develop and he’s going to be great for us,” Bustle said. “He had great ball instincts, cutting people off to getting to a ball, flattening it out. That’s things you see in the guys at the next level.” Bustle was right. Two years later, Stamps was the second-leading receiver in Cajun football history.

The Ball Hawk’s Record Book

Stamps finished his career second all-time at UL in both receptions (180) and receiving yards (2,789), behind only Hall of Famer Brandon Stokley. A few more numbers that still hold up:

• 44 straight games with a catch, still a school record
• 1,002 receiving yards as a junior in 2002, making him one of just three Cajuns ever with a 1,000-yard season
• 18.6 yards per catch that year, the best in school history for a receiver with at least 40 catches
• Eight touchdown catches in 2002, leading the team in scoring, something no Cajun wide receiver has done since

He was first-team All-Sun Belt as a junior and senior. He also had a 13-catch, 201-yard, three-touchdown day against Middle Tennessee, and 198 yards against ULM later that season.

Here’s the part that gets me: he did all of that without ever playing on a winning team or in a bowl game. It would be nearly 10 years later before the Cajuns made their first bowl appearance as part of the Sun Belt in 2011 at the New Orleans Bowl.

“I nicknamed him Ball Hawk, because he was not going to let anyone else catch it,” Bustle said. “He was going to box you out if you were a defender, and throw those hands up there and just snag it.”

An Edmonton Legend

Brent Just, Getty Images

Stamps wasn’t drafted. After practice squad stints with San Francisco, Jacksonville and Baltimore, he found the perfect fit in the pass-happy Canadian Football League.

He played nine seasons, eight with the Edmonton Eskimos (now the Elks) and one with the Montreal Alouettes. Along the way, he:

• Earned All-CFL honors four times in the media vote and five times in the players’ vote
• Caught 531 passes for 8,411 yards, both in the CFL’s all-time top 50
• Caught a pass in 111 straight games, 13th best in league history
• Led Edmonton in receiving five straight years, and led the whole league twice

He was so beloved in Edmonton that he signed one last contract at retirement just so he could finish his career with the team.

“It didn’t surprise me at all that he did so many good things in Canada,” Bustle said. “He took coaching so well... You knew he was going to be special.”

Hall of Fame Weekend Details

David Landry/Townsquare Media

Stamps goes in with baseball standout Dylan Moore, women’s basketball record-setter Tenna Cooper, three-time All-American triple jumper Lawrence Willis and former Cajun football coach Nelson Stokley.

Date: Friday, Oct. 16, 2026
Location: McElligott Club at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
Tickets:  Available from the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation at RCAF@louisiana.edu or (337) 851-7223.

The Cajuns host Troy the next day, Saturday, Oct. 17.

Read More: How JMU's Sun Belt Exit Affects the Ragin Cajuns

Congratulations to Fred Stamps, a Ball Hawk who made a lot of Saturdays in Lafayette worth watching, then went north and became a legend all over again.